The Wall › Panel 44E › Mississippi › Henry Earl Thomas
HENRY EARL THOMAS
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
July 29, 1946 – March 9, 1968
Service recordHenry Earl Thomas, of Lexington, Mississippi, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 9, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 2 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 44E · 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. Army
- Rank
- Specialist Four (SP4)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
- Born
- July 29, 1946
- Home of record
- Lexington, Mississippi (Holmes County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 9, 1968
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
45 names on the Wall carry the date March 9, 1968; seven of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 104 of its members that month.
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 44E, Line 2
- EUGENE EDWARD SWIFTSeaman · March 9, 1968
- ALTON THOMAS JRCorporal · March 9, 1968
- SANTIAGO TORRES JRPrivate First Class · March 9, 1968
- MCCREA BENEDICT TUTTLECaptain · March 9, 1968
Same unit, same day
- JAMES RONALD BATEMANPrivate First Class · Panel 43E, Line 65
- WILLIE B BRADFORDSpecialist Four · Panel 43E, Line 65
- MAURICE ALAN COOPERPrivate First Class · Panel 43E, Line 66
- MELVIN RANDOLPH LEAVELLPrivate First Class · Panel 43E, Line 68
- JOSEPH ESPINO PEREZPrivate First Class · Panel 43E, Line 68
- MELTON HOWARD PRESLEYSpecialist Four · Panel 43E, Line 68
- JAMES RIVERAPrivate First Class · Panel 43E, Line 69
- LAWRENCE WALKER SCANLANPrivate First Class · Panel 44E, Line 3
- EDWARD MARVIN STERNINSpecialist Four · Panel 44E, Line 3
From Lexington
- FLOYD EDWARD FULLER JRCorporal · May 19, 1970
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.