Our Arklahoma Heroes Stigler hero died facing down the enemy near Pleiku Province, South Vietnam on 11/21/1968

On the evening of November 21, 1969, about four miles southwest of Camp Enari along Highway 19 in Pleiku Province, South Vietnam, a convoy from Landing Zone Oasis came under sudden and intense enemy fire. , serving as assistant convoy leader with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, remained standing exposed on his vehicle

. He directed the fire of the .50-caliber machine guns and the movement of the other trucks while the column fought to extricate itself. Enemy rifle fire struck him in the hip and abdomen.

He stayed in place, continuing to maintain communications essential to the safety of the men around him. A further wound struck his leg.

He refused to leave his post until he was fatally hit. His direction of the convoy was a major factor in its ability to reach Camp Enari. He died of his wounds before reaching the 4th Medical Battalion.

The action brought him the Silver Star posthumously for gallantry in action against an armed hostile force.

Boyles was born on April 24, 1939 in Stigler, the eldest child of Leonard Otto Boyles and Dollie Marie Cantrell.

His father, born in 1916 in Rattan, Oklahoma, and his mother, born in 1917 in Morley, Missouri, had married in 1937 in Checotah.

The family made their home in Stigler, where Leonard and Dollie raised Donald, his younger brother Roy Lee, and his sister Donna Marie.

Leonard worked and lived in the Haskell County area for decades and was later buried in Antioch Cemetery; Dollie lived into her nineties. Donald grew up in that small eastern Oklahoma community and entered military service, accumulating twelve years by the time of his death.

He specialized as an automotive maintenance technician, MOS 631A, and advanced to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2. His tour in Vietnam began on July 1, 1969 with the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Division.

In addition to the Silver Star he received the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, the Soldier’s Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm Unit Citation.

His remains were recovered and returned home. He was buried in Antioch Cemetery in Stigler, Oklahoma, the same ground that would later hold his parents. His name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Panel 16W, Line 104.

At the time of his death he was thirty years old. He is one of the most highly decirated Arklahoma heroes from eatsen Oklahoma from the Vietnam era.