The Wall › Panel 40E › Louisiana › Gene Joseph Wheat
GENE JOSEPH WHEAT
Petty Officer Second Class · U.S. Navy
September 2, 1938 – February 22, 1968
Service recordGene Joseph Wheat, of Pineville, Louisiana, served as a Petty Officer Second Class in the U.S. Navy. He died on February 22, 1968, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, at age 29. His name is inscribed on Panel 40E, Line 70 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 40E · Line 70
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. Navy
- Rank
- Petty Officer Second Class (PO2)
- Service
- Regular
- Occupation
- Hospital Corpsman (HM)
- Born
- September 2, 1938
- Home of record
- Pineville, Louisiana
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 22, 1968
- Age
- 29
- Province
- Quang Nam
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Unknown
Context · from the records
What was happening
76 names on the Wall carry the date February 22, 1968; seven of them were lost in Quảng Nam Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
He died in Quảng Nam Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.
Also on Panel 40E, Line 70
- REGGIE LEE VANCEPrivate First Class · February 22, 1968
- JOHN DAVID VAUGHANPrivate First Class · February 22, 1968
- JAN BERNARD WAHLSpecialist Four · February 22, 1968
- THOMAS EARL WHITAKERSpecialist Four · February 22, 1968
From Pineville
- R V EDWARDSLance Corporal · August 23, 1966
- ROBERT CLYDE ALLENSergeant · February 27, 1967
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.