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Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Duane Rinehardt Passig.

The Wall › Panel 44E › Iowa › Duane Rinehardt Passig

DUANE RINEHARDT PASSIG

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

May 30, 1947 – March 14, 1968

Service record

Duane Rinehardt Passig, of Delmar, Iowa, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 14, 1968, in Phong Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 51 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 44E · Line 51

Position of Panel 44E on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
1 AVN BDE
Born
May 30, 1947
Home of record
Delmar, Iowa (Clinton County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 14, 1968
Age
20
Province
Phong Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

63 names on the Wall carry the date March 14, 1968; he was the only one lost in Phong Dinh Province that day. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Aviation Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 29 of its members that month.

He died in Phong Dinh Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 44E, Line 51

Same unit, same day

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.