The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault.
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault. Photo: SP4 Johnnie Jackson, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Frederick Alton Hitson.

The Wall › Panel 16E › California › Frederick Alton Hitson

FREDERICK ALTON HITSON

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

September 26, 1945 – March 11, 1967

Service record

Frederick Alton Hitson, of Exeter, California, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 11, 1967, in Phu Yen Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 16E, Line 59 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 16E · Line 59

Position of Panel 16E 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
Electrical-Electronic Engineering Assistant (01B)
Unit (as recorded)
4 INF DIV
Born
September 26, 1945
Home of record
Exeter, California (Tulare County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 11, 1967
Age
21
Province
Phu Yen
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Explosive Device

Context · from the records

What was happening

57 names on the Wall carry the date March 11, 1967; four of them were lost in Phu Yen Province. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 4th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 145 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 16E, Line 59

Same unit, same day

From Exeter

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.