The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Walter Edward Lewellen.

The Wall › Panel 5W › Indiana › Walter Edward Lewellen

WALTER EDWARD LEWELLEN

Sergeant · U.S. Army

June 3, 1951 – February 18, 1971

Service record

Walter Edward Lewellen, of New Albany, Indiana, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on February 18, 1971, in Laos, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 5W, Line 117 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 5W · Line 117

Position of Panel 5W 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
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Observation/Scout Helicopter Repairer (67V)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
June 3, 1951
Home of record
New Albany, Indiana (Floyd County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 18, 1971
Age
19
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

27 names on the Wall carry the date February 18, 1971. In February 1971, 387 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 50 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while Operation Lam Son 719 was under way. In Lam Son 719 (February–March 1971), South Vietnamese troops drove into Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, carried and supported by U.S. helicopters and aircraft; more than 100 U.S. helicopters were lost.

Also on Panel 5W, Line 117

Same unit, same day

From New Albany

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.