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 Howard Samuel Pontuck.

The Wall › Panel 43E › New York › Howard Samuel Pontuck

HOWARD SAMUEL PONTUCK

First Lieutenant · U.S. Army

October 2, 1943 – March 8, 1968

Service record

Howard Samuel Pontuck, of New York, New York, served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 8, 1968, in Kien Hoa Province, South Vietnam, at age 24. His name is inscribed on Panel 43E, Line 58 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 43E · Line 58

Position of Panel 43E 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
First Lieutenant (1LT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantry Unit Commander (1542)
Unit (as recorded)
MACV ADVISORS
Born
October 2, 1943
Home of record
New York, New York (Kings County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 8, 1968
Age
24
Province
Kien Hoa
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Explosive Device

Context · from the records

What was happening

68 names on the Wall carry the date March 8, 1968; he was the only one lost in Kien Hoa Province that day. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

MACV Advisers, his unit in the record, lost 21 of its members that month.

He died in Kien Hoa 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 43E, Line 58

From New York

All 1370 names from New York →

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.