The Wall › Panel 42E › Pennsylvania › Donald Charles Bennett JR
DONALD CHARLES BENNETT JR
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
October 22, 1948 – February 29, 1968
Service recordDonald Charles Bennett JR, of Sunset Valley, Pennsylvania, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 29, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 42E, Line 2 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 42E · Line 2
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Assaultman (0351)
- Born
- October 22, 1948
- Home of record
- Sunset Valley, Pennsylvania (Westmoreland County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 29, 1968
- Age
- 19
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Explosive Device
Context · from the records
What was happening
52 names on the Wall carry the date February 29, 1968; eight of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. 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 42E, Line 2
- JOHN PAUL TOTHSergeant · February 28, 1968
- RICHARD EARL BECKWITHSpecialist Four · February 29, 1968
- GERALD CERVANTESSergeant · February 29, 1968
- JAMES FRANCIS COLEMANSergeant · February 29, 1968
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.