The Wall › Panel 37W › Massachusetts › Richard Allan Fitts
RICHARD ALLAN FITTS
Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army
February 23, 1946 – September 25, 1968
Service recordRichard Allan Fitts, of Abington, Massachusetts, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He was lost on September 25, 1968, in Laos, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 37W, Line 10 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 37W · Line 10
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. Army
- Rank
- Staff Sergeant (SSG)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Combat Engineer (12B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- SPECIAL FORCES
- Born
- February 23, 1946
- Home of record
- Abington, Massachusetts (Plymouth County)
Casualty
- Date of loss
- September 25, 1968
- Country
- Laos
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Declared Dead
- Circumstance
- Helicopter Crash — Passenger (MC)
- First reported
- Missing in action
Context · from the records
What was happening
29 names on the Wall carry the date September 25, 1968. In September 1968, 1,184 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 9 of its members that month.
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
Also on Panel 37W, Line 10
- JAMES EDWARD CHERRYPrivate First Class · November 30, 1968
- WILLIAM THOMAS DAMRONFirst Lieutenant · November 30, 1968
- ROBERT LYNN FOX JRPrivate First Class · November 30, 1968
- GENE FREEMANSpecialist Four · November 30, 1968
From Abington
- RALPH GERALD HAMLIN JRPrivate First Class · November 29, 1965
- GLENN RAYMOND GORDONPrivate First Class · March 3, 1969
- PETER BUGBEE CHRISTIANSONMajor · April 3, 1969
- RICHARD FRANCIS GLINIEWICZSpecialist Four · May 31, 1969
- ERNEST HAMMOND LAIDLERSpecialist Four · September 26, 1970
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.