The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969.
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969. Photo: U.S. Marine Corps, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of John Thomas Thornton.

The Wall › Panel 9W › Mississippi › John Thomas Thornton

JOHN THOMAS THORNTON

Sergeant · U.S. Marine Corps

June 21, 1947 – June 8, 1970

Service record

John Thomas Thornton, of Bay Springs, Mississippi, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on June 8, 1970, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 22. His name is inscribed on Panel 9W, Line 30 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 9W · Line 30

Position of Panel 9W 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. Marine Corps
Rank
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Rifleman (0311)
Born
June 21, 1947
Home of record
Bay Springs, Mississippi (Jasper County)

Casualty

Date of death
June 8, 1970
Age
22
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

25 names on the Wall carry the date June 8, 1970; nine of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In June 1970, 560 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 9W, Line 30

From Bay Springs

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.