The Wall › Panel 39E › Kansas › Keith David Ed Will Coon
KEITH DAVID ED WILL COON
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
March 16, 1949 – February 16, 1968
Service recordKeith David Ed Will Coon, of Topeka, Kansas, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 16, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 39E, Line 58 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 39E · Line 58
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Unit (as recorded)
- A CO 3 RECON BN 3 MARDIV
- Born
- March 16, 1949
- Home of record
- Topeka, Kansas (Shawnee County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 16, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Explosive Device
Context · from the records
What was happening
61 names on the Wall carry the date February 16, 1968; 27 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “A CO 3 RECON BN 3 MARDIV”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. 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 39E, Line 58
- KENNY LAWRENCE COLTERPrivate · February 16, 1968
- DONALD WAYNE DIXONPrivate First Class · February 16, 1968
- STEVEN ERIC EMRICKLance Corporal · February 16, 1968
- JAMES OSCAR FEEMANPrivate First Class · February 16, 1968
Same unit, same day
- ALEXANDER GIEJCHospitalman · Panel 39E, Line 59
From Topeka
- RALPH GEORGE REDMONDFirst Lieutenant · June 4, 1964
- ALLEN LEE HOLTChief Warrant Officer 2 · July 5, 1965
- DALE K SHAMBAUGHSecond Lieutenant · August 18, 1965
- EUGENE MILLARD JEWELLCaptain · September 4, 1965
- RICHARD NORMAN PAYNELance Corporal · July 24, 1966
- GARY REED PARSONSPrivate First Class · September 26, 1966
- WILLIAM HARLEY MEANS JRColonel · July 20, 1966
- RICHARD JOHN SASEKCaptain · July 6, 1967
- JEROME GEORGE MCGOVERNSergeant · July 12, 1967
- ROBERT GENE KIMMELLieutenant Colonel · November 14, 1967
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.