The Wall › Panel 29E › New Jersey › John Michael Kapeluck
JOHN MICHAEL KAPELUCK
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
September 15, 1946 – November 8, 1967
Service recordJohn Michael Kapeluck, of Cresskill, New Jersey, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on November 8, 1967, in Kontum Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 29E, Line 51 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 29E · Line 51
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
- Specialist Four (SP4)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- September 15, 1946
- Home of record
- Cresskill, New Jersey (Bergen County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- November 8, 1967
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Kontum
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
46 names on the Wall carry the date November 8, 1967; 11 of them were lost in Kon Tum Province. In November 1967, 1,133 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 212 of its members that month.
He died in Kon Tum Province while the Battle of Đắk Tô was under way. Around Đắk Tô in the Central Highlands (3–23 November 1967), the 4th Infantry Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade fought North Vietnamese regiments for the hills along the border, ending with the assault on Hill 875 on Thanksgiving Day. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 29E, Line 51
- DONALD MAURICE KRETSINGERCorporal · November 8, 1967
- JOSEPH GEORGE KUSICKSergeant · November 8, 1967
- EARL DAWSON LAWRENCEPrivate First Class · November 8, 1967
- GABRIEL LONAPrivate First Class · November 8, 1967
From Cresskill
- WILLIAM RITCHIE MCKIMPrivate First Class · February 14, 1966
- KEITH MICHAEL JACKSONChief Warrant Officer 2 · February 1, 1971
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.