Smith, Ronald Eugene
Army Sergeant 1st class

Ronald Eugene Smith, age 30, from Covington, Indiana.

Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Silver Star and Purple Hear

Date of death: Saturday, November 28, 1970
Death details: Sergeant First Class Ronald Eugene Smith entered the U.S. Army from Indiana and served with the 5th Special Forces Group. On November 28, 1970, he was a member of a special forces reconnaissance team on a mission in Laos when it came under attack by a numerically superior enemy force. In the initial contact, SFC Smith was hit by enemy fire. Other team members believed that he was wounded and moved him behind cover, but then discovered that he had in fact been killed. As the enemy attack continued, the surviving team members were forced to break contact and withdraw without SFC Smith’s body. Because the area was deep in hostile territory and contained a heavy enemy presence, friendly forces could not return to search for his body. He remains unaccounted for. Today, Sergeant First Class Smith is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Cemetery: Danville National

Source: National Archives, grave marker, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency