The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966.
Troopers of the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, make a combat assault, December 1966. Photo: SP5 Charles V. Hoover, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Cary Joseph Smith.

The Wall › Panel 51E › South Carolina › Cary Joseph Smith

CARY JOSEPH SMITH

Sergeant · U.S. Army

November 30, 1940 – April 19, 1968

Service record

Cary Joseph Smith, of Laurens, South Carolina, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on April 19, 1968, in Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 51E, Line 2 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 51E · Line 2

Position of Panel 51E on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Armor Crewman (11E)
Unit (as recorded)
11 ARMORED CAV
Born
November 30, 1940
Home of record
Laurens, South Carolina (Laurens County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 19, 1968
Age
27
Province
Phuoc Long
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

67 names on the Wall carry the date April 19, 1968; three of them were lost in Phuoc Long Province. In April 1968, 1,580 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “11 ARMORED CAV”, his unit in the record, lost 10 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 51E, Line 2

From Laurens

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.