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 William Sampers.

The Wall › Panel 18W › Iowa › James William Sampers

JAMES WILLIAM SAMPERS

Petty Officer First Class · U.S. Navy

January 23, 1942 – September 7, 1969

Service record

James William Sampers, of Storm Lake, Iowa, served as a Petty Officer First Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on September 7, 1969, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 18W, Line 56 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 18W · Line 56

Position of Panel 18W 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
Petty Officer First Class (PO1)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Interior Comm Electrician (IC)
Born
January 23, 1942
Home of record
Storm Lake, Iowa (Buena Vista County)

Casualty

Date of death
September 7, 1969
Age
27
Province
Gia Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

25 names on the Wall carry the date September 7, 1969; three of them were lost in Gia Dinh Province. In September 1969, 664 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 18W, Line 56

From Storm Lake

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.