The Wall › Panel 1W › Pennsylvania › Elwood Eugene Rumbaugh
ELWOOD EUGENE RUMBAUGH
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Air Force
September 10, 1943 – May 15, 1975
Service recordElwood Eugene Rumbaugh, of Spangler, Pennsylvania, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He died on May 15, 1975, in Cambodia, at age 31. His name is inscribed on Panel 1W, Line 132 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 1W · Line 132
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. Air Force
- Rank
- Staff Sergeant (SSGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Helicopter Technician (43170)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 21 SP OPS SQ NAKON PHANOM
- Born
- September 10, 1943
- Home of record
- Spangler, Pennsylvania (Cambria County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- May 15, 1975
- Age
- 31
- Country
- Cambodia
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Helicopter Crash — Passenger (MC)
- Aircraft
- CH53
- Incident
- Uss Mayaguez Capture
- Remains
- Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record
Context · from the records
What was happening
18 names on the Wall carry the date May 15, 1975. In May 1975, 42 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “21 SP OPS SQ NAKON PHANOM”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
He died in Cambodia while the Mayaguez incident was under way. After Khmer Rouge forces seized the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez in May 1975, Marines assaulted Koh Tang island; their names are the last on the Wall.
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.
Read the history
Also on Panel 1W, Line 132
- WALTER BOYDPrivate First Class · May 15, 1975
- ANDRES GARCIALance Corporal · May 15, 1975
- RICHARD WILLIAM RIVENBURGHPrivate First Class · May 15, 1975
- RICHARD VANDEGEERSecond Lieutenant · May 15, 1975
Same unit, same day
- RICHARD VANDEGEERSecond Lieutenant · Panel 1W, Line 132
From Spangler
- WARREN MICHAEL KIRSCHSpecialist Four · May 7, 1968
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.