MASON A KEITH
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HONORED ON PANEL 3W, LINE 93 OF THE WALL

MASON ALAN KEITH

WALL NAME

MASON A KEITH

PANEL / LINE

3W/93

DATE OF BIRTH

04/01/1948

CASUALTY PROVINCE

KONTUM

DATE OF CASUALTY

06/29/1971

HOME OF RECORD

EXCELSIOR

COUNTY OF RECORD

Upshur County

STATE

WV

BRANCH OF SERVICE

ARMY

RANK

PFC

Book a time
Contact Details

REMEMBRANCES

LEFT FOR MASON ALAN KEITH
POSTED ON 4.25.2023
POSTED BY: john fabris

honoring you.....

Some may think you are forgotten
Though on earth you are no more
But in our memory you are with us
As you always were before….
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POSTED ON 4.1.2023
POSTED BY: Dennis Wriston

I'm Proud of Our Vietnam Veterans

Private First Class Mason Alan Keith, Served with Battery B, 4th Battalion, 60th Artillery Regiment, 41st Artillery Group, First Field Force, United States Army Vietnam. Montani Semper Liberi !
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POSTED ON 3.17.2023
POSTED BY: ANON

Burial Information

Mason Alan Keith is buried in the Excelsior Cemetery in Excelsior, WV.
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POSTED ON 4.1.2021
POSTED BY: Donna Moore

Happy Heavenly Birthday

You will forever remain in our hearts and prayers
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POSTED ON 3.19.2020

Ground Casualty

CPL Harry T. Walton Jr., SP4 Calvin D. Gunther, and SP4 Mason A. Keith were crewman on a M42 “Duster,” a twin 40mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that was primarily used by U.S. forces in Vietnam in a ground defense role. The three served with B Battery, 4th Battalion, 60th Artillery, 41st Artillery Group. In late June 1971, their unit was helping guard Tan Canh Base Camp, a former U.S. Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) firebase northwest of Kon Tum in the Central Highlands near the Laotian border. Walton, Gunther, and Keith shared in the responsibility for perimeter defense, and on the 29th they came together in one of the guard towers on base to perform this task. Another thing the three men shared was a drug habit, and while on guard duty they smoked heroin. This was not unusual as the use of heroin by American troops in Vietnam had reached epidemic proportions in 1971. Reportedly, one of the soldiers told Keith he could not go back to the U.S. because he had a virulent case of VD. Keith allegedly used his M16 rifle to kill the others, emptied a belt of ammo from the M60 machine gun located on the guard tower, firing over the firebase, then emptied the remainder of the clip in his M16 on his groin area, bleeding out almost immediately. After the casualties were brought down from the tower, they were flown to the 14th Medical Detachment at Pleiku. An Army CID unit came out to the remote firebase and conducted an investigation, interviewing several persons. No memorial service was held for the lost crewmembers, and the episode was soon quietly forgotten. A local paper in Walton’s hometown reported that his death occurred while guarding POW’s when another GI went berserk, killing Walton and the prisoners, then himself. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org and information provided by Gene Bolling (March 2020); also “G.I. Heroin Addiction Epidemic in Vietnam.” The New York Times, May 16, 1971; and “Local Man Murdered In Vietnam.” Herald Leader (Lexington, KY), July 4, 1971]
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