The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Dennis Hugh Thompson.

The Wall › Panel 42E › Missouri › Dennis Hugh Thompson

DENNIS HUGH THOMPSON

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

May 31, 1945 – March 3, 1968

Service record

Dennis Hugh Thompson, of Kansas City, Missouri, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 3, 1968, in Kien Tuong Province, South Vietnam, at age 22. His name is inscribed on Panel 42E, Line 58 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 42E · Line 58

Position of Panel 42E 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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Armor Crewman (11E)
Unit (as recorded)
25 INF DIV
Born
May 31, 1945
Home of record
Kansas City, Missouri (Multiple County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 3, 1968
Age
22
Province
Kien Tuong
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Artillery/Mortar/Rocket

Context · from the records

What was happening

65 names on the Wall carry the date March 3, 1968; two of them were lost in Kien Tuong Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 25th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 188 of its members that month.

He died in Kien Tuong Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Also on Panel 42E, Line 58

Same unit, same day

From Kansas City

All 150 names from Kansas City →

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.