The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert Norman Smith.

The Wall › Panel 19W › Pennsylvania › Robert Norman Smith

ROBERT NORMAN SMITH

Colonel · U.S. Marine Corps

September 20, 1926 – August 19, 1969

Service record

Robert Norman Smith, of Trucksville, Pennsylvania, served as a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was lost on August 19, 1969, in North Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 19W, Line 74 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 19W · Line 74

Position of Panel 19W 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
Colonel (COL)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Colonel, Naval Aviator/Naval Flight Officer (9907)
Unit (as recorded)
H & MS 11 MAG 11 1 MAW
Born
September 20, 1926
Home of record
Trucksville, Pennsylvania (Luzerne County)

Casualty

Date of loss
August 19, 1969
Country
North Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Declared Dead
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew
First reported
Missing in action
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

57 names on the Wall carry the date August 19, 1969. In August 1969, 962 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The record places this loss in North Vietnam, outside South Vietnam — most often the sign of an air crew lost over the North or the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 19W, Line 74

From Trucksville

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.