The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines move through the streets of Huế near the end of the 26-day battle, February 1968.
Marines move through the streets of Huế near the end of the 26-day battle, February 1968. Photo: USMC Archives, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of James Clair Foster.

The Wall › Panel 40E › New York › James Clair Foster

JAMES CLAIR FOSTER

Corporal · U.S. Army

November 5, 1948 – February 19, 1968

Service record

James Clair Foster, of Patterson, New York, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Army. He died on February 19, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 40E, Line 17 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 40E · Line 17

Position of Panel 40E 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
Corporal (CPL)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
November 5, 1948
Home of record
Patterson, New York (Putnam County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 19, 1968
Age
19
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

93 names on the Wall carry the date February 19, 1968; 19 of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 144 of its members that month.

He died in Thừa Thiên Province while the Battle of Huế was under way. At Huế (31 January–2 March 1968), Marines, soldiers of the 1st Cavalry and 101st Airborne divisions and South Vietnamese troops fought house to house for 26 days to retake the old imperial capital, the longest urban battle of the war. 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 40E, Line 17

Same unit, same day

From Patterson

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.