The Wall › Panel 38W › Florida › Richard Walter Diers
RICHARD WALTER DIERS
Sergeant · U.S. Army
December 19, 1947 – November 20, 1968
Service recordRichard Walter Diers, of Pinellas Park, Florida, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on November 20, 1968, in Laos, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 38W, Line 16 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 38W · Line 16
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 (SGT)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Infantry Operations And Intelligence Specialist (11F)
- Unit (as recorded)
- SPECIAL FORCES
- Born
- December 19, 1947
- Home of record
- Pinellas Park, Florida (Pinellas County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- November 20, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Country
- Laos
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Grenade
Context · from the records
What was happening
42 names on the Wall carry the date November 20, 1968. In November 1968, 918 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
Special Forces, his unit in the record, lost 11 of its members that month.
He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 38W, Line 16
- LEONARD BEATTY JRPrivate First Class · November 20, 1968
- ALBERT D CONTREROS JRSergeant · November 20, 1968
- MICHAEL JOSEPH CRESCENZCorporal · November 20, 1968
- WILLIAM EMERSONCaptain · November 20, 1968
From Pinellas Park
- VICTOR GENE SPRAYSpecialist Four · February 6, 1967
- JAMES ROBBINS LEWIS JRPrivate First Class · December 7, 1968
- LONNIE PITTS NEWLANDPrivate First Class · November 1, 1969
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.