Frederick R. Edgerton, Jr. was born in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1948 to Frederick R. and Edith Heyes Edgerton and has two sisters. He graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria in 1966 and enjoyed listening to the Wolfman Jack show and other rock and roll stations on the radio. After graduation he worked offshore in the oil industry then later joined the Marines. He went to San Diego for basic training and then to Camp Pendleton for infantry training. After training he had a month of leave in Alexandria and returned to California to the staging battalion for Vietnam where as the only commissioned officer, he was made company commander. They flew to Da Nang in June of 1969 and he was assigned to the 3^rd MP Battalion to work the scouting sentry dog operations. During his seven months in Da Nang, he was to make sure everyone was trained and supplied. The Marine Corps brig and the POW camp were also at the base. He was transferred to An Hoa for five months to work as the security officer for the 2^nd Battalion of the 5^th Marine Regiment. For R&R, he went to Sydney, Australia for a week in January of 1970. His last duty station was in Yuma, Arizona as training officer. After his discharge, he spent the summer in Alexandria and then went to back to school at Louisiana Tech.. In 1999 Frederick graduated from Northwestern Nursing School in Shreveport and began working at the VA in the cardiac cath lab. Frederick met Teresa Scott from South Dakota, who was then teaching at LSUS. They married in 1995. As Frederick looked back on his time in Vietnam, he says he was eager to go but he now thinks there was a better way to settle the dispute.