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 Stephen Lance Townsend.

The Wall › Panel 42W › California › Stephen Lance Townsend

STEPHEN LANCE TOWNSEND

Sergeant · U.S. Army

March 20, 1950 – September 26, 1968

Service record

Stephen Lance Townsend, of Calistoga, California, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on September 26, 1968, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 42W, Line 24 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42W · Line 24

Position of Panel 42W 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. Army
Rank
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
196 LIGHT INF BDE
Born
March 20, 1950
Home of record
Calistoga, California (Napa County)

Casualty

Date of death
September 26, 1968
Age
18
Province
Quang Tin
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

55 names on the Wall carry the date September 26, 1968; three of them were lost in Quảng Tín Province. In September 1968, 1,184 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 196th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 5 of its members that month.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 42W, Line 24

From Calistoga

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.