The Wall › Panel 48E › Montana › Gilbert Leroy Zerbst
GILBERT LEROY ZERBST
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
October 1, 1949 – April 7, 1968
Service recordGilbert Leroy Zerbst, of St Ignatius, Montana, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on April 7, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 18. His name is inscribed on Panel 48E, Line 50 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 48E · Line 50
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
- Rifleman (0311)
- Born
- October 1, 1949
- Home of record
- St Ignatius, Montana (Lake County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- April 7, 1968
- Age
- 18
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
62 names on the Wall carry the date April 7, 1968; 32 of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In April 1968, 1,580 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 48E, Line 50
- WILLIAM LEON YOHNLance Corporal · April 7, 1968
- GLENN URBAN ANDREOTTASpecialist Four · April 8, 1968
- RICHARD GEORGE BAMBRICKPrivate First Class · April 8, 1968
- HAROLD EUGENE BARRICKPrivate First Class · April 8, 1968
From St Ignatius
- JEAN BAPTISTE INCASHOLAPrivate First Class · November 23, 1966
- JOSEPH LOUIS POKERJIMPrivate · October 12, 1967
- DALE FRANKLIN ROLLINSSergeant First Class · November 13, 1968
- CLARENCE FRANK BRISTOLSpecialist Four · August 12, 1969
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.