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 Nelson Denfield Neal.

The Wall › Panel 26E › Illinois › Nelson Denfield Neal

NELSON DENFIELD NEAL

Sergeant · U.S. Marine Corps

April 7, 1947 – September 11, 1967

Service record

Nelson Denfield Neal, of Chicago, Illinois, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on September 11, 1967, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 26E, Line 56 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 26E · Line 56

Position of Panel 26E 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. Marine Corps
Rank
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Rifleman (0311)
Born
April 7, 1947
Home of record
Chicago, Illinois (Cook County)

Casualty

Date of death
September 11, 1967
Age
20
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

20 names on the Wall carry the date September 11, 1967; five of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In September 1967, 929 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

Also on Panel 26E, Line 56

From Chicago

All 955 names from Chicago →

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.