Rank: Staff Sergeant
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: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 1-May-1940
Hometown: Wayne, North Carolina
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 20-Feb-1961
Start of tour: 19-Aug-1966
Incident date: 12-Jan-1967
Date of casualty: 12-Jan-1967
Age at death: 26
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Explosive Device. Other explosive device.
Billy Wayne McKeel was 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: Crumpler Family Cemetery, Goldsboro, North Carolina, USA
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