The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Gerald Kirby.

The Wall › Panel 51W › Texas › Gerald Kirby

GERALD KIRBY

Private First Class · U.S. Army

August 28, 1949 – July 22, 1968

Service record

Gerald Kirby, of Houston, Texas, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on July 22, 1968, in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 51W, Line 34 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 51W · Line 34

Position of Panel 51W 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
Private First Class (PFC)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
101 AIRBORNE DIV
Born
August 28, 1949
Home of record
Houston, Texas (Harris County)

Casualty

Date of death
July 22, 1968
Age
18
Province
Thua Thien
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

43 names on the Wall carry the date July 22, 1968; three of them were lost in Thừa Thiên Province. In July 1968, 993 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 101st Airborne Division, his unit in the record, lost 80 of its members that month.

Also on Panel 51W, Line 34

Same unit, same day

From Houston

All 358 names from Houston →

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.