The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Michael Land Roberts.

The Wall › Panel 34E › Mississippi › Michael Land Roberts

MICHAEL LAND ROBERTS

Petty Officer Second Class · U.S. Navy

July 14, 1944 – January 11, 1968

Service record

Michael Land Roberts, of Purvis, Mississippi, served as a Petty Officer Second Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on January 11, 1968, in Laos, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 34E, Line 31 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 34E · Line 31

Position of Panel 34E 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
Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Aviation Ordnanceman (AO)
Unit (as recorded)
OBSRON 67
Born
July 14, 1944
Home of record
Purvis, Mississippi (Lamar County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 11, 1968
Age
23
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

32 names on the Wall carry the date January 11, 1968. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “OBSRON 67”, his unit in the record, lost 9 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

Also on Panel 34E, Line 31

Same unit, same day

From Purvis

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.