Vietnam: the thirty-one verified a third way, the thirty-second man named, and the accounting check run

1966 – 2022

The roll verified name by name: the War Heroes section prints South Bend's thirty-one Vietnam dead in full, counted from the Virtual Wall's Indiana roll, and the Wars section counts the county's fifty-four from the Defense Department's file, split thirty-one South Bend, sixteen Mishawaka, six Walkerton, one Osceola. This pass laid the printed thirty-one against the Virtual Wall's Indiana page name by name: the page's South Bend block carries thirty-one names, and they are the banked entry's thirty-one, name for name and rank for rank — Austin, Borowski, Conley, Creamer, Freund, Hall, Harris, Hawkins, Heroy, Higginbothan, Hills, Hitchcock, Holmes, Jankowski, Jaronik, Kasa, Lennon, Mead, Merrill, Miller, Nemeth, Roberts, Rozow, Runkel, Safrit, Sheely, Sklodoski, Soden, Stults, Walters and Yeakley. The same page's blocks for the county's other communities carry sixteen at Mishawaka, six at Walkerton and one at Osceola, so the two independent renderings agree on the county's fifty-four in every particular. There is no discrepancy to print; the verification is the finding.

The thirty-second man has a name: the War Heroes entry notes that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Wall of Faces, searched by the city name alone, returns thirty-two records for "South Bend" — one of them a South Bend, Washington man, stated by his casualty date and panel but not named. He is James Wayne Emerson, United States Army, born 23 July 1944, home of record South Bend, Washington, killed 25 August 1966, his name on Panel 10E, Line 38 of the Wall. He is not an Indiana man and he is not a thirty-second South Bend name; he is the explanation of the search result, and he is printed here so the loose end is tied with the man's own name rather than left as a discrepancy.

The accounting check, run at last: the War Heroes section left one check unrun — whether any South Bend man of Vietnam remains unaccounted for — and claimed neither way. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's Indiana list of the unaccounted-for from Vietnam (report of 11 February 2022) carries fifty-one names for the state. Matched against the county's fifty-four dead, exactly one name stands on both lists: Major John Russell Hills of South Bend, one of the thirty-one. The agency's own profile of him states the case: 1st Air Commando Squadron; on 14 February 1966 he piloted a single-seat A-1E Skyraider on an armed reconnaissance mission over Laos; he remains unaccounted-for; he is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and his name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall with his fallen comrades; the agency assesses his case as in active pursuit. No other man of the county's fifty-four — not of South Bend, Mishawaka, Walkerton or Osceola — stands on the agency's Indiana list.

Sources:

1. The Virtual Wall, Indiana casualties page (the state roll by home-of-record city), read entire for the South Bend, Mishawaka, Walkerton and Osceola blocks; the banked War Heroes entry's thirty-one compared name by name.
2. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Wall of Faces — the city search for "South Bend" (32 results), and the record of James Wayne Emerson (Army; home of record South Bend, WA; casualty 25 August 1966; Panel 10E, Line 38).
3. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Vietnam (PMSEA) Report for Indiana (Unaccounted For), report prepared 11 February 2022 (51 names), matched in full against the county's 54; and the agency's service-member profile of Maj. John Russell Hills (1st Air Commando Squadron; lost over Laos 14 February 1966; unaccounted-for; Courts of the Missing; analytical category: Active Pursuit).