The Wall › Panel 41E › Tennessee › James Calvin Thomason
JAMES CALVIN THOMASON
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
November 18, 1947 – February 23, 1968
Service recordJames Calvin Thomason, of Niota, Tennessee, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on February 23, 1968, in Bien Hoa Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 41E, Line 1 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 41E · Line 1
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
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 199 LIGHT INF BDE
- Born
- November 18, 1947
- Home of record
- Niota, Tennessee (Mcminn County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 23, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Bien Hoa
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
56 names on the Wall carry the date February 23, 1968; he was the only one lost in Bien Hoa Province that day. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 199th Light Infantry Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 42 of its members that month.
He died in Bien Hoa Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.
Also on Panel 41E, Line 1
- THOMAS HOWARD PETERMANCorporal · February 23, 1968
- WAYNE EDWARD PINGELSpecialist Four · February 23, 1968
- ALFRED EDGAR PLAEP JRCorporal · February 23, 1968
- JAMES S STRICKLAND JRSpecialist Four · February 23, 1968
Same unit, same day
- RODOLFO ARTURO VASQUEZPrivate First Class · Panel 41E, Line 5
From Niota
- JOE ALLEN REEDSergeant · May 25, 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.