Well we have several documents displaying acronyms and their meanings on the forum, but not one of them had an SFW. However, upon research this morning, I do believe I know what it means:

Suffered Fatal Wound

For many of the guys who were KIA had ones like this

name - KIA-SFW head

name - KIA-SFW chest

I will do a little more digging, but that would make perfect sense. Anyway, that's my educated guess this morning...

I also/only found

Shell Fragment wound

Chrisp

Ah,that would make sense too.

Yes it does makes sense. Somewhere out there we'll find some kind of validation or documentation about it.

We are not giving up.

I was reading through a letter on my buddy's website (since deceased) and a guy had written to him about his grandfather. He wanted to know:

"...The listing on cause of death is S.F.W. Entire body. I think sfw is shell,fragment,wounds?..."

So your answer must be right, because it fits in perfectly. Shell fragment wounds.

Found this from Purple Heart .org: http://www.purplehea...ndout 1, VA.pdf

It mentions Shell Fragment Wounds and uses 'SFW' later, although they don't directly tie the two together (i.e. saying "shell fragment wounds [sFW]")

This is from the VA regarding a hearing that they had on an individual from Vietnam:

It does directly tie the acronym to the term, "Regional Office (RO) that had denied increased evaluations for the veteran’s service connected shell fragment wound (SFW) residuals."

"Shell Fragment Wounds" wins!

YEAH! Case solved. Two or THREE heads are better than one! Thanks Major! :pdt12: (three heads)

Thanks everyone for the help