The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, watch a UH-1D land, March 1970.
Troopers of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, watch a UH-1D land, March 1970. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of William Coy Turner.

The Wall › Panel 20E › Kentucky › William Coy Turner

WILLIAM COY TURNER

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

February 15, 1946 – May 17, 1967

Service record

William Coy Turner, of Chance, Kentucky, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on May 17, 1967, in Hua Nghia Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 20E, Line 20 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 20E · Line 20

Position of Panel 20E 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. Army
Rank
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
173 AIRBORNE BDE
Born
February 15, 1946
Home of record
Chance, Kentucky (Adair County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 17, 1967
Age
21
Province
Hua Nghia
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

39 names on the Wall carry the date May 17, 1967; eight of them were lost in Hua Nghia Province. In May 1967, 1,396 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 23 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 20E, Line 20

Same unit, same day

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.