The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Charlie Frank Lee.

The Wall › Panel 42E › Alabama › Charlie Frank Lee

CHARLIE FRANK LEE

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

December 25, 1940 – March 2, 1968

Service record

Charlie Frank Lee, of Elba, Alabama, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 2, 1968, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 42E, Line 35 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42E · Line 35

Position of Panel 42E 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
Staff Sergeant (SSG)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C)
Unit (as recorded)
25 INF DIV
Born
December 25, 1940
Home of record
Elba, Alabama (Coffee County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 2, 1968
Age
27
Province
Gia Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

100 names on the Wall carry the date March 2, 1968; 48 of them were lost in Gia Dinh Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 25th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 188 of its members that month.

He died in Gia Dinh Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Also on Panel 42E, Line 35

Same unit, same day

From Elba

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.