The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969.
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969. Photo: U.S. Marine Corps, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of James Alfred Smith.

The Wall › Panel 63W › Illinois › James Alfred Smith

JAMES ALFRED SMITH

Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps

November 5, 1949 – May 29, 1968

Service record

James Alfred Smith, of Dixmoor, Illinois, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on May 29, 1968, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 63W, Line 13 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 63W · Line 13

Position of Panel 63W 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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Rifleman (0311)
Born
November 5, 1949
Home of record
Dixmoor, Illinois (Cook County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 29, 1968
Age
18
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

59 names on the Wall carry the date May 29, 1968; 13 of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In May 1968, 2,418 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 63W, Line 13

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.