The Wall › Panel 17E › Alabama › Robert L Matthews
ROBERT L MATTHEWS
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
March 13, 1944 – March 22, 1967
Service recordRobert L Matthews, of Huntsville, Alabama, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 22, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 17E, Line 21 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 17E · Line 21
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
- Regular
- Occupation
- Artillery Mechanic (45F)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- March 13, 1944
- Home of record
- Huntsville, Alabama (Madison County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 22, 1967
- Age
- 23
- Province
- Tay Ninh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Unknown
Context · from the records
What was happening
53 names on the Wall carry the date March 22, 1967; eight of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 45 of its members that month.
He died in Tây Ninh Province while Operation Junction City was under way. Operation Junction City (22 February–14 May 1967), in War Zone C along the Cambodian border, was the largest U.S. operation of the war to that time and included the only major American combat parachute assault of the war. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 17E, Line 21
- GARY MELVIN LADDPrivate First Class · March 22, 1967
- CALVIN DWIGHT MABERRYPrivate First Class · March 22, 1967
- RAUL MONTESSpecialist Four · March 22, 1967
- GALEN LEROY MOORESpecialist Four · March 22, 1967
Same unit, same day
- CHARLES C ANDERSON JRCaptain · Panel 17E, Line 16
- JAMES LARRY EVANSFirst Lieutenant · Panel 17E, Line 18
From Huntsville
- ANTHONY D SHEFFIELDSergeant · December 9, 1965
- WILLIAM ALFRED BASON IIPrivate First Class · February 4, 1966
- MARION FRANKLIN ACTONPrivate First Class · April 11, 1966
- JAMES ANTHONY KIGERLance Corporal · September 17, 1966
- LAVLE JIMMY HALLLance Corporal · January 27, 1967
- JAMES EARL PERRYPrivate First Class · March 16, 1967
- JAMES EDMOND HUFFSergeant · October 27, 1967
- ROBERT IVAN RICELance Corporal · February 2, 1968
- LARRY GENE CLARKLance Corporal · February 4, 1968
- DONALD LEE WILLIAMSPrivate First Class · February 6, 1968
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.