The Wall › Panel 46E › Pennsylvania › Bernard Laverne Gaines
BERNARD LAVERNE GAINES
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
November 4, 1947 – March 24, 1968
Service recordBernard Laverne Gaines, of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 24, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 46E, Line 5 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 46E · Line 5
Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.
Remember
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Service
- Branch
- U.S. Marine Corps
- Rank
- Private First Class (PFC)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Machinegunner (0331)
- Born
- November 4, 1947
- Home of record
- Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania (Lycoming County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 24, 1968
- Age
- 20
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Small Arms Fire
Context · from the records
What was happening
58 names on the Wall carry the date March 24, 1968; six of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Trị Province while the siege of Khe Sanh was under way. From 21 January 1968, North Vietnamese divisions besieged the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh and its hill outposts near the Laotian border for 77 days, while U.S. aircraft dropped some 100,000 tons of bombs around it. Operation Pegasus reached the base on 8 April. The casualty record gives the province and date, not the exact place, so it does not say whether he fell in the battle itself.
Read the history
Also on Panel 46E, Line 5
- WILLIAM RAYMOND BREEDENSergeant First Class · March 24, 1968
- DARRYL BLAKE FULLUMSpecialist Four · March 24, 1968
- FRANCIS LEROY GAULOCHERFirst Lieutenant · March 24, 1968
- DONALD LEE GEARHARTStaff Sergeant · March 24, 1968
From Jersey Shore
- HERBERT A RIPKAWarrant Officer 1 · May 27, 1967
- GEORGE HERBERT NESTLERODELieutenant Colonel · March 3, 1968
- BARRY LYNN FRAZIERSergeant · May 1, 1968
- CHARLES LE ROY MERRILL JRSpecialist Four · April 15, 1970
Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.