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 Ralph Wentz Smith.

The Wall › Panel 21E › Pennsylvania › Ralph Wentz Smith

RALPH WENTZ SMITH

Gunnery Sergeant · U.S. Marine Corps

November 14, 1929 – June 2, 1967

Service record

Ralph Wentz Smith, of New Britain, Pennsylvania, served as a Gunnery Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on June 2, 1967, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 37. His name is inscribed on Panel 21E, Line 39 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 21E · Line 39

Position of Panel 21E 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
Gunnery Sergeant (GYSGT)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Field Artillery Cannoneer (0811)
Born
November 14, 1929
Home of record
New Britain, Pennsylvania (Bucks County)

Casualty

Date of death
June 2, 1967
Age
37
Province
Quang Tri
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Explosive Device

Context · from the records

What was happening

50 names on the Wall carry the date June 2, 1967; four of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In June 1967, 948 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 21E, Line 39

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.