The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A mother and child are evacuated from Kon Tum to Pleiku during the Easter Offensive, 4 May 1972.
A mother and child are evacuated from Kon Tum to Pleiku during the Easter Offensive, 4 May 1972. Photo: 1LT Stacy Stewart, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Thomas Carl Widerquist.

The Wall › Panel 1W › Illinois › Thomas Carl Widerquist

THOMAS CARL WIDERQUIST

First Lieutenant · U.S. Air Force

February 1, 1947 – May 3, 1972

Service record

Thomas Carl Widerquist, of Morton Grove, Illinois, served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He died on May 3, 1972, in Binh Long Province, South Vietnam, at age 25. His name is inscribed on Panel 1W, Line 12 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 1W · Line 12

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.

See this name on the Wall

Remember

Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.

Share a photo or memoryPhotos & remembrances on VVMF’s Wall of Faces ↗

Service

Branch
U.S. Air Force
Rank
First Lieutenant (1STLT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Unit (as recorded)
13 AF
Born
February 1, 1947
Home of record
Morton Grove, Illinois (Cook County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 3, 1972
Age
25
Province
Binh Long
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

Eight names on the Wall carry the date May 3, 1972; five of them were lost in Binh Long Province. In May 1972, 113 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “13 AF”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

He died in Binh Long Province while the Easter Offensive was under way. On 30 March 1972, North Vietnam launched its largest offensive since 1968, attacking across the DMZ, toward An Lộc and into the Central Highlands. By then few U.S. ground troops remained; American advisers and air power fought alongside the South Vietnamese.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 1W, Line 12

Same unit, same day

From Morton Grove

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.