The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of John Wesley Blanding.

The Wall › Panel 23W › Virginia › John Wesley Blanding

JOHN WESLEY BLANDING

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

July 18, 1947 – May 29, 1969

Service record

John Wesley Blanding, of Prince George, Virginia, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on May 29, 1969, in South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 23W, Line 13 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 23W · Line 13

Position of Panel 23W 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. Army
Rank
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Quartermaster Heavy Equipment Repairman (63K)
Born
July 18, 1947
Home of record
Prince George, Virginia (Prince George County)

Casualty

Date of death
May 29, 1969
Age
21
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Illness
Circumstance
Infectious Disease

Context · from the records

What was happening

31 names on the Wall carry the date May 29, 1969. In May 1969, 1,456 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 23W, Line 13

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.