VIETNAM - KANE, CHARLES WILLIAM

Kane, Charles William

VIETNAM - KANE, CHARLES WILLIAM
KANE, CHARLES WILLIAM

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Unit: G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment

MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist

Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal

Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge

Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device

Start of tour: 24-Sep-1966

Enlisted by: Regular

Date of birth: 8-Oct-1936

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

Marital status: Married to Olivia Kane

Campaign: Vietnam Conflict

Incident date: 5-Jun-1967

Date of casualty: 5-Jun-1967

Age at death: 30

Cause of death: Hostile, died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds. Individual was passenger in armored personnel carrier which struck a hostile mine while on combat operation.

Three Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
PFC Francis Leo Collins
SSG Charles William Kane
SP4 Willie Lee Page

Location of fatality: Quang Ngai, South Vietnam

Place of interment: Baltimore National Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

View this soldier‘s Find a Grave page (opens in a new window)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial panel and row: 21E 058 (view Vietnam Veterans Memorial link in a new window)

 

BRONZE STAR MEDAL

BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS

STAFF SERGEANTCHARLES WILLIAM KANE
5 JUNE 1967
G TROOP, 2nd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT

Staff Sergeant Kane distinguished himself by heroic actions on 5 June 1967 in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date, Staff Sergeant Kane was serving as track commander on an armored cavalry assault vehicle involved in a search and destroy operation. During the operation, the unit came under intense sniper fire. Staff Sergeant Kane and his crew immediately returned a heavy volume of automatic weapons fire. Staff Sergeant Kane instructed two of his crew members to dismount, in order to assist another vehicle commander and his crew, that had detonated an anti-tank mine causing the vehicle to burst into flames. He covered the advance of his two crew members to the burning vehicle with a heavy volume of machine gun fire, openly exposing himself to the hostile fire. Staff Sergeant Kane then maneuvered his vehicle in order to continue to fire suppressive fire on the insurgents, shortly after beginning to move his vehicle, it hit and detonated an anti-tank mine that mortally wounded him. Staff Sergeant Kane’s outstanding display of aggressiveness, devotion to duty, and personal bravery is in keeping with the finest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Task Force Oregon, and the United States Army.
Headquarters, Task Force Oregon (Provisional) General Orders No. 60 (26 June 1967)