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 Raymond Lee Armentrout.

The Wall › Panel 5W › West Virginia › Raymond Lee Armentrout

RAYMOND LEE ARMENTROUT

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

October 18, 1950 – February 23, 1971

Service record

Raymond Lee Armentrout, of Weston, West Virginia, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on February 23, 1971, in Laos, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 5W, Line 131 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 5W · Line 131

Position of Panel 5W 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
Observation/Scout Helicopter Repairer (67V)
Unit (as recorded)
D TRP 3 SQD 5 CAV 5 INF DIV
Born
October 18, 1950
Home of record
Weston, West Virginia (Lewis County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 23, 1971
Age
20
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — crew

Context · from the records

What was happening

26 names on the Wall carry the date February 23, 1971. In February 1971, 387 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “D TRP 3 SQD 5 CAV 5 INF DIV”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while Operation Lam Son 719 was under way. In Lam Son 719 (February–March 1971), South Vietnamese troops drove into Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, carried and supported by U.S. helicopters and aircraft; more than 100 U.S. helicopters were lost.

Also on Panel 5W, Line 131

Same unit, same day

From Weston

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.