Staff Sergeant Joe Lynn Delong

Early Life

Joe Lynn Delong was born at home on June 18, 1947, the fifth child of Grady Ross and Golda Lee “Goldie” Smith Delong. Joe had two older brothers and two older sisters. His parents were divorced before his third birthday, and the younger children ended up living with their uncle and aunt, Ernest “Slim” and Mary Curtis, at least part of the time. Mary Curtis was Golda’s younger sister. The Curtises, like the Delong family and their Smith relatives, lived in the Irving College area of Warren County, Tennessee, a rural area south of the small town of McMinnville.

Joe and his brothers and sisters attended the Irving College School. By the time Joe started school, the Irving College School had expanded, with new buildings constructed to house students in grades nine to twelve. The school continued to serve students kindergarten through graduation until Warren County schools were consolidated in 1969. As a student at Irving College School, Joe was active in Future Farmers of America (FFA), serving as chapter treasurer. In 1965, Joe was one of Irving College School’s delegates for the state FFA convention in Memphis. There he was awarded the State Farmer Degree. He later served as vice-president of his senior class. 

Although their family was perhaps viewed as non-traditional, the Delongs and Curtises were close. They attended church services together at the local Church of Christ. Joe made time to play with his young nephew, Edwin, who was in elementary school while he was in high school. He also worked in nursery with his uncle. Like many teenage boys, was very proud of his car, a new blue Chevrolet.

After graduating from high school in the spring of 1966, Joe began working at Powermatic, a local company that manufactured woodworking equipment. This job did not last long, as he was drafted in September 1966, and sent to basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He returned home briefly to celebrate Christmas with his family before leaving for Vietnam in the spring of 1967. Joe was a small young man, only 5’ 6” and 130 pounds. However, according to his friends at home and in Vietnam, he was tough.

Homefront

McMinnville and Warren County grew during the 1960s, as a variety of industrial and manufacturing plants opened and expanded, which provided jobs for young people. According to the Nashville Tennesseean, Warren County was one of only two Tennessee counties that showed population growth in the 1960 census. In addition to the expansion at Powermatic, where Joe Delong found a job in 1966, the Oster Corporation opened a plant that manufactured small appliances. Other industrial businesses included Tennsmith and Century Electric. A new state vocational college was also built in the county.

Despite industrial growth in McMinnville, the nursery industry remained the central focus of the Irving College area in the county. They grew ornamental trees and shrubs for wholesale distribution. Warren County boasted 153 varieties of deciduous trees, as compared to only 85 in all of Europe. As a result, Warren County has often been called “the Nursery Capital of the World.” Joe’s uncle, Slim Curtis, was active in the nursery industry, and Joe often worked part-time for him while in high school.

Although the Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down in 1954, Warren County’s schools, like many other schools in the South, still was not desegregated in the early 1960s. Irving College School was no different; all of Joe Delong’s classmates at Irving College were White. Warren County schools eventually desegregated in the mid-1960s, and county high schools consolidated into a single county high school by the end of the decade.

Military Experience

Following training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Delong also received training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Polk (now Fort Johnson), Louisiana, before he was sent to Vietnam in March 1967. 

Delong arrived in Vietnam in mid-March as a replacement member of Company B in the 1^st Battalion, 8^th Infantry Regiment, 4^th Infantry Division. These soldiers were engaged in fighting near Pleiku along the border with Cambodia as part of Operation Francis Marion, and were under intense pressure throughout the spring of 1967. Both sides took heavy casualties, and Company A and B were often assisted one another in fighting against the North Vietnamese (NVA) insurgents based in Cambodia.

Delong wrote of his brief Vietnam experience in a letter home on April 29:

. . . being in 2 big battles or firefights since I’ve been over here. We just keep humping these hills to we run into contact with the NVA. I guess the weather is nice back in the states right now. It sure is hot over here except when it rains & you get all wet seem like you freeze at night. Have to sleep in the mud and everything. Days seems to be posting off a little bit faster now, it won’t be many more days until it will be two months in country, then I will have 10 more to go. I will be glad to get back to the States.

