The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines move through the streets of Huế near the end of the 26-day battle, February 1968.
Marines move through the streets of Huế near the end of the 26-day battle, February 1968. Photo: USMC Archives, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Willie Lee McGaughey.

The Wall › Panel 42E › Arkansas › Willie Lee McGaughey

WILLIE LEE MCGAUGHEY

Private First Class · U.S. Army

June 19, 1947 – March 2, 1968

Service record

Willie Lee McGaughey, of Mcgehee, Arkansas, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on March 2, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 42E, Line 37 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42E · Line 37

Position of Panel 42E 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
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
June 19, 1947
Home of record
Mcgehee, Arkansas (Desha County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 2, 1968
Age
20
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — Passenger (MC)

Context · from the records

What was happening

100 names on the Wall carry the date March 2, 1968; ten of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 208 of its members that month.

He died in Thừa Thiên Province while the Battle of Huế was under way. At Huế (31 January–2 March 1968), Marines, soldiers of the 1st Cavalry and 101st Airborne divisions and South Vietnamese troops fought house to house for 26 days to retake the old imperial capital, the longest urban battle of the war. 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 42E, Line 37

Same unit, same day

From Mcgehee

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.