The Wall › Panel 25W › Ohio › David Russell Neff
DAVID RUSSELL NEFF
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
May 15, 1947 – May 12, 1969
Service recordDavid Russell Neff, of Dayton, Ohio, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on May 12, 1969, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 25W, Line 79 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 25W · Line 79
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
- Specialist Four (SP4)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Heavy Anti-Armor Weapons Infantryman (11H)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 101 AIRBORNE DIV
- Born
- May 15, 1947
- Home of record
- Dayton, Ohio (Montgomery County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- May 12, 1969
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Thua Thien
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
170 names on the Wall carry the date May 12, 1969; three of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In May 1969, 1,456 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 178 of its members that month.
He died in Thừa Thiên Province while the Battle of Hamburger Hill was under way. On Đồng Ấp Bia (Hill 937) in the A Shau Valley (10–20 May 1969), the 101st Airborne Division attacked entrenched North Vietnamese troops for ten days; the soldiers called it “Hamburger Hill.” The heavy losses fed the debate at home over the war’s tactics. 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
Also on Panel 25W, Line 79
- JOSEPH PATRICK MCKNIGHTPrivate First Class · May 12, 1969
- ROY LEE NATIONSPrivate First Class · May 12, 1969
- JOSEPH ANTHONY NURZYNSKISpecialist Five · May 12, 1969
- LYLE CLINT PALMERSpecialist Five · May 12, 1969
Same unit, same day
- RICHARD LEE HOPKINSCorporal · Panel 25W, Line 72
- OLEN WAINWRIGHT SMITHSpecialist Four · Panel 25W, Line 85
From Dayton
- CHARLES ROBERT SMITHLance Corporal · May 23, 1965
- JOE CALVIN PAULLance Corporal · August 19, 1965
- RICHARD DENNIS SHARPLance Corporal · October 30, 1965
- RICHARD GALE WICKLance Corporal · November 22, 1965
- DONALD MAILY SHAFER IIPrivate First Class · February 18, 1966
- HARRY DONALD HASKINSPrivate First Class · April 29, 1966
- TIMOTHY RAYPrivate First Class · May 8, 1966
- ROGER MICHAEL MATHEWSONSergeant · May 11, 1966
- MICHAEL ROBERT POPPAWPrivate First Class · May 12, 1966
- DOUGLAS HUGH KNOTTPrivate First Class · July 19, 1966
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.