William F. Schmees

Age: 20
Date of Birth: 4/10/1947
From: Cincinnati, Ohio
Marital Status: Single

Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment
4th Infantry Division

Specialist Fourth Class, E-4, Selective Service

Military Occupation Specialty: 11B20 – Infantryman
Enlistment Date – 5/29/1966
Length of Service – One year and five months

His tour began on May 18, 1967
Casualty incident was on November 4, 1967 (170 days in Vietnam)
Casualty Code – A3-D-7
Ground Casualty
Hostile – Died While Missing, small arms fire
Place of casualty – Kontum Province, Dak To District
Approximately six kilometers south-southwest of Dak To basecamp.

William F. Schmees served in Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. On November 4th, 1967, Bravo Company conducted a ground assault of an NVA bunker complex in the Ngok Kon Kring mountains south of Dak To. Bravo Company, supported Alpha Company, 3-12 Infantry, met heavy resistance. North Vietnamese Army soldiers using heavy automatic weapons, small arms fire, grenades and mortars and protected from well fortified fighting positions resisted the American advance for several hours, eventually forcing Alpha & Bravo back down the hill. During the heavy fighting, SP4 Schmees and Private First Class Sanders Stroud, operating as a two-man fire team, were separated from their platoon. Their location and condition were unknown until November 5th, when soldiers from Alpha Company were able to push passed the previous days contact sight. Schmees and Stroud, likely killed in action soon after they were last seen by members of Bravo Company on November 4th, were located very near each other amid the shattered landscape of the jungle battlefield.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
Panel 29E Line 21

SP4 William Schmees’ decorations.

Top row (Badges) – Combat Infantryman Badge
Middle row – left to right (Individual Awards) – Bronze Star for Heroism, Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Bottom row (Unit Awards) – Presidential Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam RVN Gallantry Cross Unit Citation

Biography

William F. Schmees was the son of Mrs. Irene Hubbard Schmmes and William L. Schmees, who divorced in 1967. He was born in Kentucky, his mother’s home state, on April 10th, 1947, but grew up in Cincinatti, Ohio, where his father was from. He had two sisters, Georgette and Lisa, and one younger brother, Michael. Known as “Duke” to those that knew him well, he had been very active in the Lincoln Park Baptist Church youth program. He graduated from Colerain High School (Class of ’65), where he participated in the school wrestling program. He worked for one year as a laboratory technician at the Formica Corporation before being drafted into the U.S. Army.

Services

Services for SP4 Schmees were held on Wednesday, November 15th at the Lincoln Park Baptist Church. Internment with full military honors took place the following day at 10:30 AM at the Spring Grove Cemetery just north of Cincinnati.

Additional info

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Wall of Faces – https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/45954/WILLIAM-F-SCHMEES-JR/