The Wall › Panel 30W › New Jersey › Noel Luis Rios
NOEL LUIS RIOS
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Air Force
April 3, 1941 – March 6, 1968
Service recordNoel Luis Rios, of Newark, New Jersey, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He was lost on March 6, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 30W, Line 69 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 30W · Line 69
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. Air Force
- Rank
- Staff Sergeant (SSGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Unit (as recorded)
- 15 APO SQ
- Born
- April 3, 1941
- Home of record
- Newark, New Jersey (Essex County)
Casualty
- Date of loss
- March 6, 1968
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Declared Dead
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — Passenger (MC)
- First reported
- Missing in action
- Remains
- Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record
Context · from the records
What was happening
140 names on the Wall carry the date March 6, 1968; 70 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “15 APO SQ”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
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.
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
Also on Panel 30W, Line 69
- JOHN ASDRUBAL RIVERASpecialist Four · March 7, 1969
- JERRY CLAYTON ROBBINSStaff Sergeant · March 7, 1969
- JOSEPH CHARLES RUSSOSpecialist Four · March 7, 1969
- RANDALL JACK SANDOVALPrivate First Class · March 7, 1969
Same unit, same day
- WILLIAM FRANK ANSELMOStaff Sergeant · Panel 30W, Line 62
From Newark
- KELLY KARL HEINZEStaff Sergeant · August 24, 1965
- LEROY WILLIAMS JRPrivate First Class · October 3, 1965
- RICHARD BURGANSPrivate First Class · October 5, 1965
- SCIP TATESpecialist Four · November 8, 1965
- ROBERT GOINESSergeant · December 5, 1965
- JOHN PRESTON GREENESpecialist Four · December 5, 1965
- WESTOVEL VENABLEPrivate First Class · January 25, 1966
- ROY RANSOM ALLENPrivate First Class · March 21, 1966
- ARNOLD WOODSONSpecialist Four · April 5, 1966
- DONALD EDWIN SIEGWARTHLieutenant (junior grade) · June 17, 1966
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.