The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Patrick Robert Curran.

The Wall › Panel 17W › Illinois › Patrick Robert Curran

PATRICK ROBERT CURRAN

Major · U.S. Marine Corps

October 5, 1943 – September 29, 1969

Service record

Patrick Robert Curran, of Bensenville, Illinois, served as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was lost on September 29, 1969, in Laos, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 17W, Line 18 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 17W · Line 18

Position of Panel 17W 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
Major (MAJ)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Qualified A-6e Bombardier/Navigator (I) (7583)
Unit (as recorded)
VMA AW 242 MAG 11 1 MAW
Born
October 5, 1943
Home of record
Bensenville, Illinois (Cook County)

Casualty

Date of loss
September 29, 1969
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Declared Dead
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew
First reported
Missing in action

Context · from the records

What was happening

Ten names on the Wall carry the date September 29, 1969. In September 1969, 664 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 17W, Line 18

From Bensenville

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.