The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, watch a UH-1D land, March 1970.
Troopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, watch a UH-1D land, March 1970. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Edward Lester Lawton.

The Wall › Panel 42W › Wyoming › Edward Lester Lawton

EDWARD LESTER LAWTON

Corporal · U.S. Army

March 19, 1949 – September 27, 1968

Service record

Edward Lester Lawton, of Thermopolis, Wyoming, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Army. He died on September 27, 1968, in Pleiku Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 42W, Line 30 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42W · Line 30

Position of Panel 42W 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. Army
Rank
Corporal (CPL)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantry Operations And Intelligence Specialist (11F)
Unit (as recorded)
173 AIRBORNE BDE
Born
March 19, 1949
Home of record
Thermopolis, Wyoming (Hot Springs County)

Casualty

Date of death
September 27, 1968
Age
19
Province
Pleiku
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

43 names on the Wall carry the date September 27, 1968; he was the only one lost in Pleiku Province that day. In September 1968, 1,184 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 33 of its members that month.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 42W, Line 30

Same unit, same day

From Thermopolis

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.