Hero Card 103, Card Pack 9
Photo provided by the family (digitally restored)
Hometown: Howland, ME
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: 2nd Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force
Military Honors: Purple Heart (2)
Date of Sacrifice: December 17, 1968 - KIA in Quảng Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam
Age: 21
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975
James Francis “Jimmy” Chase was born on February 24, 1947, in Bangor, Maine. His family lived in the village of Howland, 35 miles to the north. Howland is located where the Penobscot and Piscataquis Rivers meet.
Chase was the family’s oldest child, with one younger brother and five younger sisters. His sister Susan recalls, “He would take care of us while my mother would go shopping. He always made homemade ice cream out of snow. It was very good. He was our protector, and we loved him so much. He also had a lot of friends and girls who chased him! He was always helping the neighbors.”
After graduating from Penobscot Valley High School, Chase enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, with intentions of becoming a Maine State Police Officer after his military service.
In 1967, Chase served as Marine security aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CVA-11) based in Portsmouth, Virginia.
In 1968, as the Vietnam War raged, Corporal Chase was assigned to lead patrols in Quảng Nam Province, South Vietnam—then officially known as the Republic of Vietnam (RVN).
On December 17, 1968, Cpl. Chase was leading a squad on a routine “search and destroy” patrol south of the coastal city of Da Nang. Team members recall that Chase frequently insisted on taking the point.
Navy Hospital Corpsman (HM2) Bill Sheehan, author of the book Together We Served, who was also on the patrol. He recalls, “It was a really hot day with humidity like I had never experienced.” As the squad carefully made its way through a rice paddy along a lengthy dyke, Cpl. Chase stopped and motioned to his 12 squad members.
“Chase made a couple of motions,” said Doc Sheehan. “We understood that we were about to get up on the dyke, get spread out more as we entered a tree line on the outskirts of the village. We stepped up on the dyke slowly and one at a time. Chase walked with his head down, looking for a possible trip wire to a booby trap. It was a long dyke. The twelfth man was about to step up, and, KABOOM! An explosion. I never heard anything like this in training. Everything was an instant blur.”
Corporal Chase and two fellow Marines were injured in the blast. Chase suffered the worst of it and was quickly loaded onto an evacuation helicopter while his squad was under enemy small arms fire. He had a pulse and was breathing when the chopper arrived at Da Nang Naval Hospital but died shortly after. Chase received two Purple Heart medals, one awarded posthumously. He was 21 years old.
Corporal James Francis Chase is buried near his hometown, in West Enfield Cemetery. Chase is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 36W, Line 133.
Sources
Details submitted by Bill Sheehan and Susan McLaughlin—Cpl. Chase’s sister
VA News: Marine Veteran James Francis Chase
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund: James Francis Chase
Bill Sheehan, Together We Served, p. 145-149
Burial Site: Find a Grave
