DOB/DOD: November 8, 1963 (Danbury, CT) – October 23, 1983; 19 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: 52 Ridge Road, Naugatuck
ENLISTMENT: April 15, 1982
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 2512, Field Wireman
UNIT: 1st Battalion, 8th Marines
FAMILY: Born to Henry L. “Bub” Jr. [Marine Corps veteran] (1939-2023) and Sandra L. Rice Wigglesworth (1940-2021). Five brothers, Mark H., Gary L. [Army veteran; 1983-1985] (1961-1994), Robyn H., Shawn M., Darrin A., and Daryl G.. One sister, Candace L. Wigglesworth Campbell.
Graduated from Kennedy High School (Willingboro, New Jersey), Class of 1981. Photo from the 1979 yearbook.
From The Hartford Courant on October 25, 1983
Henry Wigglesworth, father of the late Corporal Dwayne Wigglesworth, said Monday afternoon that his family had gotten the news of his son’s death shortly after lunch when a Marine contingent came to his house with the word.
Wigglesworth said his son, 19, went to Lebanon in May and had been due home in three weeks. “He wrote regularly. He said he was scared to death,” Wigglesworth said.
The family’s other son, Robyn, 21, enlisted in the Marines at the same time as his brother but was sent to Japan. Asked his feelings if his other son is sent to Beirut, Wigglesworth said: “I won’t let him go. I won’t let him go.”
Wigglesworth said he had one message: “Just get our boys out of Lebanon. We don’t want our Marines in Lebanon. People don’t want them over there. Tell them to do a Gallup Poll and see what the people want. They don’t want them there.”
Memorialized on the Naugatuck Veterans Monument, 8 Division Street, Naugatuck, Connecticut. Photos by Jeff DeWitt
Buried in Riverside Cemetery, 284 River Road, Shelton, Connecticut; Section 10, Row J10. Photos by Jeff DeWitt.
END