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Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Richard Arne Koski.

The Wall › Panel 43E › Minnesota › Richard Arne Koski

RICHARD ARNE KOSKI

First Lieutenant · U.S. Army

June 3, 1942 – March 8, 1968

Service record

Richard Arne Koski, of Pengilly, Minnesota, served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He died on March 8, 1968, in Dinh Tuong Province, South Vietnam, at age 25. His name is inscribed on Panel 43E, Line 57 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 43E · Line 57

Position of Panel 43E 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. Army
Rank
First Lieutenant (1LT)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Field Artillery Unit Commander (1193)
Unit (as recorded)
9 INF DIV
Born
June 3, 1942
Home of record
Pengilly, Minnesota (Itasca County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 8, 1968
Age
25
Province
Dinh Tuong
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

68 names on the Wall carry the date March 8, 1968; nine of them were lost in Định Tường Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 9th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 101 of its members that month.

He died in Định Tường Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 43E, Line 57

Same unit, same day

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.