The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of John Thomas Strawn.

The Wall › Panel 4W › Oregon › John Thomas Strawn

JOHN THOMAS STRAWN

Specialist Six · U.S. Army

April 15, 1942 – March 4, 1971

Service record

John Thomas Strawn, of Salem, Oregon, served as a Specialist Six in the U.S. Army. He died on March 4, 1971, in North Vietnam, at age 28. His name is inscribed on Panel 4W, Line 22 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 4W · Line 22

Position of Panel 4W 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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Six (SP6)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Signal Intelligence Analyst (Linguist) (98C)
Unit (as recorded)
US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM
Born
April 15, 1942
Home of record
Salem, Oregon (Marion County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 4, 1971
Age
28
Country
North Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Unknown
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

12 names on the Wall carry the date March 4, 1971. In March 1971, 429 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “US ARMY REP OF VIETNAM”, his unit in the record, lost 60 of its members that month.

The record places this loss in North Vietnam, outside South Vietnam — most often the sign of an air crew lost over the North or the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Also on Panel 4W, Line 22

Same unit, same day

From Salem

All 34 names from Salem →

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.