The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966.
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966. Photo: PH1 V.H. McColley, U.S. Navy, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Richard Dean Mattson.

The Wall › Panel 12E › Missouri › Richard Dean Mattson

RICHARD DEAN MATTSON

Petty Officer Third Class · U.S. Navy

August 13, 1946 – August 27, 1966

Service record

Richard Dean Mattson, of Frazier, Missouri, served as a Petty Officer Third Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on August 27, 1966, in South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 12E, Line 117 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 12E · Line 117

Position of Panel 12E 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. Navy
Rank
Petty Officer Third Class (PO3)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Fire Control Technician (Gun Fire Control) (FTG)
Born
August 13, 1946
Home of record
Frazier, Missouri (Buchanan County)

Casualty

Date of death
August 27, 1966
Age
20
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Ship/Submarine Accident At Sea (MC)

Context · from the records

What was happening

15 names on the Wall carry the date August 27, 1966. In August 1966, 501 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 12E, Line 117

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.