The Wall › Panel 26E › Georgia › Harold Dean Tatum
HAROLD DEAN TATUM
Gunnery Sergeant · U.S. Marine Corps
August 6, 1932 – September 21, 1967
Service recordHarold Dean Tatum, of Sandy Springs, Georgia, served as a Gunnery Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on September 21, 1967, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 35. His name is inscribed on Panel 26E, Line 109 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 26E · Line 109
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
- Gunnery Sergeant (GYSGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- M60a1 Tank Crewman (1811)
- Unit (as recorded)
- B CO 3 TANK BN 3 MARDIV
- Born
- August 6, 1932
- Home of record
- Sandy Springs, Georgia (Fulton County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- September 21, 1967
- Age
- 35
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Died of Wounds
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
61 names on the Wall carry the date September 21, 1967; 44 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In September 1967, 929 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Con Thien was under way. Through September and October 1967, North Vietnamese artillery across the Demilitarized Zone pounded the Marine outpost at Con Thien and the bases along the DMZ in Quảng Trị Province. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Also on Panel 26E, Line 109
- WILLIAM JAY BALFOURCorporal · September 21, 1967
- WILLIAM ELLING SWENSGARDSpecialist Four · September 21, 1967
- JAMES EDWARD TRUSHAWPrivate First Class · September 21, 1967
- MILTON JAMES VESCELIUS JRCaptain · September 21, 1967
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.
