The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Randall Vangilder.

The Wall › Panel 37E › Michigan › Robert Randall Vangilder

ROBERT RANDALL VANGILDER

Private First Class · U.S. Army

September 25, 1947 – February 3, 1968

Service record

Robert Randall Vangilder, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on February 3, 1968, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 37E, Line 15 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 37E · Line 15

Position of Panel 37E 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
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
196 LIGHT INF BDE
Born
September 25, 1947
Home of record
Grand Rapids, Michigan (Kent County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 3, 1968
Age
20
Province
Quang Tin
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

71 names on the Wall carry the date February 3, 1968; three of them were lost in Quảng Tín Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 196th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 40 of its members that month.

He died in Quảng Tín Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Also on Panel 37E, Line 15

From Grand Rapids

All 88 names from Grand Rapids →

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.