The Wall › Panel 54W › Arizona › Johnnie Clayton Cornelius
JOHNNIE CLAYTON CORNELIUS
Captain · U.S. Air Force
May 22, 1941 – June 26, 1968
Service recordJohnnie Clayton Cornelius, of Williams Afb, Arizona, served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. He died on June 26, 1968, in North Vietnam, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 54W, Line 2 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 54W · Line 2
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
Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.
Service
- Branch
- U.S. Air Force
- Rank
- Captain (CAPT)
- Service
- Reserve / National Guard
- Unit (as recorded)
- 20 TASS
- Born
- May 22, 1941
- Home of record
- Williams Afb, Arizona (Maricopa County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- June 26, 1968
- Age
- 27
- Country
- North Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — crew
Context · from the records
What was happening
17 names on the Wall carry the date June 26, 1968. In June 1968, 1,257 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “20 TASS”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.
He died in North Vietnam while Operation Rolling Thunder was under way. Operation Rolling Thunder (March 1965–November 1968) was the sustained U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam, flown by Air Force fighter-bombers from Thailand and Navy aircraft from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin against some of the densest air defenses in the world.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 54W, Line 2
- ROBERT LLOYD COULTERSpecialist Four · June 26, 1968
- PHILIP MATT CRANE IISecond Lieutenant · June 26, 1968
- JOHN FONSECAPrivate First Class · June 26, 1968
- JUAN REFUGIO GARCIALance Corporal · June 26, 1968
Same unit, same day
- ROBERT FRANCIS WOODSMajor · Panel 54W, Line 4
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.