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 Smith Lowes.

The Wall › Panel 43E › Florida › Richard Smith Lowes

RICHARD SMITH LOWES

Warrant Officer 1 · U.S. Army

September 23, 1932 – March 5, 1968

Service record

Richard Smith Lowes, of Inverness, Florida, served as a Warrant Officer 1 in the U.S. Army. He died on March 5, 1968, in Hua Nghia Province, South Vietnam, at age 35. His name is inscribed on Panel 43E, Line 9 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 43E · Line 9

Position of Panel 43E 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. Army
Rank
Warrant Officer 1 (WO1)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Marine Engineering Technician (562A)
Unit (as recorded)
1 LOGISTIC CMD
Born
September 23, 1932
Home of record
Inverness, Florida (Citrus County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 5, 1968
Age
35
Province
Hua Nghia
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Grenade

Context · from the records

What was happening

48 names on the Wall carry the date March 5, 1968; he was the only one lost in Hua Nghia Province that day. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “1 LOGISTIC CMD”, his unit in the record, lost 36 of its members that month.

He died in Hua Nghia 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.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 43E, Line 9

Same unit, same day

From Inverness

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.