Scroll of Honor – Stephen Andrew Shelley
The Deadliest Year
Written by: Kelly Durham
Stephen Andrew Shelley began his only year at Clemson in the late summer of 1966. Shelley, from St. Augustine, Florida, finished that year but did not return the following summer. Instead, in July of 1967, Shelley enlisted in the Marine Corps.
Shelley joined the Marines during the escalation of American combat operations in Vietnam. He arrived in Vietnam just after New Year’s in 1968 and was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment. The regiment, part of the 3rd Marine Division, had been one of the first Marine units sent to Vietnam three years earlier. By the time Shelley arrived, the 3rd Marines were involved in Operation Osceola, an effort to destroy North Vietnamese forces in an area east and south of Quang Tri Combat Base. Quang Tri province abutted Vietnam’s Demilitarized Zone, the ineffective border with Communist North Vietnam.
Shelley joined his company on January 4. During this period, the Marines in the vicinity of Quang Tri engaged in numerous skirmishes with North Vietnamese forces. On January 10, Shelley who had been trained as a machine gunner, was part of a mission patrolling in an area five kilometers west of Quang Tri airfield. Shelley’s unit came under enemy small arms fire and he was seriously wounded.
Shelley was evacuated from the battlefield and was eventually airlifted to Clark Air Force Base hospital in the Philippines. He died from his wounds on February 25, 1968. By the time of Shelley’s death, the North Vietnamese had launched the Tet Offensive which would lead to widespread carnage in Vietnam and in the United States a growing concern about the prospects of victory.
1968 was the deadliest year of the war for Americans with combat deaths reaching 16,899, including Private First Class Stephen Andrew Shelley. Shelley was awarded the Purple Heart. He was survived by his parents, two sisters, and two brothers. His body was returned to St. Augustine where he was buried in the San Lorenzo Cemetery.
For more information on Stephen Andrew Shelley see:
https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/scroll/stephen-andrew-shelley/
For additional information about Clemson University’s Scroll of Honor visit:
https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/