Hometown: New Market, TN
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Company E, 11th Infantry Battalion,
9th Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: July 2, 1969 - KIA in Quảng Ngãi Province, Republic of Vietnam
Age: 22 
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

On May 29, 1947, James Ronald “Ronnie” Rainwater was born in the small town of New Market, Tennessee—at the southern tip of the Cherokee Reservoir, a half-hour’s drive northeast of Knoxville.

Ronnie was the middle child of his father Dana and mother Flora Mae (Lindsey) Rainwater. He had two older siblings—brother Jerry and sister Jean—a younger sister Peggy, and a younger brother, John. Despite a gap in age of seven years, Ronnie and his younger brother John were very close.

Their father, Dana, was a mechanic and shared his skills with his sons. Ronnie’s youngest brother, John, fondly recalls that they loved to work on cars together—model cars and real cars. Ronnie also loved his motorcycle and would often take John for rides.

The Rainwater family were members at Greenhill Baptist Church in nearby Dandridge, Tennessee, where Ronnie taught Sunday School and helped with Bible School in the summers.

Ronnie attended Maury High School in Dandridge, but left school before graduating to work as a carpenter. He first took a job with a local home builder and later went to work for Magnavox in Jefferson City, Tennessee, building television cabinets.

At the height of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, many young men in Jefferson County were being drafted into military service the moment they finished high school. Ronnie and his cousin Freddie went to enlist in the U.S. Army, in hopes of staying together and having options as to where they might serve. Enlistees could choose the Army Reserves for the possibility of delaying deployment and having more time to train than those who were drafted.

Freddie was accepted into the Army, but Ronnie was unable to pass the physical exam because of problems with his back. A year later, with the war effort growing and the need for more soldiers increasing, Ronnie was drafted into the Army. On November 26, 1968, Ronnie entered the service and was sent to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for basic training.

After completing basic training and before being sent to Vietnam, Ronnie married his girlfriend, Judy Campbell, on December 21, 1968. The two purchased an acre of property next to an acre bought by his sister, Jean, and were planning to build a home.

According to the Vietnam War Commemoration, by early 1969 President Richard M. Nixon began a “Vietnamization” strategy, to gradually turn the conduct of the war over to the South Vietnamese and begin the incremental withdrawal of American troops. In June 1969, President Nixon met with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu of South Vietnam on Midway Island and announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn immediately.

The withdrawal of troops would not happen quickly enough for PFC Ronnie Rainwater. On July 2, 1969—just months after arriving in Vietnam—PFC Rainwater was killed in action in Quảng Ngãi Province, Republic of Vietnam. His casualty report says that he died from multi-fragment wounds.

Back home, his wife Judy was expecting their child. Daughter Ronnie Renae would never meet her father.

PFC James R. “Ronnie” Rainwater was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal and promoted to the rank of corporal. He was laid to rest with full military honors, including a 21-gun salute, near his hometown. Cpl. Rainwater is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 21W, Line 48.

Before leaving for Vietnam, Ronnie had pulled an old pickup truck home with a chain, intending to restore it himself. His youngest brother John, who was 13 years old when his older brother was lost, inherited the old truck and later had it restored.

Sources
Artist’s rendering by Craig Du Mez, from original photo.
Details provided by Major General (retired) Leslie Purser and Mr. John Rainwater, CPL Rainwater’s brother.
Honor States: James Ronald Rainwater
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund—The Wall of Faces: James Ronald Rainwater
East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association: James R. Rainwater
Vietnam Veterans Memorial—Virtual Wall: James Ronald Rainwater
The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Jul. 7, 1969: Dandridge GI Dies in Combat
Burial Site: Find a Grave