The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Robert James Watkins JR.

The Wall › Panel 17W › Maryland › Robert James Watkins JR

ROBERT JAMES WATKINS JR

Chief Warrant Officer 2 · U.S. Army

June 10, 1942 – October 8, 1969

Service record

Robert James Watkins JR, of Ft Meade, Maryland, served as a Chief Warrant Officer 2 in the U.S. Army. He died on October 8, 1969, in Laos, at age 27. His name is inscribed on Panel 17W, Line 53 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 17W · Line 53

Position of Panel 17W 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
Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Utility/Observation Helicopter Pilot (100B)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
June 10, 1942
Home of record
Ft Meade, Maryland (Anne Arundel County)

Casualty

Date of death
October 8, 1969
Age
27
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — crew
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

24 names on the Wall carry the date October 8, 1969. In October 1969, 600 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 42 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.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 17W, Line 53

Same unit, same day

From Ft Meade

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.