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 Reginald David Cleve.

The Wall › Panel 4W › Missouri › Reginald David Cleve

REGINALD DAVID CLEVE

Warrant Officer 1 · U.S. Army

August 2, 1947 – March 22, 1971

Service record

Reginald David Cleve, of Farmington, Missouri, served as a Warrant Officer 1 in the U.S. Army. He died on March 22, 1971, in Laos, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 4W, Line 66 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 4W · Line 66

Position of Panel 4W 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
Warrant Officer 1 (WO1)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Utility/Observation Helicopter Pilot (100B)
Unit (as recorded)
AMERICAL DIV
Born
August 2, 1947
Home of record
Farmington, Missouri (St Francois County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 22, 1971
Age
23
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

24 names on the Wall carry the date March 22, 1971. In March 1971, 429 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The Americal Division, his unit in the record, lost 50 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.

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.

Also on Panel 4W, Line 66

Same unit, same day

From Farmington

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.