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 Patrick Lee Shannon.

The Wall › Panel 44E › Oklahoma › Patrick Lee Shannon

PATRICK LEE SHANNON

Technical Sergeant · U.S. Air Force

February 23, 1935 – March 11, 1968

Service record

Patrick Lee Shannon, of Owasso, Oklahoma, served as a Technical Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He died on March 11, 1968, in Laos, at age 33. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 21 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 44E · Line 21

Position of Panel 44E 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. Air Force
Rank
Technical Sergeant (TSGT)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
DET 1 1043 RAD EVAL SQ BOLLING
Born
February 23, 1935
Home of record
Owasso, Oklahoma (Tulsa County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 11, 1968
Age
33
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

54 names on the Wall carry the date March 11, 1968. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “DET 1 1043 RAD EVAL SQ BOLLING”, his unit in the record, lost 10 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 44E, Line 21

Same unit, same day

From Owasso

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.