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 Earnest Wilson.

The Wall › Panel 44E › Ohio › Earnest Wilson

EARNEST WILSON

Sergeant · U.S. Army

April 22, 1947 – March 15, 1968

Service record

Earnest Wilson, of Bethel, Ohio, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 15, 1968, in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 63 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 44E · Line 63

Position of Panel 44E 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
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
198 LIGHT INF BDE
Born
April 22, 1947
Home of record
Bethel, Ohio (Clermont County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 15, 1968
Age
20
Province
Binh Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Explosive Device

Context · from the records

What was happening

42 names on the Wall carry the date March 15, 1968; he was the only one lost in Bình Định Province that day. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 198th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 23 of its members that month.

He died in Bình Định 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 44E, Line 63

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.