The Wall › Panel 35E › California › John Jenaro Contreras
JOHN JENARO CONTRERAS
Private · U.S. Marine Corps
April 29, 1949 – January 21, 1968
Service recordJohn Jenaro Contreras, of Carpinteria, California, served as a Private in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on January 21, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 35E, Line 4 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 35E · Line 4
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
- Private (PVT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Assaultman (0351)
- Born
- April 29, 1949
- Home of record
- Carpinteria, California (Santa Barbara County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- January 21, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
42 names on the Wall carry the date January 21, 1968; 26 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. 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
Also on Panel 35E, Line 4
- PAUL REX COMBSSpecialist Four · January 21, 1968
- REECE A CRITCHFIELD JRPrivate First Class · January 21, 1968
- MICHAEL DOUGLAS CRUITTPrivate First Class · January 21, 1968
- MICHAEL G DONOVAN IIISpecialist Four · January 21, 1968
From Carpinteria
- JAMES HOWARD MCDONALDSpecialist Four · November 16, 1966
- JOHN IMBACH IIISpecialist Four · August 21, 1968
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.