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Date Posted: Mon, May 21 2007, 11:25:03
Author: Jeff Northridge
Author Host/IP: 75.45.110.238
Subject: Re: Information on Ronald Norman Keller HM3 E4N
In reply to: Cait Comeau 's message, "Information on Ronald Norman Keller HM3 E4N" on Sun, May 20 2007, 17:32:32

Howdy Cait;

HM3 Ronald Norman Keller's Navy Serial Number is 7779241 and his component was regular. He was born on 2/16/48 and his hometown of record is Exeter, NH. His tour of duty in Vietnam commenced on 10/15/67 and he was assigned to Headquarters and Support Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He was KIA on 2/9/68 in Quang Nam Province due to "Hostile, Ground Casualty, Gun, Small-Arms Fire". HM3 Keller's religious preference was Protestant (no denomination), he was married, and his body was recovered.

The unit information comes from the Coffelt KIA Database, but the 2nd/3rd Marines Association at http://www.homestead.com/233vietnameraassociation/index.html does not have HM3 Keller on their KIA list. This could be an oversight (I'll try to find out why later). Normally, a Navy corpsman would be officially assigned to the battalion's H & S Co. and then TDY to one of the line companies. I suspect that HM3 Keller was with Foxtrot Co. because the three Marines who were KIA on the same day, in the same province, for the same reason, and in the same battalion were all from Foxtrot Co. Their names are:

2LT Kenneth Lee Kirkes
PFC Raymond Christophe Lawson
PFC John Arthur Page

In a tribute to PFC Page, a Mr. Robert "Mike" Stuart says (in part), "In Vietnam, he served faithfully in 1st Platoon, Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment during the Tet Offensive. He and his fellow Marines stopped an attack on TuCau Bridge that would have helped the attacking NVA divide our forces and knock out the tower where our FO's zeroed in on their rocket teams attacking the airbase. John risked his life in helping to bring his wounded buddies into the compound and in his steady fire to keep the superior force of NVA's from overrunning the platoon. Although I wasn't there during the firefight on February 9, 1968 I heard about it from the 81 FO who watched it from the tower."

That would place the 2nd/3rd Marines somewhere on Go Noi Island about 12 to 16 Km. south by southwest of Da Nang Airbase on 2/9/68 (see http://www.nexus.net/~911gfx/vietnam/maps/nd49-01/nd49_01c.html for a 1:250,000-scale map of the area). The Tet Offensive of 1968 started on 1/31/68 and heavy fighting was going on all over the country during the month of Feburary.

F/2/3 Marines has a website at http://fox2-3marines.org/ where you can leave a message and there's a ton of information on the E/2/3 Marines' homepage at http://echo23marines6569.org/ . Good luck!

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