The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
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 Jerry Lee Patrick.

The Wall › Panel 47E › Florida › Jerry Lee Patrick

JERRY LEE PATRICK

Specialist Five · U.S. Army

June 25, 1948 – March 31, 1968

Service record

Jerry Lee Patrick, of Eustis, Florida, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on March 31, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 47E, Line 25 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 47E · Line 25

Position of Panel 47E 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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Five (SP5)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Medical Equipment Repairer (91A)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
June 25, 1948
Home of record
Eustis, Florida (Lake County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 31, 1968
Age
19
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

52 names on the Wall carry the date March 31, 1968; 30 of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 208 of its members that month.

He died in Thừa Thiên 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 47E, Line 25

Same unit, same day

From Eustis

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.