The Wall › Panel 25W › Ohio › Richard Lee Hopkins
RICHARD LEE HOPKINS
Corporal · U.S. Army
January 25, 1949 – May 12, 1969
Service recordRichard Lee Hopkins, of Ottawa, Ohio, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Army. He died on May 12, 1969, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 25W, Line 72 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 25W · Line 72
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
- Corporal (CPL)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Infantryman (11B)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 101 AIRBORNE DIV
- Born
- January 25, 1949
- Home of record
- Ottawa, Ohio (Putnam County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- May 12, 1969
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Thua Thien
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
170 names on the Wall carry the date May 12, 1969; three of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In May 1969, 1,456 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 178 of its members that month.
He died in Thừa Thiên Province while the Battle of Hamburger Hill was under way. On Đồng Ấp Bia (Hill 937) in the A Shau Valley (10–20 May 1969), the 101st Airborne Division attacked entrenched North Vietnamese troops for ten days; the soldiers called it “Hamburger Hill.” The heavy losses fed the debate at home over the war’s tactics. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 25W, Line 72
- ERNEST JOSEPH HUGHESSergeant · May 12, 1969
- JAMES IDLETTSpecialist Four · May 12, 1969
- JAMES EDWARD ISAAC JRPrivate First Class · May 12, 1969
- WILLIAM EDWARD JERSECorporal · May 12, 1969
Same unit, same day
- DAVID RUSSELL NEFFSpecialist Four · Panel 25W, Line 79
- OLEN WAINWRIGHT SMITHSpecialist Four · Panel 25W, Line 85
From Ottawa
- MARVIN CHARLES ELLERBROCKPrivate First Class · May 6, 1967
- DAVID MICHAEL DICKMANSergeant · December 10, 1968
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.