The Wall › Panel 35E › Pennsylvania › Merle Clayton Eicher JR
MERLE CLAYTON EICHER JR
Lance Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps
October 17, 1947 – January 21, 1968
Service recordMerle Clayton Eicher JR, of Smithfield, Pennsylvania, served as a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on January 21, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 35E, Line 5 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 35E · 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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Lance Corporal (LCPL)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Field Radio Operator (2531)
- Unit (as recorded)
- C CO 3 RECON BN 3 MARDIV
- Born
- October 17, 1947
- Home of record
- Smithfield, Pennsylvania (Fayette County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- January 21, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
42 names on the Wall carry the date January 21, 1968; 26 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “C CO 3 RECON BN 3 MARDIV”, his unit in the record, lost 4 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 35E, Line 5
- JERRY W ELLIOTTStaff Sergeant · January 21, 1968
- ALBERT EVANSPrivate First Class · January 21, 1968
- EUGENE THOMAS FRALEYPetty Officer Second Class · January 21, 1968
- LARRY JOHN FRITZGERALDSpecialist Four · January 21, 1968
Same unit, same day
- THOMAS HOWARD RETSCHULTELance Corporal · Panel 35E, Line 8
- THOMAS JOHN MOODYPrivate First Class · Panel 35E, Line 9
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.