PFC Thomas Alan Delaney, Maywood, CA on www.VirtualWall.org The Virtual Wall® Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

PFC Thomas A. Delaney was an Indirect Fire Infantryman (mortars) serving with E Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade.

On 22 March 1970, PFC Delaney was at FSB Mace, located at the foot of Nui Chau Chan mountain on National Route QL-1, approximately nine miles east of Xuan Loc in Long Khanh Province, RVN. At 0105 hours, a Daily Staff Journal entry came into the 199th Staff Headquarters that an explosion killed a man on Mace in a Echo Company sleeping bunker adjacent to the 4.2 mortar area. The sleeping bunker was constructed of wooden ammunition crates, PSP (perforated steel planking, a material used for the construction of temporary runways), and sandbags.

At the time the report came in, it was unclear what had caused the blast which purportedly occurred in a firing launcher. A second report came in an hour later indicating that Delaney was the individual killed (instantly) by the blast.

The following morning, EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) and CID (Army Criminal Investigation Command) personnel were on site to investigate the incident. The EOD team recovered fragments indicating that the explosion was probably an M67 hand grenade. No safety pin or safety lever were located near the incident site.

Scotts Valley Gl Killed In Vietnam

A Scotts Valley soldier was killed in Vietman last Sunday when an explosion occurred in his bunker. Dead is Army PFC Thomas Allen Hall, a 1969 Soquel High School honor graduate who planned to attend Stanford University to major in nuclear physics when his enlistment was over in 1972. Hall, 18, a native of Phoenix, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Hall, 311 Vine Hill Road. He came to Santa Cruz County eight years ago and attended Happy Valley Elementary School, Branciforte Junior High Soquel High. At Soquel High, Hall was on the cross country track team and was a member of the California Scholarship Federation. He had been awarded a $2000 state scholarship to continue his education. It was being held in trust until his enlistment was up. He enlisted in June 1969 for three years and was in the artillery branch. Hall was a member of Church of Christ of Huntington Park. Besides his parents, he is survived by four brothers, Gary Hall of Denver, and Randy Hall, Norman Hall and Robert Hall, all of Santa Cruz; five sisters, Mrs. Carol Darling of Denver and Cynthia Hall, Tracey Hall, Lon Hall and Kelley Hall, all of Santa Cruz; his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Caroline Yaney of Maywood and step-grandmother Mrs. Edna Hall of San Luis Obispo, and five nieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements are pending at White Mortuary. (Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California, Sunday, March 29, 1970, page 2)

Thomas Alan Delaney Hall was the son of Lavera Louise Yaney (1924- ) and Joseph Harvey Delaney Jr (1923-1987), raised by Vera and William Clark Hall (1924-1998). Thomas was not in the 1950 US Federal Census, but his birth parents and siblings consisted of Gary L Delaney (1943- ), Carol Ann Delaney Darling (1945- ) and Randy M Delaney (1948- ). Thomas' mother and father divorced and Joseph remarried in 1956 as did Lavera when she married William Clark Hall (1925-1998). The family moved from Arizona to Santa Cruz County California in 1962 and lived on their Jarvis Road Ranch for 32 years. It is unclear if William adopted the children but the Vera and Bill had four more daughters and two sons, Robert and Norman. PFC Thomas Alan Delaney Hall served in the Army using his birth name and was buried under the Hall name at Oakwood Memorial Park, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California.

- - The Virtual Wall, 24 May 2023