The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, move out on the first day of Operation Starlite, 18 August 1965.
Marines of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, move out on the first day of Operation Starlite, 18 August 1965. Photo: Sgt. Choate, USMC, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of William Clive Laidlaw.

The Wall › Panel 2E › Massachusetts › William Clive Laidlaw

WILLIAM CLIVE LAIDLAW

Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps

November 3, 1943 – August 18, 1965

Service record

William Clive Laidlaw, of Cohasset, Massachusetts, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on August 18, 1965, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 2E, Line 58 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 2E · Line 58

Position of Panel 2E 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. Marine Corps
Rank
Corporal (CPL)
Service
Regular
Occupation
M60a1 Tank Crewman (1811)
Born
November 3, 1943
Home of record
Cohasset, Massachusetts (Norfolk County)

Casualty

Date of death
August 18, 1965
Age
21
Province
Quang Tin
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Explosive Device

Context · from the records

What was happening

48 names on the Wall carry the date August 18, 1965; 45 of them were lost in Quảng Tín Province. In August 1965, 179 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Quảng Tín Province while Operation Starlite was under way. Operation Starlite (18–24 August 1965), on the Van Tuong peninsula south of Chu Lai, was the first regimental-size U.S. ground battle of the war. Marines attacked the 1st Viet Cong Regiment by helicopter, amphibious landing and on foot. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.

Also on Panel 2E, Line 58

From Cohasset

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.