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An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Michael Fredrick May.

The Wall › Panel 30W › Michigan › Michael Fredrick May

MICHAEL FREDRICK MAY

Specialist Five · U.S. Army

June 7, 1947 – March 2, 1969

Service record

Michael Fredrick May, of Vassar, Michigan, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on March 2, 1969, in Cambodia, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 30W, Line 14 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 30W · Line 14

Position of Panel 30W 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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Five (SP5)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantry Operations And Intelligence Specialist (11F)
Unit (as recorded)
SPECIAL FORCES
Born
June 7, 1947
Home of record
Vassar, Michigan (Tuscola County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 2, 1969
Age
21
Country
Cambodia
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

40 names on the Wall carry the date March 2, 1969. In March 1969, 1,553 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 20 of its members that month.

The record places this loss in Cambodia, outside South Vietnam.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 30W, Line 14

Same unit, same day

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.