While on patrol on May 18, 1967, Delong and members of Company B, under the leadership of Platoon Sergeant Bruce Grandstaff, attempted to track a few North Vietnamese along the well-used trail when they were ambushed by a large number of NVA. As the machine gunner, Delong was at the front of the platoon and began firing. The American soldiers were cut off and under heavy fire, and the situation was desperate. The soldiers attempted to assume a defensive position and dug in, hoping to hold out until reinforcement could arrive. By late afternoon, the American position was overrun and many American soldiers were killed. 

The next morning, when members of Company A discovered their position, they found 23 killed in action (KIA), seven wounded (most had played dead to stay alive), and one young man missing in action (MIA): Joe Lynn Delong. Two of the survivors were tied up as if they were also going to be taken prisoner, but were left behind by the NVA. The injured were evacuated to Pleiku and on to a military hospital.

Members of Company A searched for Delong and sat for interviews regarding his last position. After searching the area, and with information later provided by a captured NVA, it was determined that Joe Delong had been taken captive by the NVA and was being held as a prisoner of war (POW) somewhere along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. The camp was known as B-3 POW Camp and its location moved at least four times during the war. Delong was imprisoned at the camp’s third location, along with seven or eight other American POWs, throughout the summer and fall of 1967.

Commemoration

Prisoner of War

Joe Delong’s family was first notified of his Missing in Action (MIA) status, then later of his Prisoner of War (POW) status. Captain (later Colonel) Robert H. Sholly wrote to Delong’s mother that “Joe’s integrity and loyalty is a tribute to Company B and is indicated by the manner in which his fellow comrades speak of him. Numerous times, Joe displayed deeds of bravery and honor, conducting his assignments in a cheerful, efficient manner even though many proved challenging.”

Sadly, it would be years before Joe Delong’s family learned the truth about what had happened. As American Prisoners of War returned to the United States in 1973, former POW’s imprisoned with Delong at Camp B-3 told his story. Once captured, Delong joined another American, helicopter pilot David Sooter, who had been a POW since February. They were joined two months later by five additional American soldiers, all from the 4^th Infantry Division, who had been captured in a situation similar to Delong’s.

For weeks, these few American soldiers remained under guard by the NVA at a remote camp somewhere along the Cambodian border. One of the POWs from the camp, Richard Perricone, recalled life in that camp in a 1998 news article: “We were told not to talk, so we communicated by songs. I’d sing, ‘Hello my name is Richard, I’m from New York,’ and the guards didn’t realize we were exchanging information.” To pass the time, POWs created a chessboard from wood and other materials in camp, and playing cards from Communist propaganda materials.

That fall, the POWs contemplated what Perricone called “the great escape.” On November 6, 1967, two POWs pretended to have a disagreement over a chess match. They called in a guard to mediate, and Perricone hit him with a rock. Allegedly, Joe Delong disarmed the guard and perhaps even shot him. Delong, Perricone, David Sooter, and others attempted to escape the camp. Within hours, all of the POWs had been recaptured, but Joe Delong evaded immediate recapture. Two days later, members of the NVA came into the camp and displayed Joe’s battle fatigues with bullet holes and blood, and told the rest of the POWs that was all that was left of their friend. 

Joe Delong’s name was included on a list of those who had died in captivity, but gave no indication about the location of his remains. 

While other American soldiers have been repatriated to their country and to their families, the final resting place of Joe Delong has been an enigma for over 50 years. As of 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) continued to classify Joe Delong’s case as an active search. They interviewed personnel in Vietnam associated with the North Vietnamese Army to attempt to understand what may have happened to Joe Delong after his death. 

Some records allude to the fact that Joe Delong’s skeletal remains may have been used as a teaching tool at a North Vietnamese hospital into the 1970s. That has not been confirmed, and what has happened to his remains remains unknown.

