The Wall › Panel 17E › California › James Edwin Plowman
JAMES EDWIN PLOWMAN
Lieutenant Commander · U.S. Navy
October 14, 1943 – March 24, 1967
Service recordJames Edwin Plowman, of Pebble Beach, California, served as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. He was lost on March 24, 1967, in North Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 17E, Line 39 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 17E · Line 39
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
Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.
Service
- Branch
- U.S. Navy
- Rank
- Lieutenant Commander (LCDR)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Url Naval Flight Officer (1320)
- Unit (as recorded)
- VA 85
- Born
- October 14, 1943
- Home of record
- Pebble Beach, California (Monterey County)
Casualty
- Date of loss
- March 24, 1967
- Country
- North Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Declared Dead
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — crew
- First reported
- Missing in action
- Remains
- Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record
Context · from the records
What was happening
39 names on the Wall carry the date March 24, 1967. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “VA 85”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
He died in North Vietnam while Operation Rolling Thunder was under way. Operation Rolling Thunder (March 1965–November 1968) was the sustained U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam, flown by Air Force fighter-bombers from Thailand and Navy aircraft from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin against some of the densest air defenses in the world.
His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 17E, Line 39
- LOUIS ALPHONSE PICHON JRGunnery Sergeant · March 24, 1967
- GARY LEE PREKKERCorporal · March 24, 1967
- FREDERICK JOHN SHUHPrivate First Class · March 24, 1967
- WALTER KEITH SINGLETONSergeant · March 24, 1967
Same unit, same day
- JOHN COOLEY ELLISONCaptain · Panel 17E, Line 35
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.