The Wall › Panel 45E › North Carolina › Franklin Elliott Speight
FRANKLIN ELLIOTT SPEIGHT
Second Lieutenant · U.S. Army
January 18, 1945 – March 20, 1968
Service recordFranklin Elliott Speight, of Currituck, North Carolina, served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 20, 1968, in Kontum Province, South Vietnam, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 43 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 43
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. Army
- Rank
- Second Lieutenant (2LT)
- Service
- Reserve / National Guard
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- January 18, 1945
- Home of record
- Currituck, North Carolina (Currituck County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 20, 1968
- Age
- 23
- Province
- Kontum
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
41 names on the Wall carry the date March 20, 1968; two of them were lost in Kon Tum Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 69 of its members that month.
He died in Kon Tum 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
Also on Panel 45E, Line 43
- LESLIE BERKLEY SAYREFirst Lieutenant · March 20, 1968
- EUGENE SMALLPrivate · March 20, 1968
- ORIS CAMILLUS TAYLORSergeant · March 20, 1968
- WILLIE SANDFORD TILLMONPrivate First Class · March 20, 1968
From Currituck
- GEORGE DENNIS MATTHEWSCorporal · May 13, 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.