The Wall › Panel 44E › Texas › Tommie Lee Symank
TOMMIE LEE SYMANK
Specialist Five · U.S. Army
December 4, 1941 – March 14, 1968
Service recordTommie Lee Symank, of Gatesville, Texas, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on March 14, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 26. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 54 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 44E · Line 54
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
- Specialist Five (SP5)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanic (63B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 1 LOGISTIC CMD
- Born
- December 4, 1941
- Home of record
- Gatesville, Texas (Coryell County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 14, 1968
- Age
- 26
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
63 names on the Wall carry the date March 14, 1968; 17 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “1 LOGISTIC CMD”, his unit in the record, lost 36 of its members that month.
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 44E, Line 54
- CHARLES HENRY SOWERS IIStaff Sergeant · March 14, 1968
- JONATHAN NATHANIEL SPICERPrivate First Class · March 14, 1968
- MICHAEL LAWRENCE SUCCICorporal · March 14, 1968
- WALTER FREDRICK TYRCZ JRPrivate First Class · March 14, 1968
From Gatesville
- JAMES GARLAND BROWNLance Corporal · July 5, 1966
- WILLIAM ELMO POWELLCaptain · August 17, 1968
- CHARLES DAVID JAGELERCaptain · October 9, 1969
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.