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 Thomas Franke.

The Wall › Panel 32W › New Jersey › William Thomas Franke

WILLIAM THOMAS FRANKE

Seaman · U.S. Navy

August 19, 1949 – February 20, 1969

Service record

William Thomas Franke, of Williamstown, New Jersey, served as a Seaman in the U.S. Navy. He died on February 20, 1969, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 32W, Line 64 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 32W · Line 64

Position of Panel 32W 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. Navy
Rank
Seaman (SN)
Service
Reserve / National Guard
Occupation
Seaman (SN)
Born
August 19, 1949
Home of record
Williamstown, New Jersey (Gloucester County)

Casualty

Date of death
February 20, 1969
Age
19
Province
Quang Nam
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Illness
Circumstance
Infectious Disease

Context · from the records

What was happening

27 names on the Wall carry the date February 20, 1969; two of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In February 1969, 1,304 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 32W, Line 64

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.