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Remember...Robert Dewey Thompson
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Robert Dewey Thompson was born on October 14, 1944, in Onego, Pendleton County, West Virginia. His parents were Dewey Thompson and Eliza Margie Thompson. Growing up, Robert was an only child, so he had just his parents around throughout most of his childhood. It is recorded that later in life, Robert moved to and lived in Lewis County, West Virginia, but it seems as though he lived within West Virginia his entire life including some documented time in the town of Wymer.
In his birthplace of Pendleton County, the population of the area around his time of birth was rapidly decreasing. The country was still in the midst of World War II and out-migration, the process of many moving out of one area to settle in another, was dropping these numbers that once peaked in 1940, before the United States entered into the war. However, approximately three years before Robert was born, the U.S. was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The war did not end until October 2, 1945, almost a year after Robert was born. He was raised in the U.S. during its postwar economic growth. After the war, the U.S. economy was flourishing, and the country was having little trouble rebuilding itself.
Robert enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 15, 1966, at the age of 21. By the time he lost his life, he had earned the rank of sergeant. He served from 1966-1967 with C Company, 4th Battalion, 196th Infantry Brigade, 31st Infantry Division. During these years, the U.S. was fighting in the Vietnam War. U.S. troop numbers in Vietnam during that time rose to 400,000. In June 1966, American aircraft attacked targets in Hanoi and Haiphong in raids that are among the first such attacks on cities in North Vietnam. During 1967, U.S. troop numbers stationed in Vietnam increased to 500,000. In February 1967, U.S aircraft bombed the Haiphong harbor and North Vietnamese airfields.
However, on May 23, 1967, in South Vietnam, Quang Ngai, Robert lost his life reportedly due to "hostile action" and "multiple fragmentation wounds." Some of the awards he earned during his service time include the National Defense Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Purple Heart, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal.
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National Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Purple Heart, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal |
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Sergeant Robert Dewey Thompson is still honored today in many memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he is represented on Panel 20E, Line 92. However, his burial was at Mountain State Memorial Gardens in Elkins, Randolph County, West Virginia. Robert Dewey Thompson had no surviving family.
Robert D. Thompson's memorial on the Virtual Wall website includes a photo (http://www.virtualwall.org/dt/ThompsonRD01a.htm). Additional information can also be found on the Together We Served website (https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=71636), which contains the full text of West Virginia House Concurrent Resolution No. 78 (2011), naming the US 33 bridge crossing the Cheat River, which is about ten miles east of Elkins, West Virginia, the "Sergeant Robert Dewey Thompson Memorial Bridge."
Genevieve White and Brittany Stewart, George Washington High School JROTC
January 2019
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
