The Wall › Panel 6E › Louisiana › James Wayne Gates
JAMES WAYNE GATES
Lieutenant Colonel · U.S. Army
December 30, 1933 – April 6, 1966
Service recordJames Wayne Gates, of Mer Rouge, Louisiana, served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. He was lost on April 6, 1966, in Laos, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 6E, Line 89 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 6E · Line 89
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
- Lieutenant Colonel (LTC)
- Service
- Reserve / National Guard
- Occupation
- Fixed Wing Aviation Unit Commander (1980)
- Unit (as recorded)
- MACV ADVISORS
- Born
- December 30, 1933
- Home of record
- Mer Rouge, Louisiana
Casualty
- Date of loss
- April 6, 1966
- Country
- Laos
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Declared Dead
- Circumstance
- Aircraft Crash — crew
- First reported
- Missing in action
- Remains
- Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record
Context · from the records
What was happening
17 names on the Wall carry the date April 6, 1966. In April 1966, 406 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.
MACV Advisers, his unit in the record, lost 12 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.
Read the history
On the Wall
Also on Panel 6E, Line 89
- DENNIS PHILIP COOKLieutenant · April 6, 1966
- JAMES PETER HARTEAUPrivate First Class · April 6, 1966
- DONALD RAY JOHNSONPrivate First Class · April 6, 1966
- MELVIN THOMAS KRECHPetty Officer First Class · April 6, 1966
Same unit, same day
- JOHN WAYNE LAFAYETTEMajor · Panel 6E, Line 90
From Mer Rouge
- THOMAS EARL ALFORD IIIPrivate First Class · December 1, 1968
- EUGENE LENOIRCorporal · November 13, 1969
- BOB JOE FORD JRLance Corporal · December 21, 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.