Hometown: Clifton, NJ
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: May 3, 1967 - KIA in Khe Sahn, Quảng Trị Province, Republic of Vietnam 
Age: 18
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Robert Henry Kruger Jr. grew up in Clifton, New Jersey—a quiet bedroom suburb of New York City. Born on July 19, 1948, “Bob” was 15 years old when his father, Robert Sr., passed away. His mother, Antionette (Lieman) Kruger was alone to raise Bob and his younger siblings Crystal and Roger.

Bob played soccer at Clifton High School and had hopes of going to college. He didn’t have the money and like many young men, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps before graduating high school in 1966—seeing the G.I. Bill as his ticket to a college degree.

Kruger was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, and sent to the Marine garrison at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam.

According to History.com:

The U.S. military presence at Khe Sanh began in 1962, when Army Special Forces built a small camp near the village, located some 14 miles south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam and 6 miles from the Laotian border on Route 9, the principal road from South Vietnam into Laos. U.S. Marines built a garrison adjacent to the Army camp in 1966.

As the intensity of the fighting in Vietnam increased in 1967, the U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Beacon Star, Phase II, more commonly known as “The Khe Sanh Hill Fights.” The Hill Fights were the precursor to the Battle of Khe Sanh, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war.

Marine Lance Corporal Fred Monahan was PFC Kruger’s 19-year-old platoon leader on the night of May 3, 1967. Monahan recalled that it was a pitch-black rainy night and Kruger, along with another Marine, was assigned to a listening post near Hill 881 North in Khe Sahn.

On that night, 38 U.S. Marines were ambushed by more than 200 enemy North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops. In the attack, only 8 of the Marines would remain in fighting condition. LCpl. Monahan was on top of the hill when he and others heard yelling from Kruger’s position, followed by a grenade exploding.

To evade capture, Marines had been trained to keep a grenade in the front of their belts. In an article for VFW Magazine, Monahan remembers, “Upon hearing the grenade [that] Robert exploded, I knew what had happened.”

PFC Robert Kruger was killed in the attack. He was 18 years old. When LCpl. Monahan got to Kruger’s position, he found three dead NVA soldiers—all with their feet touching Kruger’s body. Monahan says he could tell they were trying to drag Kruger away for interrogation when he let off the grenade, preventing them from taking him or continuing their charge up the hill.

Kruger was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart medal. Official records cite his cause of death as enemy mortar fire. But his platoon leader believed Kruger deserves a much higher recognition. By sacrificing his life and exploding his own grenade, Kruger saved the lives of his buddies and many more Marines.

PFC Robert Henry Kruger Jr. was laid to rest at Beverly National Cemetery in his home state of New Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. He is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 19E, Line 27.

Sources
Artist’s rendering by Craig Du Mez, from original photo
VFW: ‘It Was Just the Right Thing to Do’
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, The Wall of Faces: Robert Henry Kruger Jr
Together We Served: Kruger, Robert Henry, Jr., PFC
HonorStates.org: Robert Henry Kruger Jr
New Jersey Veterans’ Memorial Foundation, The Wall of Faces: Robert H Kruger - PFC
History: Defending Khe Sanh
The Herald-News, May 6, 1967: Clifton Youth, 18, Dies On Vietnam Battlefield
Burial Site: Find a Grave

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