The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Curtis Henry Cropper.

The Wall › Panel 12W › California › Curtis Henry Cropper

CURTIS HENRY CROPPER

Lieutenant · U.S. Navy

August 2, 1943 – April 5, 1970

Service record

Curtis Henry Cropper, of Paso Robles, California, served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He died on April 5, 1970, in North Vietnam, at age 26. His name is inscribed on Panel 12W, Line 96 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 12W · Line 96

Position of Panel 12W 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. Navy
Rank
Lieutenant (LT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Url Pilot (1325)
Unit (as recorded)
VF-151 USS CORAL SEA CVA 43
Born
August 2, 1943
Home of record
Paso Robles, California (San Luis Obispo County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 5, 1970
Age
26
Country
North Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

23 names on the Wall carry the date April 5, 1970. In April 1970, 730 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The record places this loss in North Vietnam, outside South Vietnam — most often the sign of an air crew lost over the North or the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 12W, Line 96

From Paso Robles

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.