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 Peter Hinchman McMurray.

The Wall › Panel 19W › Massachusetts › Peter Hinchman McMurray

PETER HINCHMAN MCMURRAY

First Lieutenant · U.S. Army

August 21, 1945 – August 27, 1969

Service record

Peter Hinchman McMurray, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He died on August 27, 1969, in Laos, at age 24. His name is inscribed on Panel 19W, Line 125 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 19W · Line 125

Position of Panel 19W 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. Army
Rank
First Lieutenant (1LT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Unit (as recorded)
SPECIAL FORCES
Born
August 21, 1945
Home of record
Duxbury, Massachusetts (Plymouth County)

Casualty

Date of death
August 27, 1969
Age
24
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — Passenger (MC)

Context · from the records

What was happening

15 names on the Wall carry the date August 27, 1969. In August 1969, 962 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 4 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.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 19W, Line 125

From Duxbury

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.