The Wall › Panel 40E › Minnesota › Charles Emmette Olson
CHARLES EMMETTE OLSON
Petty Officer Third Class · U.S. Navy
September 22, 1947 – February 19, 1968
Service recordCharles Emmette Olson, of Naytahwaush, Minnesota, served as a Petty Officer Third Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on February 19, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 40E, Line 27 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 40E · Line 27
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. Navy
- Rank
- Petty Officer Third Class (PO3)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Hospital Corpsman (HM)
- Unit (as recorded)
- BLT 3 1 MAR 9 MAB
- Born
- September 22, 1947
- Home of record
- Naytahwaush, Minnesota (Mahnomen County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 19, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
93 names on the Wall carry the date February 19, 1968; 11 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “BLT 3 1 MAR 9 MAB”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 40E, Line 27
- WILLIAM LAWRENCE MCMAHONSergeant · February 19, 1968
- DANIEL ALAN NELSONLance Corporal · February 19, 1968
- MICHAEL WARREN NORMANLance Corporal · February 19, 1968
- BILLY RAYVON NORRISPrivate First Class · February 19, 1968
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.