Norbert A. Ricker was born in Ottoville, Ohio, on October 15, 1943. The family soon moved to St. Marys and took up residence on Columbia Street. Norb attended Memorial High School but left to earn money doing farm work. He would have graduated with the Memorial High School Class of 1961. He later earned his G.E.D. while in the military. 

On October 1,1963, Norb enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and traveled to Parris Island, South Carolina, for Basic Training. The next stop was Camp Geiger near Jacksonville, North Carolina, where Marines trained to be riflemen. From there, Norb was assigned to the Second Marines, Second Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in a Weapons Platoon. He was responsible for handling rocket launchers but often carried a machine gun as well. At a towering six-foot four inches and 210 pounds, Norb was in the best shape of his life from his years of heavy lifting doing farm work. While in the Second Marines, Norb went on three different cruises - two in the Caribbean and one to the Mediterranean in 1964 as part of a Marine Amphibious Forces (MAF). The cruise to the Mediterranean was aboard the Amphibious Assault Ship, U.S.S. Boxer. Ports of call included Italy, Spain, and the Island of Malta. Following the cruise, Norb received orders to deploy to Vietnam. By now, Norb had achieved the rank of Corporal. After Guerilla training in California, he shipped out to Vietnam aboard the U.S.S. General William Weigel.

On March 11,1966, the ship entered Vietnamese waters. Norb and several Marines disembarked at Vung Tau, near the mouth of the Dinh and Song Co May Rivers and boarded a non-military flat bottom boat. From there, they proceeded upriver to join the Seventh Marines. Norb spent the night in an old Missionary along the riverbank, departing the next morning for Chu Lai where he joined the Seventh Marines. That same day, his entire Company boarded helicopters and were dropped off in the jungle to search for the enemy. 

On March 21,1966, Norb’s squad watched fighter Jets pound a nearby hill, dropping 500-pound bombs on it for hours as part of Operation Texas. The mission was to drive a large force of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong out of the Vinh Tuy Valley. There were two Battalions from the Seventh Marines, joined by a Regiment of ARVN (Army of South Vietnam) troops. Near the village of Quang Ngai, Norb’s squad came under intense enemy fire. On that day, out of Norb’s squad of ten Marines, seven were killed, and Norb was wounded by small arms fire in the leg. He had been in country less than nine days.

He was thrust onto a Medevac helicopter under enemy fire and taken to a Battalion Aid Station for emergency care. It was at the emergency care station that both Norb and doctors discovered that Norb had also been wounded in the chest from gunfire. Two days later, on March 23, 1966, he was flown to the hospital on Clark Air Base in the Philippines and then on to Chicago’s Great Lakes Naval Hospital. Norb’s combat wounds caused life-long nerve damage and sometimes made it difficult to walk. While recovering from his wounds, he met his future wife, Rose M. Prichard, who worked in the hospital as part of WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). They married in October 1966. Norb was re-assigned as a Military Police Sergeant at a supply base in Georgia where he completed his commitment to the Marines. 

Sergeant Norbert Ricker was awarded the Purple Heart Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device. Norb and Rose were married 53 years before she passed in 2020. They are the parents of three children – Michael, Melanie, and Stacey –and they have seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.



For his dedication to his country by enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps and serving in the Vietnam War where he received a life-threatening combat injury that left permanent damage, for his courage and commitment to serve in a time of need, Sergeant Norbert A. Ricker is inducted into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation Hall of Fame for Military Service to Country. The St. Marys Board of Education awarded Norb a diploma from Memorial High School as part of his induction into the Hall of Fame.