Remember...
Shirley Wayne O'Boyle
1944-1966
"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."
Aristotle
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Remember...Shirley Wayne O'Boyle
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Shirley Wayne O'Boyle was born on July 11, 1944, in Lochgelly, Fayette County, West Virginia. His parents were Frank Leonard and Myrtle Edith Scarbrough O'Boyle, and his siblings were brothers Franklin and Johnnie and sisters Sadie and Shelby Jean O'Boyle. Shirley grew up in the coal mining town of Lochgelly and attended Collins High School.
Fayette County sits in south-central West Virginia, north of Beckley. It was named for the Marquis de Lafayette; the county seat is Fayetteville. In 1873, the C&O Railroad opened up the county to industrialization and coal mining, but commerce there declined during the 20th century. However, in the 21st century, the county became home to the New River Gorge National Park. (Lou Athey, "Fayette County," e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia [online], 28 December 2022, accessed 16 February 2023, https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2245.)
According to an article in The Log [n.d.], the official newsletter for the Oak Hill High School Red Devils, "Shirley chose the military as a career partly because he had an older brother in college working on a degree while he was in the service, but partly because he didn't consider the coal mines as a profession. There was little work to be had in the mines in the early 1960s, but he turned his back on mining for another reason. When he was only four, his dad died from coal dust at the age of 42."
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War started on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975. There were a few reasons why the Vietnam War started. Those reasons included concern over the spread of communism during the Cold War, America's commitment to containment, and European imperialism in Vietnam. The two sides of the war were North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The United States joined the war because they wanted to do what they could to stop the spread of communism, and they sided with South Vietnam in order to do this. (Elias Beck, "Causes of the Vietnam War," History Crunch [website], 5 August 2016, updated 26 March 2022, accessed 16 February 2023, https://www.historycrunch.com/causes-of-the-vietnam-war.html#/.)
Shirley O'Boyle enlisted in the U.S. Army for active duty on December 28, 1961, in Beckley, West Virginia. His military occupation skill (MOS) was 11C4P: indirect fire infantryman (airborne qualified). After his initial training and mortar training, he was more than likely assigned to an infantry unit for four years prior to his deployment to Vietnam. His tour in Vietnam started on December 31, 1965, and he was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army Republic of Vietnam. By this time Shirley had obtained the rank of sergeant.
From 1965 through 1972 the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry earned its title "No Slack!" while fighting for seven consecutive years without respite in the Vietnam War theater. No other battalion has spent as much time deployed in theater as the "No Slack" Battalion. On April 6, 1972, the 101st Airborne Division returned home to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where it has since resided.
In the spring of 1966, the United States Armed Forces had been engaged in Vietnam for less than a year. In that time, they had managed to stop South Vietnam from collapsing and to put Communist forces in the country on the defensive. U.S. leaders planned next to deprive North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces of the food, shelter, and resources in the countryside, which Communist troops depended on to remain a sustainable combat force in South Vietnam. Part of this effort took place in the Tuy Hoa Valley of Phu Yen Province, a fertile valley that had in recent years provided Communist troops with most of their food. A year earlier, in 1965, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had requisitioned so much of the region's rice harvest that Saigon had to send hundreds of tons of rice per month to the region to make up for shortages. The Army assigned the 327th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division the task of preventing a repeat occurrence of this rice theft in 1966. ("Week of March 7," Vietnam War Commemoration [website], accessed 16 February 2023, https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/education/week_of_march_7/.)
Operation Harrison got under way on February 26. Colonel Emerson's 2nd of the 502nd Infantry deployed by helicopter 30 kilometers northwest of Tuy Hoa, while Colonel Garten's 2nd of the 327th Infantry took up positions 10 kilometers southeast of Emerson. After several days of relatively unproductive patrolling, Pearson attempted to trap a North Vietnamese unit that was said to be near Tuy An, about 20 kilometers north of Tuy Hoa. Emerson's battalion flew to a landing zone north of the town; Garten advanced overland from the south. The pincer, however, failed to generate significant contact. The two battalions then scoured the region without notable results. (For more information about these operations, see: John M. Carland, Combat Operations: Stemming the Tide, May 1965 to October 1966, [Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 2000], accessed 16 February 2023, https://history.army.mil/html/books/091/91-5/CMH_Pub_91-5-B.pdf.)
Although the battalions were conducting combat search and destroy missions, they did sustain casualties and loss of lives. On March 25, 1966, Sgt. Shirley Boyle was one of those casualties, as he suffered multiple wounds from enemy small-arms fire. His remains were recovered and returned to the U.S.
| Sgt. O'Boyle was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at Section 51, Grave 1228, with full military honors. He was later posthumously promoted to staff sergeant. We will always remember him as he is forever memorialized at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 6E, Line 49, located in Washington, D.C., as well as at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial located in Charleston, West Virginia. |
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According to the Coffelt Database of Vietnam Casualties, Sgt. O'Boyle was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Good Conduct Medal. ("O'Boyle, Shirley Wayne," accessed 16 February 2023, http://www.coffeltdatabase.org/detreq2.php.) His service and sacrifice would have made him eligible also for the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Parachutist Badge, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Meritorious Unit Commendation, and the Valorous Unit Award. ("Shirley Wayne O'Boyle," The Virtual Wall [website], accessed 16 February 2023, https://virtualwall.org/do/OboyleSW01a.htm.)
Article prepared by Sama Mohammed and MAJ (Ret) Brad McGee, George Washington High School JROTC
February 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
