Rank: Private First Class
Unit: A Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
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: 7-Sep-1945
Hometown: Madison, Wisconsin
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 20-Oct-1965
Start of tour: 19-Aug-1966
Incident date: 12-Jan-1967
Date of casualty: 12-Jan-1967
Age at death: 21
Cause of Death: Hostile, died while missing. Killed In Action. Other explosive device. Unknown.
Thomas Erwin Matush was a passenger in a military vehicle which hit and detonated a hostile land mine.
Three Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
PFC Frederick Thomas Carter
PFC Thomas Erwin Matush
SSG Billy Wayne McKeel
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam
Place of interment: Resurrection Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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