The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, leave a UH-1D at LZ X-Ray, Ia Đrăng, November 1965.
Troopers of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, leave a UH-1D at LZ X-Ray, Ia Đrăng, November 1965. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Paul Edward Tolbert.

The Wall › Panel 3E › Indiana › Paul Edward Tolbert

PAUL EDWARD TOLBERT

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

October 8, 1932 – November 17, 1965

Service record

Paul Edward Tolbert, of Williams, Indiana, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on November 17, 1965, in South Vietnam, at age 33. His name is inscribed on Panel 3E, Line 97 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 3E · Line 97

Position of Panel 3E 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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Staff Sergeant (SSG)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
Born
October 8, 1932
Home of record
Williams, Indiana (Lawrence County)

Casualty

Date of death
November 17, 1965
Age
33
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

161 names on the Wall carry the date November 17, 1965. In November 1965, 545 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 318 of its members that month.

He died in South Vietnam while the Battle of the Ia Đrăng Valley was under way. In the Ia Đrăng Valley (14–18 November 1965), battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fought North Vietnamese regulars at Landing Zones X-Ray and Albany — the first major battle between the two armies and the first great test of the helicopter war. The record gives the date and his unit, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), which fought in the battle, but not the exact place.

Also on Panel 3E, Line 97

Same unit, same day

From Williams

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.