The Wall › Panel 45E › Illinois › Robert Paul Payne
ROBERT PAUL PAYNE
Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps
December 17, 1943 – March 18, 1968
Service recordRobert Paul Payne, of Hampshire, Illinois, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 18, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 24. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 24 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 24
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. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Corporal (CPL)
- Service
- Regular
- Born
- December 17, 1943
- Home of record
- Hampshire, Illinois (Kane County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 18, 1968
- Age
- 24
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Died of Wounds
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
82 names on the Wall carry the date March 18, 1968; 23 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. 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 45E, Line 24
- JOHN PATRICK LARKINLance Corporal · March 18, 1968
- GREGG EUGENE LAVERYPrivate First Class · March 18, 1968
- RICHARD ROBERT LYNNPrivate First Class · March 18, 1968
- TOMMY DARRELL MABESergeant · March 18, 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.