The Wall › Panel 45E › Alabama › Vernon Leroy Downs JR
VERNON LEROY DOWNS JR
Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps
June 15, 1948 – March 23, 1968
Service recordVernon Leroy Downs JR, of Huntsville, Alabama, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 23, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 62 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 62
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Corporal (CPL)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- June 15, 1948
- Home of record
- Huntsville, Alabama (Madison County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 23, 1968
- Age
- 19
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
23 names on the Wall carry the date March 23, 1968; two of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. 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
Also on Panel 45E, Line 62
- RANDALL EARL COLESpecialist Four · March 23, 1968
- RONNIE CHARLES CURETONLance Corporal · March 23, 1968
- THOMAS EDWARD DONOVANPrivate First Class · March 23, 1968
- JAMES EUGENE LAIRDSecond Lieutenant · March 23, 1968
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
- ROBERT L MATTHEWSSpecialist Four · March 22, 1967
- JAMES EDMOND HUFFSergeant · October 27, 1967
- ROBERT IVAN RICELance Corporal · February 2, 1968
- LARRY GENE CLARKLance Corporal · February 4, 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.