The Wall › Panel 39E › California › James Thomas Gaynor
JAMES THOMAS GAYNOR
Sergeant Major · U.S. Marine Corps
February 23, 1920 – February 15, 1968
Service recordJames Thomas Gaynor, of Fallbrook, California, served as a Sergeant Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on February 15, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 47. His name is inscribed on Panel 39E, Line 47 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 39E · Line 47
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
- Sergeant Major (SGTMAJ)
- Service
- Regular
- Unit (as recorded)
- HS CO 1 BN 26 MAR 3 MARDIV
- Born
- February 23, 1920
- Home of record
- Fallbrook, California (San Diego County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- February 15, 1968
- Age
- 47
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Died of Wounds
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
73 names on the Wall carry the date February 15, 1968; ten of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In February 1968, 2,260 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
The unit recorded as “HS CO 1 BN 26 MAR 3 MARDIV”, his unit in the record, lost 3 of its members that month.
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 39E, Line 47
- LESTER FREEMANPrivate First Class · February 15, 1968
- SPENCER SCOTT FREESTONESpecialist Four · February 15, 1968
- KENNETH LIGE FULTONSpecialist Five · February 15, 1968
- FREDERICK WILLIAM HAASSpecialist Four · February 15, 1968
From Fallbrook
- WAYNE LEROY SAPPGunnery Sergeant · February 2, 1968
- RICARDO VILLARREALPrivate First Class · April 20, 1968
- ALFRED FRAZIER MCCANTSGunnery Sergeant · November 29, 1968
- ALBERT JACKSON DAVISStaff Sergeant · January 17, 1969
- DENNIS WALTER KIPPPrivate First Class · October 20, 1969
- RICHARD MARTIN THOMPSONCorporal · December 6, 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.