The Wall › Panel 36E › Pennsylvania › Richard Joseph Lacey
RICHARD JOSEPH LACEY
Sergeant First Class · U.S. Army
August 25, 1946 – January 31, 1968
Service recordRichard Joseph Lacey, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, served as a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army. He was lost on January 31, 1968, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 36E, Line 20 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 36E · Line 20
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
- Sergeant First Class (SFC)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 1 SIGNAL BDE
- Born
- August 25, 1946
- Home of record
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Allegheny County)
Casualty
- Date of loss
- January 31, 1968
- Province
- Gia Dinh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Declared Dead
- Circumstance
- Unknown
- First reported
- Missing in action
- Remains
- Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record
Context · from the records
What was happening
246 names on the Wall carry the date January 31, 1968; 66 of them were lost in Gia Dinh Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “1 SIGNAL BDE”, his unit in the record, lost 4 of its members that month.
He died in Gia Dinh 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.
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
Also on Panel 36E, Line 20
- THOMAS LEE KLINZINGSergeant · January 31, 1968
- CHARLES AUGUST KRONBERGSpecialist Four · January 31, 1968
- HELMUT GUSTAV LAKASZUSStaff Sergeant · January 31, 1968
- JAMES PERRY LANIERSpecialist Four · January 31, 1968
Same unit, same day
- WILLIAM CHARLES BEHRENSSergeant · Panel 35E, Line 86
- LASZLO BOROSS JRSergeant · Panel 35E, Line 87
- JOHN LEIF NIELSONPrivate First Class · Panel 36E, Line 28
From Pittsburgh
- CLEVELAND WILLIAM GORDONMajor · January 7, 1964
- THEODORE ALAN WINOWITCHPrivate First Class · December 30, 1964
- CHARLES FREDRICK CLYDESDALELieutenant (junior grade) · March 15, 1965
- WILLIAM DONAVAN BENNINGStaff Sergeant · May 11, 1965
- FRANK HUFFORD BLANKSergeant · August 18, 1965
- JOHN L JEMISONPrivate First Class · August 18, 1965
- FRANK JOSEPH NADANY JRSergeant First Class · October 31, 1965
- RUSSELL EARL HAMMONDSergeant First Class · November 5, 1965
- HARRY FRANCIS JEDRZEJEWSKIPlatoon Sergeant · November 17, 1965
- RONALD JOSEPH LOERLEINSergeant · November 25, 1965
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.