James Chambers

James “Larry” Chambers (April 7, 1949 – May 8, 1968) was a Marine from Huntsville killed in action during the Vietnam War.

See Also: Scott Countians killed in war

Biography

Born April 7, 1949, James Larry Chambers was the son of James H. Chambers (1929-2010) and Edna Chambers. His siblings included Roger Chambers, Rick Chambers, Terry Lusby, Harry Lusby, Darla Burdine, Tammy Pursell, and Dianna Hoskins.

Chambers was a fifth-great-grandson of Revolutionary War veterans William Chambers and Randolph Lawson. Both men moved to present-day Scott County after the Revolutionary War, settling on Buffalo Creek and Paint Rock Creek, respectively. Chambers’ son, Thomas, married Lawson’s daughter, Katie.

He was a distant cousin to Earl Leon Chambers, a Vietnam War veteran who drowned in Clear Fork River while home on leave during the war. He was a first cousin to William “Bill” Coffey, who was killed in action during the war in 1971. His father and Bill’s mother were siblings.

While he was born in Scott County, Chambers’ family moved to Cincinnati, Oh. He graduated from Taft High School there in 1967.

Vietnam War

Cpl. Chambers enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was assigned to the 26th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. (Military records list his rank as private first class; multiple newspaper articles at the time of his death listed him as a lance corporal.) He left for Vietnam in November 1967. He was killed by friendly fire at Quảng Trị, Vietnam during the Vietnam War, on May 8, 1968. His death occurred during Operation Concordia Square, which marked the deadliest week of the war.

Aftermath

Cpl. Chambers’ body was returned to the U.S. and he was buried at Harness Cemetery in Caryville, Tenn., near I-75 Exit 141.

He is listed on the VFW Post 5669 Memorial Wall in Oneida and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville, but not the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville.