The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970.
Bomb craters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, August 1970. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Henry Gerald Gish.

The Wall › Panel 44E › Pennsylvania › Henry Gerald Gish

HENRY GERALD GISH

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Air Force

December 18, 1942 – March 11, 1968

Service record

Henry Gerald Gish, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He died on March 11, 1968, in Laos, at age 25. His name is inscribed on Panel 44E, Line 16 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 44E · Line 16

Position of Panel 44E 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. Air Force
Rank
Staff Sergeant (SSGT)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
DET 1 1043 RAD EVAL SQ BOLLING
Born
December 18, 1942
Home of record
Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Lancaster County)

Casualty

Date of death
March 11, 1968
Age
25
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Killed in Action
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

54 names on the Wall carry the date March 11, 1968. In March 1968, 1,767 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The unit recorded as “DET 1 1043 RAD EVAL SQ BOLLING”, his unit in the record, lost 10 of its members that month.

He died in Laos while the air war over Laos was under way. From 1964 to 1973, U.S. aircraft bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail and supported the war in northern Laos; many of the Americans lost over Laos were never recovered.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Also on Panel 44E, Line 16

Same unit, same day

From Lancaster

All 25 names from Lancaster →

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.