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
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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)