Robert R. Brett

Date of Birth: 01/03/1936
Neighborhood: Tasker
High School: St. Gabriel's School
Street: S. 29th Street
Branch of Service: Navy
Rank: LTC
Date of Casualty: 02/22/1968
Province of Casualty: Quang Tin
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 3
Panel Row: 16

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The Roman Catholic priest grew up on S. 29th Street in South Philadelphia, graduating from nearby St. Gabriel's School and later Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He was ordained in the Marist order in 1962 and en-listed in the Navy in 1967 while teaching at immaculate Seminary in Lafayette, La. The Navy lieutenant was killed on Feb. 2, 1968, in Kite Sanh, Quang Tn Province, Vietnam, at the height of the Tat offensive, when a Fiat Cong mortar round bit a bunker in which he was celebrating Mass for members of the 3rd Marine Division. He was 32 years old. Brett "was neither a hawk or a dove, but he wanted to be where the men needed him most, so be requested overseas combat duty in Vietnam," recalled a family member. Survivors included two sisters.

Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial