The Wall › Panel 40E › Mississippi › Paul Melvyn Douglas
PAUL MELVYN DOUGLAS
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army
March 19, 1942 – February 21, 1968
Service recordPaul Melvyn Douglas, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on February 21, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 25. His name is inscribed on Panel 40E, Line 52 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 40E · Line 52
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)
- SPECIAL FORCES
- Born
- March 19, 1942
- Home of record
- Hattiesburg, Mississippi (Forrest County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 21, 1968
- Age
- 25
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
32 names on the Wall carry the date February 21, 1968; four of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 18 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.
Read the history
Also on Panel 40E, Line 52
- FLORENTINO CANTU JRSpecialist Four · February 21, 1968
- RICHARD PATRICK FRASCACorporal · February 21, 1968
- PAUL DELL HERSCHBACHSpecialist Four · February 21, 1968
- JOE LOUIS PEAKESergeant · February 21, 1968
Same unit, same day
- ROBERT NELSON BAKERSergeant First Class · Panel 40E, Line 51
From Hattiesburg
- JAMES WILLIAM SIZEMOREWarrant Officer 1 · November 4, 1965
- CECIL DOUGLAS BRELANDPrivate First Class · May 6, 1966
- OLIVER WENDELL MYERSPrivate First Class · April 11, 1967
- THOMAS DEVECMON OTT IIAirman · July 29, 1967
- JOHNNY RAY BURTONSpecialist Four · March 9, 1968
- MELVIN STETTINIUS LAMARCorporal · July 19, 1968
- EDWARD ERNEST MCBRIDEMajor · November 27, 1968
- DENNIS LEE ROADSSpecialist Four · April 8, 1969
- ELIJAH WALLACE BURKETTSpecialist Four · July 10, 1969
- ROGER DALE SUMRALLSergeant · July 2, 1970
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.