Baker decided to get his military obligation over with before college, so he enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from William Tenant High School in Warminster, Bucks County, in 1966. He was sent to Vietnam in November 1967, and spent three months in a Guam hospital recovering from wounds to both hands. The 19-year-old lance corporal, a machinegunner, was ordered back to the Vietnam in April 1968 and assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. He was killed in Quang Tri Province on June 9. 1968. Baker had worked as a lifeguard. He was survived by his mother and two Sisters.