The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966.
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966. Photo: SP5 Charles V. Hoover, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Melvin Oneal JR.

The Wall › Panel 19E › New Jersey › Melvin Oneal JR

MELVIN ONEAL JR

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

July 22, 1946 – May 5, 1967

Service record

Melvin Oneal JR, of Newark, New Jersey, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on May 5, 1967, in South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 19E, Line 44 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 19E · Line 44

Position of Panel 19E 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
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Clerk-Typist (71B)
Unit (as recorded)
1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
Born
July 22, 1946
Home of record
Newark, New Jersey (Essex County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 5, 1967
Age
20
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — crew

Context · from the records

What was happening

29 names on the Wall carry the date May 5, 1967. In May 1967, 1,396 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 87 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 19E, Line 44

Same unit, same day

From Newark

All 110 names from Newark →

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.