The Wall › Panel 48E › Virginia › Ronald David Sparks
RONALD DAVID SPARKS
Private First Class · U.S. Army
November 7, 1947 – April 6, 1968
Service recordRonald David Sparks, of Rich Creek, Virginia, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on April 6, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 48E, Line 35 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 48E · Line 35
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
Did you know him? Family members and friends are invited to share a photograph or a memory. Nothing is posted until it has been reviewed.
Service
- Branch
- U.S. Army
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Drafted (Selective Service)
- Occupation
- Indirect Fire Infantryman (11C)
- Unit (as recorded)
- 25 INF DIV
- Born
- November 7, 1947
- Home of record
- Rich Creek, Virginia (Giles County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- April 6, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
79 names on the Wall carry the date April 6, 1968; 43 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In April 1968, 1,580 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The 25th Infantry Division, his unit in the record, lost 110 of its members that month.
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 48E, Line 35
- MICHAEL ALLAN SNYDERPrivate First Class · April 6, 1968
- JIMMY RUSSELL SPACHPrivate First Class · April 6, 1968
- STEVEN LEE SPARKSPrivate First Class · April 6, 1968
- JAMES MITCHELL TRIMBLECorporal · April 6, 1968
Same unit, same day
- GREGORY RICHARD KELLYSpecialist Four · Panel 48E, Line 28
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.