Born on May 9, 1947, in Buckingham, Quebec, Canada, Richard was one of three sons of Jacques A. Dextraze and Frances H (Pare) Dextraze. of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His father, Jacques, was a Major General in the Canadian Armed Forces when Richard enlisted in the U.S. Marines on December 13, 1967, in Albany, NY, and eventually rose to the rank of General, becoming Chief of the Defense Staff in 1972. Richard arrived in Vietnam on June 17, 1968, and was assigned for duty with Company E, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d MARDIV (Rein) FMF.
On September 11, 1968, during Operation SCOTLAND II – TROUSDALE, Company E made contact with a well-entrenched NVA force in Huong Hoa District, two kilometers due south of Hill 463. The enemy force initiated contact by a command detonated claymore mines and small arms fire, wounding LCpl Dextraze who was a radio operator on the patrol, and another Marine. Both men were evacuated to the 3d MEDBN and treated for what was considered a minor wound. Richard rejoined his unit and on November 27, was reassigned for duty as an S-2 Scout with H&S Company of the same Battalion.
On April 23, while attached to Company E as an S-2 scout while the unit began to search signs for the enemy in the area around Dong Kio Mountain, approximately seven kilometers west of Cam Lo in northern Quang Tri Province, his squad made contact with an NVA force in concealed bunkers. In the heavy jungle terrain, maneuvering was difficult, and a frontal assault was virtually impossible against the NVA machine-gun fire, so the Marines became pinned down, thus, supporting arms were requested. As another squad moved up, it was also pinned down by small arms, RPG fire, and hand grenades that were being thrown at the Marines. The 2d Platoon was quickly dispatched to reinforce the small group of men as they were taking casualties and needed additional forces to overwhelm the enemy in front of them. Consistently hampered by the extreme heat and casualties, the Marines broke the will of the enemy and assaulted through their reinforced positions, killing fourteen enemy soldiers but not without the loss of five Marines killed in the battle and three men wounded, with an additional loss of twelve non-battle heat casualties. One of the men killed in action was LCpl Dextraze; he died during the firefight as a result of a gunshot wound to his neck and multiple fragmentation wounds from a hostile grenade to his head and body.
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