The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of James Leonard Smith.

The Wall › Panel 5W › Wisconsin › James Leonard Smith

JAMES LEONARD SMITH

Captain · U.S. Air Force

February 11, 1944 – December 28, 1970

Service record

James Leonard Smith, of Larsen, Wisconsin, served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He died on December 28, 1970, in Laos, at age 26. His name is inscribed on Panel 5W, Line 13 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 5W · Line 13

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.

See this name on the Wall

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.

Share a photo or memoryPhotos & remembrances on VVMF’s Wall of Faces ↗

Service

Branch
U.S. Air Force
Rank
Captain (CAPT)
Service
Regular
Born
February 11, 1944
Home of record
Larsen, Wisconsin (Winnebago County)

Casualty

Date of death
December 28, 1970
Age
26
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown

Context · from the records

What was happening

Five names on the Wall carry the date December 28, 1970. In December 1970, 271 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 5W, 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.