If you have any questions, additional biographical information, personal remembrances, or photographs you would like to contribute, please contact the History Project Manager via this Email Link.

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They Say, our deaths are not ours, they are yours, they will mean what you make of them. They say, we leave you our deaths, give them some meaning. Archibald MacLeish poet and WWI veteran.

        SSG Slaven was a 14 year veteran of the Army. He arrived in Vietnam on 1 December 1968 and was assigned as Squad Leader of Ambush Team 75.

        On 29 March 1969 his team and Ambush Team 78 were finishing up after a night operation on Hill-15  along the Buong River. Team 75 was leaving the hill to meet with the boat squad that arrived to transport them back to the Dong Nai River Bridge. As they were walking down the hill towards the river, SP/4 Robert Cressman, the point man, triggered a Viet Cong Claymore mine.

        SSG Slaven, SP/4 Cressman, PFC Larry W. Holton, and the PF Interpreter CPL Lee Van Muon  were hit by shrapnel and severely wounded. SSG Richard E. Slaven, age 31, died later that morning at the 24th Evacuation Hospital from his wounds. The other team members survived their injuries.

On 1 April 1969 at 9:30AM a Memorial Service was held at the 89th MP Group Chapel on Long Binh Post for SSG Slaven. < Memorial Services Program Courtesy of CSM (Ret.) Burton E. Morrow, 720th MP Battalion, 1968-1969, click on the icon to view the program pamphlet pages.

--- General / Personal ---
Last name: SLAVEN
First name: RICHARD E
Home of Record (official): ELMIRA
State (official): NY
Date of Birth: Sunday, December 26, 1937
Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian
Marital Status: Married

--- Military ---
Branch: Army
Rank: SSG
Serial Number: 11287434
Component: Regular
Pay grade: E6
MOS (Military Occupational Specialty code): 95B40

--- Action ---
Start of Tour: Sunday, December 1, 1968
Date of Casualty: Saturday, March 29, 1969
Age at time of loss: 31
Casualty type: (A2) Hostile, died of wounds
Reason: Other explosive device (Ground casualty)
Country: South VietNam
Province: Bien Hoa
The Wall: Panel 28W - Row 086

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