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An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Ronald Dean Stafford.

The Wall › Panel 1W › Nebraska › Ronald Dean Stafford

RONALD DEAN STAFFORD

Captain · U.S. Air Force

January 3, 1943 – November 21, 1972

Service record

Ronald Dean Stafford, of Oxford, Nebraska, served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He died on November 21, 1972, in Kontum Province, South Vietnam, at age 29. His name is inscribed on Panel 1W, Line 92 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 1W · Line 92

Position of Panel 1W 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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Air Force
Rank
Captain (CAPT)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
430 TAC FTR SQ TDY 6280 CBT SPT
Born
January 3, 1943
Home of record
Oxford, Nebraska (Furnas County)

Casualty

Date of death
November 21, 1972
Age
29
Province
Kontum
Country
South Vietnam
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

Six names on the Wall carry the date November 21, 1972; he was the only one lost in Kon Tum Province that day. In November 1972, 21 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “430 TAC FTR SQ TDY 6280 CBT SPT”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

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.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 1W, Line 92

Same unit, same day

From Oxford

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.