The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969.
Marine UH-1Es at Fire Support Base Cunningham during Operation Dewey Canyon, January 1969. Photo: U.S. Marine Corps, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Leo Leroy Kotke.

The Wall › Panel 34W › Michigan › Leo Leroy Kotke

LEO LEROY KOTKE

Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps

August 11, 1948 – January 19, 1969

Service record

Leo Leroy Kotke, of Marion, Michigan, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on January 19, 1969, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 34W, Line 38 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 34W · Line 38

Position of Panel 34W 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.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Rifleman (0311)
Born
August 11, 1948
Home of record
Marion, Michigan (Osceola County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 19, 1969
Age
20
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Illness
Circumstance
Infectious Disease

Context · from the records

What was happening

28 names on the Wall carry the date January 19, 1969; two of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In January 1969, 985 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 34W, Line 38

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.