The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966.
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966. Photo: SP5 Charles V. Hoover, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Charles Edward Alston.

The Wall › Panel 4E › North Carolina › Charles Edward Alston

CHARLES EDWARD ALSTON

Private First Class · U.S. Army

December 23, 1941 – January 25, 1966

Service record

Charles Edward Alston, of Raleigh, North Carolina, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on January 25, 1966, in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 24. His name is inscribed on Panel 4E, Line 86 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 4E · Line 86

Position of Panel 4E on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
Born
December 23, 1941
Home of record
Raleigh, North Carolina (Wake County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 25, 1966
Age
24
Province
Binh Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — Passenger (MC)
Aircraft
C-123B

Context · from the records

What was happening

54 names on the Wall carry the date January 25, 1966; 46 of them were lost in Bình Định Province. In January 1966, 401 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 131 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 4E, Line 86

Same unit, same day

From Raleigh

All 48 names from Raleigh →

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.