The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Karl Wade Lawson.

The Wall › Panel 49E › Indiana › Karl Wade Lawson

KARL WADE LAWSON

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

May 21, 1947 – April 9, 1968

Service record

Karl Wade Lawson, of Terre Haute, Indiana, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on April 9, 1968, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 49E, Line 3 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 49E · Line 3

Position of Panel 49E 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
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C)
Unit (as recorded)
SPECIAL FORCES
Born
May 21, 1947
Home of record
Terre Haute, Indiana (Vigo County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 9, 1968
Age
20
Province
Tay Ninh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

42 names on the Wall carry the date April 9, 1968; he was the only one lost in Tây Ninh Province that day. In April 1968, 1,580 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 18 of its members that month.

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.

Also on Panel 49E, Line 3

From Terre Haute

All 27 names from Terre Haute →

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.