The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966.
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966. Photo: PH1 V.H. McColley, U.S. Navy, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of James Franklin Thames.

The Wall › Panel 5W › Florida › James Franklin Thames

JAMES FRANKLIN THAMES

Lieutenant · U.S. Navy

June 26, 1943 – January 19, 1971

Service record

James Franklin Thames, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He died on January 19, 1971, in An Xugen Province, South Vietnam, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 5W, Line 57 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 5W · Line 57

Position of Panel 5W 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. Navy
Rank
Lieutenant (LT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Url No Warfare Specialty (1105)
Born
June 26, 1943
Home of record
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (St Johns County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 19, 1971
Age
27
Province
An Xugen
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Artillery/Mortar/Rocket

Context · from the records

What was happening

Seven names on the Wall carry the date January 19, 1971; he was the only one lost in An Xugen Province that day. In January 1971, 259 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 5W, Line 57

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.