The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Echol W Coalston JR.

The Wall › Panel 35E › Tennessee › Echol W Coalston JR

ECHOL W COALSTON JR

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

February 25, 1940 – January 21, 1968

Service record

Echol W Coalston JR, of Memphis, Tennessee, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He was lost on January 21, 1968, in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 35E, Line 3 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 35E · Line 3

Position of Panel 35E 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
Materiel Control And Accounting Specialist (76P)
Unit (as recorded)
US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM
Born
February 25, 1940
Home of record
Memphis, Tennessee (Shelby County)

Casualty

Date of loss
January 21, 1968
Province
Phuoc Tuy
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Presumed Dead
Circumstance
Drowning
First reported
Missing
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

42 names on the Wall carry the date January 21, 1968; he was the only one lost in Phuoc Tuy Province that day. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM”, his unit in the record, lost 7 of its members that month.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Also on Panel 35E, Line 3

From Memphis

All 227 names from Memphis →

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.