The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Louis Simmons.

The Wall › Panel 41E › South Carolina › Robert Louis Simmons

ROBERT LOUIS SIMMONS

Sergeant · U.S. Army

September 26, 1946 – February 25, 1968

Service record

Robert Louis Simmons, of Ridgeway, South Carolina, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on February 25, 1968, in Dinh Tuong Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 41E, Line 29 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 41E · Line 29

Position of Panel 41E 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. Army
Rank
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Combat Engineer (12B)
Unit (as recorded)
9 INF DIV
Born
September 26, 1946
Home of record
Ridgeway, South Carolina (Fairfield County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 25, 1968
Age
21
Province
Dinh Tuong
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

96 names on the Wall carry the date February 25, 1968; 21 of them were lost in Định Tường Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 9th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 164 of its members that month.

He died in Định Tường Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Also on Panel 41E, Line 29

Same unit, same day

From Ridgeway

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.