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 Merlin Eugene Ball.

The Wall › Panel 16E › Kansas › Merlin Eugene Ball

MERLIN EUGENE BALL

Private First Class · U.S. Army

January 1, 1947 – March 14, 1967

Service record

Merlin Eugene Ball, of Garden City, Kansas, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on March 14, 1967, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 16E, Line 75 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 16E · Line 75

Position of Panel 16E 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
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
199 LIGHT INF BDE
Born
January 1, 1947
Home of record
Garden City, Kansas (Finney County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 14, 1967
Age
20
Province
Gia Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

40 names on the Wall carry the date March 14, 1967; seven of them were lost in Gia Dinh Province. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 199th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 27 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 16E, Line 75

Same unit, same day

From Garden City

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.