Vietnam War veterans

Numerous individuals who were residents of or otherwise associated with Albemarle County and Charlottesville served in the Vietnam War (November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975) as part of the American armed forces. These soldiers served during the period of time between 1965 and 1973, when the United States deployed its military forces for combat operations in Southeast Asia.

Rolls of veterans associated with Albemarle County and Charlottesville

Dogwood Vietnam Memorial

The following veterans who were either killed in action (KIA) or missing in action (MIA) had their names inscribed on the Memorial Wall of the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial in McIntire Park.

Veterans whose names are inscribed on the Memorial Wall of the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial
Sgt. Allen Edward Firth	2nd Lt Carl Reed Gibson	Spec. 4 Champ Jackson Lawson, Jr.	1st Lt. Charles King Butler
LCpl. Howell Frank Blakey	Spec. 4 Richard Thomas Carter	WO1 Gerald Lewis Caton	Spec. 4 Floyd Burnett Coates
Spec. 4 Wayne Shelby Craig	LCpl. Thomas D. Grinnell, III	PFC Grandville Reynard Jones, Jr.	PFC James Marion Kardos
Spec. 4 Edward Alan Lamb	PFC Roger Mark Link	WO Robert Edward Marshall	Col. Oscar Mauterer
Spec. 4 Wayne Dabney McRay	PFC Charles Rudolph Milton, Jr.	Cpt. Harvey Mulhauser	Lt. Colonel Rodolph Lee Nunn, Jr.
SSG Walter Franklin Payne	Spec. 4 Clyde Randolph Perry, Jr.	LCpl. Walter Ross, Jr.	PFC Robert Hoyt Ruggles
Sgt. John Devon Tyler	PFC Douglas Delano Wallace	PFC Erskine Buford Wilde	PFC Howard Eslie Hollar

Field nurses

Dianne M. Gagliano's dog tags. Reproduced from the University of Virginia School of Nursing.

Dianne M. Gagliano was a Charlottesville resident who served as a new flight nurse when she was deployed to Vietnam in 1971. She flew medical and humanitarian missions all over Southeast Asia throughout the course of the war, including airlifts for prisoners of war and orphaned children as well as caring for critically injured troops. Gagliano airlifted combat casualties to a U.S. Air Force medical center hub along Vietnam's coast, with critically injured patients being flown back to the United States on a C-141 cargo aircraft that held up to 44 litters and 48 ambulatory patients. Speaking on her time serving as a flight nurse aboard such aircraft, Gagliano said "With metal flooring and side walls and little or no insulation and limited cargo lighting, it made for a noisy, dimly lighted and uncomfortable thermal environment to work in during the long flights."

Throughout their flights, the medical crew wore ear plugs which further impeded their ability to communicate with each other and their patients. Because they often could not hear a respirator cycling or a suction machine operating, flight nurses such as Gagliano had to closely observe patients to determine the equipment's effectiveness. In her own words, "Our greatest asset was that we were transporting the healthiest patient population that a medical team could hope for - at least 90 percent were in their twenties. I encountered only one inflight death among the more than 1,000 patients that I transported during my years in Vietnam."