The Wall › Panel 36E › Michigan › Homer Alfred Ruple JR
HOMER ALFRED RUPLE JR
Specialist Five · U.S. Army
July 27, 1938 – February 2, 1968
Service recordHomer Alfred Ruple JR, of Three Rivers, Michigan, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on February 2, 1968, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 29. His name is inscribed on Panel 36E, Line 84 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 36E · Line 84
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
- Specialist Five (SP5)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Traffic Management Coordinator (71N)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 1 LOGISTIC CMD
- Born
- July 27, 1938
- Home of record
- Three Rivers, Michigan (St Joseph County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 2, 1968
- Age
- 29
- Province
- Gia Dinh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
130 names on the Wall carry the date February 2, 1968; six of them were lost in Gia Dinh Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “1 LOGISTIC CMD”, his unit in the record, lost 30 of its members that month.
He died in Gia 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.
Also on Panel 36E, Line 84
- ROBERT IVAN RICELance Corporal · February 2, 1968
- JOSEPH MICHAEL RODRIGUESSpecialist Four · February 2, 1968
- THOMAS MICHAEL ROSSSpecialist Four · February 2, 1968
- FELIX ALVARDO RUIZSergeant First Class · February 2, 1968
Same unit, same day
- RAY CARROL BANKSSpecialist Four · Panel 36E, Line 65
From Three Rivers
- JOSEPH JAMES BRADYLance Corporal · April 24, 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.
