Rank: Private First Class
Unit: A Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge
Unit awards: Presidential Unit Citation, Valorous Unit Award, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 22-Oct-1949
Hometown: Matoaka, West Virginia
Marital status: Married to Arlene J. Holt
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 16-Sep-1969
Start of tour: 18-Feb-1970
Incident date: 20-Jun-1970
Date of casualty: 20-Jun-1970
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Artillery/Mortar/Rocket. Artillery, rocket, or mortar.
Merril Holt was killed while at a night defensive position when the area came under mortar attack by a hostile force. / At night defensive position (NDP). Received hostile mortar attack.
Two Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
PFC Thomas Dwain Griffin
PFC Merril Holt
Location of fatality: Cambodia, XU 442 017
Place of interment: Roselawn Memorial Gardens, Princeton, West Virginia, USA
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