The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A 57th Medical Detachment crew loads a wounded soldier aboard a UH-1D “Dustoff” helicopter.
A 57th Medical Detachment crew loads a wounded soldier aboard a UH-1D “Dustoff” helicopter. Photo: SP4 James B. Egan, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Lee Roy Birden.

The Wall › Panel 34E › California › Lee Roy Birden

LEE ROY BIRDEN

Private First Class · U.S. Army

August 20, 1948 – January 10, 1968

Service record

Lee Roy Birden, of Oakland, California, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on January 10, 1968, in Dinh Tuong Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 34E, Line 14 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 34E · Line 14

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
Medical Equipment Repairer (91A)
Unit (as recorded)
9 INF DIV
Born
August 20, 1948
Home of record
Oakland, California (Alameda County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 10, 1968
Age
19
Province
Dinh Tuong
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

70 names on the Wall carry the date January 10, 1968; 12 of them were lost in Định Tường Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 9th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 97 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 34E, Line 14

Same unit, same day

From Oakland

All 98 names from Oakland →

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.