Rank: Private First Class
Unit: Howitzer Battery, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 71H – Personnel Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 23-Jan-1948
Hometown: Mooresville, Indiana
Marital status: Married to Vivian F. Hovis
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 4-Jan-1968
Start of tour: 4-Jun-1968
Incident date: 18-Dec-1968
Date of casualty: 18-Dec-1968
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Artillery/Mortar/Rocket. Artillery, rocket, or mortar.
Ronald Lee Hovis died from wounds received while at command post when area came under hostile mortar attack. / (Individual transported to 93rd Evacuation Hospital, Long Binh, where he expired.)
Five Blackhorse troopers died as a result of this incident:
PFC Robert Lynn Bone
SP4 Norman Harvey Clark
SP4 Ricky Fay Cossey
PFC Charles Marion Dumdei
PFC Ronald Lee Hovis
Location of fatality: Bien Hoa, South Vietnam
Place of interment: White Lick Cemetery, Mooresville, Indiana, USA
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