Francis E. Sievers

Date of Birth: 04/20/1942
Neighborhood: Holmesburg
High School: Delhaas High School
Street: Marigold Place
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: 1LT
Date of Casualty: 03/16/1969
Province of Casualty: Kontum
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 28
Panel Row: 3

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"Gene" Seivers was a "loving, caring, happy person who loved his family and country with all his heart," recalled his mother. He had dreamed of becoming a paratrooper since he was a young boy, and as a youngster often walked around the house in the combat boots worn by an uncle who served with the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. Sievers attended Delhaas High School in Bristol, Bucks County, before his first Army enlistment. He was in the Special Forces and met his wife while stationed on Okinawa. He became a Philadelphia policeman after leaving active duty and was assigned to the 22nd District, but remained active in the Army Reserves. He returned to active duty in January 1968 and was assigned to Vietnam in July of that year. The 26-year-old first lieutenant commanded an irregular contingent of about 200 Montagnard mountain people, and was leading an attack on an enemy bunker near the Special Forces camp at Ben Het on March 16, 1969, when he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. In addition to his wife, survivors included a son and a daughter, his parents, a brother and a sister. The Army Reserve Center at the Pedricktown (N.J.) Support Facility was rededicated in honor of Sievers and Charles Sandberg of Philadelphian, who died in Vietnam on May13, 1968.

Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial