The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966.
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966. Photo: PH1 V.H. McColley, U.S. Navy, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Michael Joseph Balitchik.

The Wall › Panel 52E › Pennsylvania › Michael Joseph Balitchik

MICHAEL JOSEPH BALITCHIK

Seaman · U.S. Navy

December 17, 1947 – April 26, 1968

Service record

Michael Joseph Balitchik, of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, served as a Seaman in the U.S. Navy. He died on April 26, 1968, in Vinh Long Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 52E, Line 13 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 52E · Line 13

Position of Panel 52E 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. Navy
Rank
Seaman (SN)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Radioman (RM)
Born
December 17, 1947
Home of record
West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (Montgomery County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 26, 1968
Age
20
Province
Vinh Long
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Other Accident

Context · from the records

What was happening

69 names on the Wall carry the date April 26, 1968; he was the only one lost in Vinh Long Province that day. In April 1968, 1,580 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 52E, Line 13

From West Conshohocken

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.