Jonathan Peter Kmetyk was born on August 17, 1947, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of Vera Baranowski and John S. Kmetyk.

Jonathan enlisted in the US Marine Corps on July 20, 1966, in Buffalo NY. He arrived in Vietnam on March 9, 1967, where he was assigned for duty with Company C, 1st Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Division.

Jonathan, with members of the 2d Platoon, participated in numerous reconnaissance missions. He died in 1967 during the November 11 "Panama Hat" mission. The mission was to detect the possible VC moments in an area known to the Marines as "Happy Valley".

The team of fourteen men was inserted by helicopter in the vicinity of Hill 362 in the Hieu Duc District of Quang Nam Province in Vietnam and began their mission. Working their way on a pre-planned route the patrol found several defensive positions and evidence of enemy activity then on November 14, the men were taken under fire by an enemy force.

LCpl Kmetyk was killed by a hostile gunshot wound and a US Army member of the team was wounded, the team headed to an appointed LZ (Landing Zone) carrying Jonathan to be picked up by helicopter but they were hit again by heavy enemy automatic weapons fire. Under fire when the helicopter arrived, they were unable to remove his body and left him behind. Search teams returned and searched to recover LCpl Kmetyk, but his body was never found. His name is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii. He is also honored at the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D. C.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov