The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Charles Ray.

The Wall › Panel 18E › Michigan › Charles Ray

CHARLES RAY

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

February 26, 1934 – April 11, 1967

Service record

Charles Ray, of Detroit, Michigan, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on April 11, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 33. His name is inscribed on Panel 18E, Line 15 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 18E · Line 15

Position of Panel 18E 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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Staff Sergeant (SSG)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
173 AIRBORNE BDE
Born
February 26, 1934
Home of record
Detroit, Michigan (Wayne County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 11, 1967
Age
33
Province
Tay Ninh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

23 names on the Wall carry the date April 11, 1967; two of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In April 1967, 887 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 25 of its members that month.

He died in Tây Ninh Province while Operation Junction City was under way. Operation Junction City (22 February–14 May 1967), in War Zone C along the Cambodian border, was the largest U.S. operation of the war to that time and included the only major American combat parachute assault of the war. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.

Also on Panel 18E, Line 15

Same unit, same day

From Detroit

All 525 names from Detroit →

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.