The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault.
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault. Photo: SP4 Johnnie Jackson, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Kenneth Ralph Howell.

The Wall › Panel 34E › North Carolina › Kenneth Ralph Howell

KENNETH RALPH HOWELL

Private First Class · U.S. Army

October 28, 1948 – January 15, 1968

Service record

Kenneth Ralph Howell, of Draper, North Carolina, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on January 15, 1968, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 34E, Line 53 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 34E · Line 53

Position of Panel 34E 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
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
25 INF DIV
Born
October 28, 1948
Home of record
Draper, North Carolina (Rockingham County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 15, 1968
Age
19
Province
Tay Ninh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

30 names on the Wall carry the date January 15, 1968; six of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 25th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 169 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 34E, Line 53

Same unit, same day

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.