The Wall › Panel 16E › Texas › Richard Perez Cruz
RICHARD PEREZ CRUZ
Specialist Four · U.S. Army
October 3, 1945 – March 20, 1967
Service recordRichard Perez Cruz, of Freer, Texas, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on March 20, 1967, in Tay Ninh Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 16E, Line 119 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 16E · Line 119
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
- Specialist Four (SP4)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Artillery Mechanic (45F)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 4 INF DIV
- Born
- October 3, 1945
- Home of record
- Freer, Texas (Duval County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 20, 1967
- Age
- 21
- Province
- Tay Ninh
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Unknown
Context · from the records
What was happening
48 names on the Wall carry the date March 20, 1967; he was the only one lost in Tây Ninh Province that day. In March 1967, 1,091 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 4th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 145 of its members that month.
He died in Tây Ninh Province while Operation Junction City was under way. Operation Junction City (22 February–14 May 1967), in War Zone C along the Cambodian border, was the largest U.S. operation of the war to that time and included the only major American combat parachute assault of the war. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Also on Panel 16E, Line 119
- EDWARD L BUSHWarrant Officer 1 · March 20, 1967
- GORDON LEONARD CABLESSpecialist Five · March 20, 1967
- RICHARD JAMES CARSONLance Corporal · March 20, 1967
- CARL ROGER CROSIERCorporal · March 20, 1967
From Freer
- JEFFRY EDWARD COWLEYSergeant · April 15, 1971
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.