The Wall › Panel 17E › Alaska › Donald Ray Sanders
DONALD RAY SANDERS
Private First Class · U.S. Army
January 21, 1947 – March 25, 1967
Service recordDonald Ray Sanders, of Elmendorf Afb, Alaska, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on March 25, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 17E, Line 47 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 17E · Line 47
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
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Heavy Anti-Armor Weapons Infantryman (11H)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- January 21, 1947
- Home of record
- Elmendorf Afb, Alaska
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 25, 1967
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Tay Ninh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
36 names on the Wall carry the date March 25, 1967; 11 of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 45 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.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 17E, Line 47
- DUDLEY RANDOLPH PATTYSpecialist Four · March 25, 1967
- CHESTER RAYMOND PAVEYGunnery Sergeant · March 25, 1967
- MICHAEL WILLIAM TWIGGSpecialist Four · March 25, 1967
- WARREN DEMAREST VOUGHT JRCorporal · March 25, 1967
Same unit, same day
- DOUGLAS JOE CARPENTERPrivate First Class · Panel 17E, Line 42
- GEORGE TOLLOVAR COXSergeant · Panel 17E, Line 42
- JAMES WILLIAM EVANSPrivate First Class · Panel 17E, Line 43
- PEDRO INCARNACION GARCIASergeant · Panel 17E, Line 43
- ROCKWELL SELDEN HERRONPrivate First Class · Panel 17E, Line 44
- DOUGLAS EUGENE MOORESergeant · Panel 17E, Line 46
From Elmendorf Afb
- MICHAEL THOMAS HOKEPrivate First Class · December 21, 1967
- DANIEL FRANKLIN COXSpecialist Five · January 15, 1971
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.