The Wall › Panel 37E › Oregon › Michael Alfred Couch
MICHAEL ALFRED COUCH
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
October 27, 1949 – February 7, 1968
Service recordMichael Alfred Couch, of Pacific City, Oregon, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 7, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 37E, Line 81 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 37E · Line 81
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- October 27, 1949
- Home of record
- Pacific City, Oregon (Tillamook County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 7, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Explosive Device
Context · from the records
What was happening
136 names on the Wall carry the date February 7, 1968; 42 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 37E, Line 81
- JOHN HARRISON BRANCATO JRPrivate First Class · February 7, 1968
- RUSSELL BIGBEE CORBIN JRLance Corporal · February 7, 1968
- ANDY PAUL CRAWFORDCorporal · February 7, 1968
- RICHARD STEPHEN DORSCHPrivate · February 7, 1968
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.