The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
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 Kenneth Drake JR.

The Wall › Panel 35E › Massachusetts › Richard Kenneth Drake JR

RICHARD KENNETH DRAKE JR

Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps

August 22, 1948 – January 30, 1968

Service record

Richard Kenneth Drake JR, of Walpole, Massachusetts, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on January 30, 1968, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 35E, Line 68 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 35E · Line 68

Position of Panel 35E 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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Rifleman (0311)
Born
August 22, 1948
Home of record
Walpole, Massachusetts (Norfolk County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 30, 1968
Age
19
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

99 names on the Wall carry the date January 30, 1968; 28 of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Quảng Nam 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.

Also on Panel 35E, Line 68

From Walpole

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.