The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Edwin Matson.

The Wall › Panel 14E › Illinois › Robert Edwin Matson

ROBERT EDWIN MATSON

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

July 17, 1945 – January 21, 1967

Service record

Robert Edwin Matson, of Des Plaines, Illinois, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on January 21, 1967, in Hua Nghia Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 14E, Line 64 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 14E · Line 64

Position of Panel 14E 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
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
196 LIGHT INF BDE
Born
July 17, 1945
Home of record
Des Plaines, Illinois (Cook County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 21, 1967
Age
21
Province
Hua Nghia
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

27 names on the Wall carry the date January 21, 1967; he was the only one lost in Hua Nghia Province that day. In January 1967, 638 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 196th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 21 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 14E, Line 64

Same unit, same day

From Des Plaines

All 17 names from Des Plaines →

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.