The Wall › Panel 47E › Virginia › Donald Ray Rash
DONALD RAY RASH
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
September 14, 1948 – March 30, 1968
Service recordDonald Ray Rash, of Pocahontas, Virginia, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 30, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 47E, Line 15 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 47E · Line 15
Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.
Remember
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Service
- Branch
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Reserve / National Guard
- Occupation
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- September 14, 1948
- Home of record
- Pocahontas, Virginia (Tazewell County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 30, 1968
- Age
- 19
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
58 names on the Wall carry the date March 30, 1968; 30 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 47E, Line 15
- JAMES EDWARD MCPHERSONPrivate First Class · March 30, 1968
- MARION HENRY NORMANFirst Lieutenant · March 30, 1968
- RAYMOND LOUIS PLUNKETTCorporal · March 30, 1968
- FRANCIS LOE SHAFER JRCaptain · March 30, 1968
From Pocahontas
- JACK RAY BRADNERSergeant · May 15, 1966
Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.