The Wall › Panel 36E › West Virginia › William Eugene Smith
WILLIAM EUGENE SMITH
Petty Officer Second Class · U.S. Navy
November 4, 1946 – January 31, 1968
Service recordWilliam Eugene Smith, of Bradley, West Virginia, served as a Petty Officer Second Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on January 31, 1968, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 36E, Line 37 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 36E · Line 37
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. Navy
- Rank
- Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Hospital Corpsman (HM)
- Born
- November 4, 1946
- Home of record
- Bradley, West Virginia (Raleigh County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- January 31, 1968
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Quang Nam
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Explosive Device
Context · from the records
What was happening
246 names on the Wall carry the date January 31, 1968; 28 of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Nam 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 36E, Line 37
- GERALD MICHAEL MARKOSKICorporal · January 31, 1968
- ROBERT CHARLES SMITHPrivate First Class · January 31, 1968
- DENNIS WAYNE SONSTENGPrivate First Class · January 31, 1968
- HAROLD RICHARD STAFFORDSpecialist Five · January 31, 1968
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.