The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966.
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966. Photo: SP5 Charles V. Hoover, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Bard Kerchner.

The Wall › Panel 48E › Pennsylvania › Robert Bard Kerchner

ROBERT BARD KERCHNER

Sergeant · U.S. Army

June 27, 1946 – April 6, 1968

Service record

Robert Bard Kerchner, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on April 6, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 48E, Line 28 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 48E · Line 28

Position of Panel 48E 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
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
Born
June 27, 1946
Home of record
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Allegheny County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 6, 1968
Age
21
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

79 names on the Wall carry the date April 6, 1968; 13 of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In April 1968, 1,580 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 134 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 48E, Line 28

Same unit, same day

From Pittsburgh

All 256 names from Pittsburgh →

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.