The Wall › Panel 24W › North Carolina › Jimmy Dwayne Sells
JIMMY DWAYNE SELLS
Major · U.S. Marine Corps
October 31, 1933 – May 18, 1969
Service recordJimmy Dwayne Sells, of Gold Hill, North Carolina, served as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on May 18, 1969, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 35. His name is inscribed on Panel 24W, Line 49 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 24W · Line 49
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Major (MAJ)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Kc-130 Aircraft Commander (I) (7557)
- Born
- October 31, 1933
- Home of record
- Gold Hill, North Carolina (Rowan County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- May 18, 1969
- Age
- 35
- Province
- Thua Thien
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Non-hostile
- Category
- Accident
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — crew
Context · from the records
What was happening
81 names on the Wall carry the date May 18, 1969; 29 of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In May 1969, 1,456 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Thừa Thiên Province while the Battle of Hamburger Hill was under way. On Đồng Ấp Bia (Hill 937) in the A Shau Valley (10–20 May 1969), the 101st Airborne Division attacked entrenched North Vietnamese troops for ten days; the soldiers called it “Hamburger Hill.” The heavy losses fed the debate at home over the war’s tactics. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 24W, Line 49
- JOHN CHARLES PAPECaptain · May 18, 1969
- RUDOLPH ROSSIPrivate First Class · May 18, 1969
- GARY JEROME J SCHEULENSergeant · May 18, 1969
- THOMAS GABRIEL SOTOStaff Sergeant · May 18, 1969
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.