Clarence Ray "Billy" Brame 

Private First Class Clarence Ray “Billy” Brame was the first soldier from Vance County to be killed in action in Vietnam. He was killed in action on May 21, 1966 at LZ (landing zone) Hereford, Vinh Thanh Valley, South Vietnam, Binh Dinh province. He was 22 years old.

Clarence Ray Brame was born on May 13, 1944 in Henderson, N.C., the son of Clarence W. Brame and Evelyn Williamson Brame.  He attended  Henderson High School (freshman year 1961) and Dabney High School. 

PFC Brame was drafted into the  U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He began his tour of duty on November 22, 1965 serving in Company C, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division,. Men in the company called him “Gomer” after the star of a popular TV sitcom that began airing on network television in 1964.  It was a spinoff of “The Andy Griffith Show” and featured a Marine from rural Mayberry, N.C.  based at Camp Henderson, California who was naïve and very moral. 

The 1st Cavalry Division was activated on July 3, 1965 as the Army’s first air mobile division. 90 days later the division was headed to Vietnam. The Division arrived in 1965 and did not leave until 1971: the first Army Division to go to Vietnam and the last to leave.

On May 21, 1966,  Charile Company was helicoptered to LZ (Landing Zone) Hereford in the central highlands of  South Vietnam as part of Operation Crazy Horse.  LZ Hereford was a saddle just large enough for a single helicopter to land.  The terrain was typical of the central highlands.  The land fell away on the east towards a valley floor.  A ridge bordered the LZ on the north and an upward slope on the west.   Charlie consisted of four platoons.  Brame was in the mortar platoon which was only at about half strength due to malaria and casualties.  They were left on the LZ to provide mortar cover while the other three Charlie platoons moved downhill from the LZ about a mile and a half toward the valley floor where they were to be extracted.  No armed squad was left with the mortar platoon to provide machine gun protection.  The platoon was expected to be there for only an hour and then to be extracted and flown to the next LZ further east on the valley floor. The platoon had set up in foxholes of two soldiers each, arranged in a horseshoe shape with the open end on the west.  Brame was in the foxhole furthest forward on the west.  As soon as the other platoons of Charlie Company reached the valley floor, the mortar platoon was hit by People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) mortars and then overrun by PAVN attacking from the west who killed 15 out of 21 men in the mortar platoon within 35 minutes, withdrawing as the rifle platoons, summoned by radio calls for help, rushed back uphill to Hereford. Brame and his comrades fought bravely, killing 60 of the attackers, but ran out of ammunition. Several articles have been written about the battle at LZ Hereford focusing on the decision to leave the mortar platoon unprotected..

Private Clarence Ray Brame is buried in St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Henderson, N.C.  His name is inscribed on panel 07E, line 093 of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.

Last edited: 28 April 2026