The Wall › Panel 37E › Mississippi › Robert Eugene Smith
ROBERT EUGENE SMITH
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
May 20, 1949 – February 5, 1968
Service recordRobert Eugene Smith, of Jackson, Mississippi, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 5, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 37E, Line 44 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 37E · Line 44
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
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- May 20, 1949
- Home of record
- Jackson, Mississippi (Hinds County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 5, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Unknown
Context · from the records
What was happening
83 names on the Wall carry the date February 5, 1968; 26 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 37E, Line 44
- JAMES DALLAS SHELTONSergeant · February 5, 1968
- ALAN RAY SMITHPrivate First Class · February 5, 1968
- VERNON PARR SMITHSeaman · February 5, 1968
- ANTHONY JOSEPH SPIRITO JRPrivate First Class · February 5, 1968
From Jackson
- JOHNNY CRAWFORD SANDERSMaster Sergeant · December 25, 1963
- BYRON HUGH CROTWELLStaff Sergeant · January 13, 1966
- ANDREW L HENRYPrivate First Class · January 14, 1966
- JAMES ALBERT WOODCorporal · March 25, 1966
- JOHN DANIEL ROECKLPrivate First Class · August 2, 1966
- RICHARD A WALTMANPrivate First Class · August 15, 1966
- WILLIAM DEWITT PERKINS JRChief Warrant Officer 2 · August 27, 1966
- JAMES PETER NARD IIILance Corporal · September 18, 1966
- DONAIL MARTINPetty Officer Third Class · November 28, 1966
- TOMMIE LEE MOONEYPrivate First Class · December 11, 1966
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.