The Wall › Panel 14E › Indiana › David Arthur Cooper
DAVID ARTHUR COOPER
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
August 22, 1945 – January 17, 1967
Service recordDavid Arthur Cooper, of Ragsdale, Indiana, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on January 17, 1967, in Binh Duong Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 14E, Line 42 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 14E · Line 42
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
Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.
Service
- Branch
- U.S. Army
- Rank
- Specialist Four (SP4)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 196 LIGHT INF BDE
- Born
- August 22, 1945
- Home of record
- Ragsdale, Indiana (Knox County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- January 17, 1967
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Binh Duong
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Died of Wounds
- Circumstance
- Unknown
Context · from the records
What was happening
25 names on the Wall carry the date January 17, 1967; eight of them were lost in Bình Dương Province. In January 1967, 638 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 196th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 21 of its members that month.
He died in Bình Dương Province while Operation Cedar Falls was under way. Operation Cedar Falls (8–26 January 1967) sent some 30,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops into the “Iron Triangle” northwest of Saigon to destroy Viet Cong base areas and tunnels. 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 14E, Line 42
- JEROME VINCENT ZERFASSPrivate First Class · January 16, 1967
- BILLY DEAN BRIGMANPrivate First Class · January 17, 1967
- RICHARD BELTON BROCKMANCaptain · January 17, 1967
- WILLIAM KEITH COGDELLCaptain · January 17, 1967
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.