The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966.
A Navy Swift boat patrols the Long Tàu River to keep the channel to Saigon open, December 1966. Photo: PH1 V.H. McColley, U.S. Navy, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of William Pete Bletsch.

The Wall › Panel 12W › Texas › William Pete Bletsch

WILLIAM PETE BLETSCH

Petty Officer Second Class · U.S. Navy

November 30, 1946 – March 16, 1970

Service record

William Pete Bletsch, of Boyd, Texas, served as a Petty Officer Second Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on March 16, 1970, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 23. His name is inscribed on Panel 12W, Line 3 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 12W · Line 3

Position of Panel 12W 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. Navy
Rank
Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Aviation Structural Mech (Structures) (AMS)
Unit (as recorded)
7 FLT
Born
November 30, 1946
Home of record
Boyd, Texas (Wise County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 16, 1970
Age
23
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew

Context · from the records

What was happening

47 names on the Wall carry the date March 16, 1970; 28 of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In March 1970, 625 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “7 FLT”, his unit in the record, lost 6 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 12W, Line 3

Same unit, same day

From Boyd

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.