The Wall › Panel 16E › Illinois › Bennie Lee Cross
BENNIE LEE CROSS
Sergeant · U.S. Army
July 16, 1943 – March 7, 1967
Service recordBennie Lee Cross, of Cairo, Illinois, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 7, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 16E, Line 34 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 16E · Line 34
Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.
Remember
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Service
- Branch
- U.S. Army
- Rank
- Sergeant (SGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- July 16, 1943
- Home of record
- Cairo, Illinois (Alexander County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 7, 1967
- Age
- 23
- Province
- Tay Ninh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
27 names on the Wall carry the date March 7, 1967; six of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 45 of its members that month.
He died in Tây Ninh Province while Operation Junction City was under way. Operation Junction City (22 February–14 May 1967), in War Zone C along the Cambodian border, was the largest U.S. operation of the war to that time and included the only major American combat parachute assault of the war. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 16E, Line 34
- RICHARD ANTHONY BAGLIOPrivate First Class · March 7, 1967
- STEPHEN PAUL BLANCHETTPrivate First Class · March 7, 1967
- RUDY GORDON BOWMANPrivate First Class · March 7, 1967
- OSCAR EDWARD CHAMBERSSecond Lieutenant · March 7, 1967
Same unit, same day
- JAMES KELLY KEITH IIIPrivate First Class · Panel 16E, Line 35
- CHARLES F KENNEDYSergeant · Panel 16E, Line 35
From Cairo
- WALTER THOMAS GUERINSergeant · February 7, 1966
- RICHARD WILLIAM JONESPrivate First Class · October 17, 1967
- JOHN FRANCIS TERRY JRPrivate · October 22, 1967
- MARSHALL D JOHNSONStaff Sergeant · May 30, 1968
- ROBERT C PROFILETCaptain · October 2, 1968
- RUSSELL RICHARD BEELERPrivate First Class · March 2, 1970
Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.