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 Stephen Joseph Rago.

The Wall › Panel 43E › Massachusetts › Stephen Joseph Rago

STEPHEN JOSEPH RAGO

Corporal · U.S. Marine Corps

February 4, 1949 – March 9, 1968

Service record

Stephen Joseph Rago, of Fall River, Massachusetts, served as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 9, 1968, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 43E, Line 69 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 43E · Line 69

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.

Remember

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Service

Branch
U.S. Marine Corps
Rank
Corporal (CPL)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Combat Engineer (1371)
Born
February 4, 1949
Home of record
Fall River, Massachusetts (Bristol County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 9, 1968
Age
19
Province
Quang Tin
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

45 names on the Wall carry the date March 9, 1968; three of them were lost in Quảng Tín Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

He died in Quảng Tín 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.

Also on Panel 43E, Line 69

From Fall River

All 22 names from Fall River →

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.