Legacy

Joe Delong’s family placed a cenotaph marker in the Smyrna Church of Christ cemetery near his home community of Irving College, alongside that of other family members. Joe is also commemorated on panel 20E of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and on the Honolulu Memorial at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. In May 2015, the Warren County Commission named a bridge along US Highway 70S the Joe Delong Memorial Bridge. He was posthumously awarded the POW Medal, the Purple Heart, and the Silver Star.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

1970 Census of Population. U.S. Census Bureau. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1961/dec/population-vol-01.html. 

Census of Population: 1960. U.S. Census Bureau. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1961/dec/population-vol-01.html. 

Delong/Curtis/Lewis Family Records, 1965-1980. Courtesy of Edwin Lewis.

“Delong, Joe Lynn.” Family Conference Report. Defense Personnel MIA Accounting Agency. January 23, 2019. Courtesy Edwin Lewis.

Delong, Joe L. Vietnam Era Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Database. Manuscript/mixed materials. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=subject_name:delong,+joe+l.  

“Joe L. Delong Said Missing in VN Action.” The Southern Standard [McMinnville, TN], May 23, 1967.

Lewis, Edwin. Interview with the author. March 4, 2025.

Tennessee. Warren County. 1940 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com. 

Tennessee. Warren County. 1950 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com. 

Secondary Sources

Balogh, Ray. “Nursery Capital of the World: McMinnville, Tenn.” The Municipal, August 19, 2016. https://www.themunicipal.com/2016/08/nursery-capital-of-the-world-mcminnville-tenn/. 

“Delong, Joe Lynn.” Coffelt Database of Vietnam Casualties. Accessed April 28, 2025. http://coffeltdatabase.org.

“Delong, Joe Lynn.” POW Network. Accessed April 28, 2025. http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/d/d065.htm.

Dillon, James. “Warren County.” Tennessee Encyclopedia. Updated March 1, 2018. Accessed April 29, 2025. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/warren-county/.

Hastings, Max. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975. Harper Perennial, 2018.

“History of Irving College.” Irving College Elementary School. Accessed April 29, 2025. https://ices.warrenschools.com/about-us/history-of-irving-college.

Hobbs, Lisa. “Delong Died for Freedom.” Southern Standard [McMinnville, TN] May 28, 2016.

Hobbs, Lisa. “Bridge to Heroism.” Southern Standard [McMinnville, TN] July 24, 2016.

Nunley, Charles. Year by Year, Celebrating Our Bicentennial: Warren County, Tennessee, 1807-2007. Warren County Bicentennial Committee, 2007.

“Richard Perricone.” 1^st Battalion 12^th Infantry Regiment.  Accessed April 29, 2025. https://redwarriors.us/POW_Perricone.htm. 

Satterwhite, Amy. “Remembering and Honoring a Hero.” The Southern Standard [McMinnville, TN], May 10, 2002.

Sholly, Robert H. Young Soldiers, Amazing Warriors. Stoneywood Publications, 2014.

“SSG Joe Lynn Delong.” Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Accessed November 22, 2024. https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000KZNoEAO. 

“SSgt Joe Lynn Delong.” Find a Grave. Updated October 22, 2006. Accessed November 25, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16287713/joe-lynn-delong. 

“Sooter, David William.” POW Network. Accessed April 29, 2025. http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/s/s131.htm.

“Warren County’s Nursery Industry.” Way Marking. Accessed March 27, 2025. https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm13KA4_Warren_Countys_Nursery_Industry_2E60_McMinnville_TN. 

Wilkins, Warren K. Nine Days in May: The Battles of the 4th Infantry Division on the Cambodian Border, 1967. University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.

Womack, Walter. McMinnville at a Milestone, 1810-1960. Standard Publishing Company & Womack Publishing Company, 1960.

This profile was researched and created through the Researching Silent Heroes program, sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission.