The Wall › Panel 45E › New Mexico › Freddie Joe Roberts
FREDDIE JOE ROBERTS
Private First Class · U.S. Army
June 25, 1947 – March 16, 1968
Service recordFreddie Joe Roberts, of Melrose, New Mexico, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on March 16, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 5 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 5
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
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
- Born
- June 25, 1947
- Home of record
- Melrose, New Mexico (Curry County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 16, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
51 names on the Wall carry the date March 16, 1968; nine of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 104 of its members that month.
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 45E, Line 5
- KENNETH TILDEN RABEYSergeant · March 16, 1968
- RICHARD ALLEN RATHBURNPrivate First Class · March 16, 1968
- THOMAS WILLIAM SCOTTCorporal · March 16, 1968
- HENRY JOSEPH SERVENT JRSpecialist Four · March 16, 1968
Same unit, same day
- GARY ALAN CLIFFORDPrivate First Class · Panel 44E, Line 66
- RICHARD ALLEN RATHBURNPrivate First Class · Panel 45E, Line 5
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.