Dennis Lynn Odell

Dennis Lynn Odell moved from Corning to Fairfield as a young man. He attended Fairfield High School for two years before graduating in 1966. He enlisted into the Marine Corps the following February and received training in San Diego, CA. PFC Odell was sent to Vietnam in August 1967 and served as a rifleman with the 3rd Marine Division. He was stationed in I Corps near the Demilitarized Zone. While participating in Operation Kentucky his unit was sweeping an area southeast of Con Thien on Hill 158 when PFC Odell was killed. His unit encountered an entrenched NVA force and he was wounded in the chest by hostile rifle fire on November 11, 1969. He was the first Jefferson County serviceman to die in the Vietnam War. Odell’s 19-year-old body was returned to Iowa and buried at the Memorial Lawn in Fairfield.