The Wall › Panel 39E › Minnesota › Donald James Wielinski
DONALD JAMES WIELINSKI
Lance Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps
June 26, 1949 – February 16, 1968
Service recordDonald James Wielinski, of Inver Grove, Minnesota, served as a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 16, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 39E, Line 64 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 39E · Line 64
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
- Lance Corporal (LCPL)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- June 26, 1949
- Home of record
- Inver Grove, Minnesota (Dakota County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 16, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
61 names on the Wall carry the date February 16, 1968; 27 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 39E, Line 64
- BENNIE EUGENE MCCORKLESpecialist Four · February 16, 1968
- HAROLD GUINN MCDOWELLPrivate First Class · February 16, 1968
- JACKIE MARCELL MORGANSpecialist Five · February 16, 1968
- THOMAS HALL MORRISStaff Sergeant · February 16, 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.