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 Gary Ray Wiginton.

The Wall › Panel 46E › Alabama › Gary Ray Wiginton

GARY RAY WIGINTON

Private First Class · U.S. Army

May 14, 1949 – March 25, 1968

Service record

Gary Ray Wiginton, of Sheffield, Alabama, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on March 25, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 46E, Line 26 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 46E · Line 26

Position of Panel 46E 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
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Medical Specialist (91B)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
May 14, 1949
Home of record
Sheffield, Alabama (Colbert County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 25, 1968
Age
18
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

64 names on the Wall carry the date March 25, 1968; 15 of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 208 of its members that month.

He died in Thừa Thiên 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 46E, Line 26

Same unit, same day

From Sheffield

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.