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 Wayne Franklin Bolton.

The Wall › Panel 34W › Minnesota › Wayne Franklin Bolton

WAYNE FRANKLIN BOLTON

Lieutenant Colonel · U.S. Air Force

September 15, 1915 – January 17, 1969

Service record

Wayne Franklin Bolton, of Gordonsville, Minnesota, served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He died on January 17, 1969, in Laos, at age 53. His name is inscribed on Panel 34W, Line 20 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 34W · Line 20

Position of Panel 34W 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. Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant Colonel (LTCOL)
Service
Regular
Born
September 15, 1915
Home of record
Gordonsville, Minnesota (Freeborn County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 17, 1969
Age
53
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — Passenger (MC)

Context · from the records

What was happening

56 names on the Wall carry the date January 17, 1969. In January 1969, 985 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

Also on Panel 34W, Line 20

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.