The Wall › Panel 15E › Virginia › Franklin Roosevelt Watkins
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT WATKINS
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army
August 31, 1934 – February 23, 1967
Service recordFranklin Roosevelt Watkins, of Meherrin, Virginia, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on February 23, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 32. His name is inscribed on Panel 15E, Line 80 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 15E · Line 80
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
- Staff Sergeant (SSG)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 173 AIRBORNE BDE
- Born
- August 31, 1934
- Home of record
- Meherrin, Virginia (Prince Edward County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 23, 1967
- Age
- 32
- Province
- Tay Ninh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
21 names on the Wall carry the date February 23, 1967; 11 of them were lost in Tây Ninh Province. In February 1967, 767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, his unit in the record, lost 28 of its members that month.
He died in Tây Ninh Province while Operation Junction City was under way. Operation Junction City (22 February–14 May 1967), in War Zone C along the Cambodian border, was the largest U.S. operation of the war to that time and included the only major American combat parachute assault of the war. 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
On the Wall
Also on Panel 15E, Line 80
- GEORGE EDWARD MCCROBIECorporal · February 23, 1967
- JOHN RONALD MICKNAStaff Sergeant · February 23, 1967
- MARTIN M MUGAVINSpecialist Four · February 23, 1967
- WILLIAM RAYMOND SANDERSPrivate First Class · February 23, 1967
Same unit, same day
- GEORGE EUGENE COLES JRPrivate First Class · Panel 15E, Line 78
- JOHN RONALD MICKNAStaff Sergeant · Panel 15E, Line 80
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.