The Wall › Panel 37E › Virginia › Louis Franklin Staples
LOUIS FRANKLIN STAPLES
Lance Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps
January 26, 1947 – February 5, 1968
Service recordLouis Franklin Staples, of Chesapeake, Virginia, served as a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 5, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 37E, Line 45 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 37E · Line 45
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Lance Corporal (LCPL)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Assaultman (0351)
- Born
- January 26, 1947
- Home of record
- Chesapeake, Virginia (Chesapeake (City) County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 5, 1968
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
83 names on the Wall carry the date February 5, 1968; 26 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
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 37E, Line 45
- ANTHONY JOHN SCHNELLER JRPrivate First Class · February 5, 1968
- CHARLES ROBERT STEVENSONPrivate First Class · February 5, 1968
- STEVEN JOHN STROUBSpecialist Five · February 5, 1968
- ERNEST VERNON TAYLORPrivate First Class · February 5, 1968
From Chesapeake
- WILLIAM H COBURNPrivate First Class · February 23, 1966
- KERMIT ANTHONY RAYLance Corporal · April 26, 1967
- FRED VINCENT LEELance Corporal · June 1, 1967
- DEWEY ALLEN MIDGETTPrivate · November 25, 1967
- JAMES GUERDON SIGNETTSpecialist Four · April 4, 1968
- ELBERT ELISAH COX JRSergeant · May 1, 1968
- JOHN HENERY DIXONSpecialist Four · May 16, 1968
- HENRY LARRY GOFFSergeant · May 25, 1968
- CLEM SPENCER LOWERY JRSergeant · May 30, 1968
- MELTON LAVONE KIDDPrivate First Class · June 9, 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.