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 Ralph Wayne Brower.

The Wall › Panel 29E › Ohio › Ralph Wayne Brower

RALPH WAYNE BROWER

Captain · U.S. Air Force

November 24, 1939 – November 9, 1967

Service record

Ralph Wayne Brower, of Stow, Ohio, served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He died on November 9, 1967, in Laos, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 29E, Line 56 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 29E · Line 56

Position of Panel 29E 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
Captain (CAPT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Unit (as recorded)
37 AER SQ
Born
November 24, 1939
Home of record
Stow, Ohio (Summit County)

Casualty

Date of death
November 9, 1967
Age
27
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

46 names on the Wall carry the date November 9, 1967. In November 1967, 1,133 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “37 AER SQ”, his unit in the record, lost 2 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.

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

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 29E, Line 56

Same unit, same day

From Stow

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.