The Wall › Panel 43E › Virginia › Ralph Edward Higgs
RALPH EDWARD HIGGS
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
November 26, 1947 – March 6, 1968
Service recordRalph Edward Higgs, of Portsmouth, Virginia, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 6, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 43E, Line 21 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 43E · Line 21
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
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Born
- November 26, 1947
- Home of record
- Portsmouth, Virginia (Portsmouth (City) County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 6, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — Passenger (MC)
Context · from the records
What was happening
140 names on the Wall carry the date March 6, 1968; 70 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 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 43E, Line 21
- BILLY HUGH HENDERSONPrivate First Class · March 6, 1968
- PAUL EVERETT HICKSPrivate First Class · March 6, 1968
- EARL H HILLSSpecialist Four · March 6, 1968
- JAMES NELSON HINCKLESpecialist Five · March 6, 1968
From Portsmouth
- NORMAN ELLIOTT JRSpecialist Four · February 20, 1965
- RICHARD DALE BRODAPrivate First Class · November 20, 1965
- JESSE THOMAS BAILEY JRSergeant · February 2, 1966
- THOMAS HENRY RHODESPrivate First Class · February 12, 1966
- DONALD CHANDLER PIPERPrivate First Class · February 24, 1966
- MILTON LEE VAUGHANPrivate First Class · August 27, 1966
- WALTER WILLIAMS JRSergeant · September 25, 1966
- MELVIN LEON SHERRELLSpecialist Four · December 13, 1966
- FRANK EARLE HARDYLance Corporal · May 29, 1967
- FRED ALLAN KELLEYSpecialist Four · July 10, 1967
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.