The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault.
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division leap from a UH-1D during an air assault. Photo: SP4 Johnnie Jackson, U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Thomas Lawrence Gates.

The Wall › Panel 12W › Ohio › Thomas Lawrence Gates

THOMAS LAWRENCE GATES

Private First Class · U.S. Army

May 30, 1949 – April 9, 1970

Service record

Thomas Lawrence Gates, of Cincinnati, Ohio, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. He died on April 9, 1970, in North Vietnam, at age 20. His name is inscribed on Panel 12W, Line 112 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 12W · Line 112

Position of Panel 12W 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
Born
May 30, 1949
Home of record
Cincinnati, Ohio (Hamilton County)

Casualty

Date of death
April 9, 1970
Age
20
Country
North Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

32 names on the Wall carry the date April 9, 1970. In April 1970, 730 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The record places this loss in North Vietnam, outside South Vietnam — most often the sign of an air crew lost over the North or the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Also on Panel 12W, Line 112

From Cincinnati

All 226 names from Cincinnati →

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.