The Wall › Panel 42E › California › Douglas Reid Ritchie
DOUGLAS REID RITCHIE
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
February 14, 1948 – March 2, 1968
Service recordDouglas Reid Ritchie, of Whittier, California, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 2, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 42E, Line 39 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 42E · Line 39
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
- Regular
- Occupation
- Assaultman (0351)
- Born
- February 14, 1948
- Home of record
- Whittier, California (Los Angeles County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 2, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
100 names on the Wall carry the date March 2, 1968; 14 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 42E, Line 39
- THOMAS LEE MORKSpecialist Four · March 2, 1968
- PETER SIMMONS REINHARTCaptain · March 2, 1968
- JOSE ANGEL REYESPrivate First Class · March 2, 1968
- MICHAEL ROSS RIVERSPrivate First Class · March 2, 1968
From Whittier
- CLIFFORD WAYNE MCROBERTSSergeant · February 7, 1966
- DAVID MICHAEL OLANDSpecialist Four · June 8, 1966
- RICHARD MIGUEL HARTNELLPrivate First Class · July 31, 1966
- DANNY RAY RUNDLEPrivate First Class · September 18, 1966
- WAYNE NORMAN CARDCorporal · February 16, 1967
- HUGO ARTHUR BOCANEGRAPrivate First Class · July 31, 1967
- ROBERT CHARLES MELENDREZSpecialist Four · November 12, 1967
- MICHAEL JOHN THIRKETTLEPetty Officer Third Class · November 26, 1967
- DANIEL ALEXANDER VERDUGOLance Corporal · December 21, 1967
- ROBERT BLAIR ENGLAND IIPrivate First Class · January 29, 1968
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.