The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Lester Leon Pelham.

The Wall › Panel 31E › California › Lester Leon Pelham

LESTER LEON PELHAM

Sergeant · U.S. Army

July 1, 1944 – December 9, 1967

Service record

Lester Leon Pelham, of Westminster, California, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on December 9, 1967, in South Vietnam, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 31E, Line 70 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 31E · Line 70

Position of Panel 31E 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
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
9 INF DIV
Born
July 1, 1944
Home of record
Westminster, California (Orange County)

Casualty

Date of death
December 9, 1967
Age
23
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

15 names on the Wall carry the date December 9, 1967. In December 1967, 937 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 9th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 45 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 31E, Line 70

From Westminster

All 12 names from Westminster →

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.