The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Chester Leroy Coons.

The Wall › Panel 39E › North Dakota › Chester Leroy Coons

CHESTER LEROY COONS

Petty Officer Second Class · U.S. Navy

March 29, 1936 – February 17, 1968

Service record

Chester Leroy Coons, of Bismarck, North Dakota, served as a Petty Officer Second Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on February 17, 1968, in Laos, at age 31. His name is inscribed on Panel 39E, Line 69 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 39E · Line 69

Position of Panel 39E 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. Navy
Rank
Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Aviation Machinist's Mate (AD)
Unit (as recorded)
OBSRON 67
Born
March 29, 1936
Home of record
Bismarck, North Dakota (Burleigh County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 17, 1968
Age
31
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

51 names on the Wall carry the date February 17, 1968. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “OBSRON 67”, his unit in the record, lost 9 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

Also on Panel 39E, Line 69

Same unit, same day

From Bismarck

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.