The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
A 57th Medical Detachment crew loads a wounded soldier aboard a UH-1D “Dustoff” helicopter.
A 57th Medical Detachment crew loads a wounded soldier aboard a UH-1D “Dustoff” helicopter. Photo: SP4 James B. Egan, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Charles Elbert Gay.

The Wall › Panel 36W › New York › Charles Elbert Gay

CHARLES ELBERT GAY

Specialist Five · U.S. Army

December 6, 1947 – December 15, 1968

Service record

Charles Elbert Gay, of Westport, New York, served as a Specialist Five in the U.S. Army. He died on December 15, 1968, in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 21. His name is inscribed on Panel 36W, Line 25 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 36W · Line 25

Position of Panel 36W on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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. Army
Rank
Specialist Five (SP5)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Medical Specialist (91B)
Unit (as recorded)
498 MED CO USARV
Born
December 6, 1947
Home of record
Westport, New York (Essex County)

Casualty

Date of death
December 15, 1968
Age
21
Province
Binh Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Helicopter Crash — Passenger (MC)

Context · from the records

What was happening

16 names on the Wall carry the date December 15, 1968; two of them were lost in Bình Định Province. In December 1968, 855 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “498 MED CO USARV”, his unit in the record, lost 2 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 36W, Line 25

Same unit, same day

From Westport

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.