The Wall › Panel 45E › Alabama › Wordell Gaines
WORDELL GAINES
Private First Class · U.S. Marine Corps
November 8, 1948 – March 22, 1968
Service recordWordell Gaines, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, served as a Private First Class in the U.S. Marine Corps. He died on March 22, 1968, in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 45E, Line 55 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On the Wall
Panel 45E · Line 55
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
- November 8, 1948
- Home of record
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Tuscaloosa County)
Casualty
- Date of death
- March 22, 1968
- Age
- 19
- Province
- Quang Tri
- Country
- South Vietnam
- Casualty type
- Hostile
- Category
- Killed in Action
- Circumstance
- Artillery/Mortar/Rocket
Context · from the records
What was happening
43 names on the Wall carry the date March 22, 1968; nine of them were lost in Quảng Trị Province. In March 1968, 1,767 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 45E, Line 55
- DAVID WAYNE DERRYPrivate First Class · March 22, 1968
- WALTER JACOB EGGERCaptain · March 22, 1968
- FRED C H FRAPPIEA JRPrivate First Class · March 22, 1968
- LARRIE JACK GOTCHERSpecialist Four · March 22, 1968
From Tuscaloosa
- HENRY CARLOS TISDALEPrivate First Class · April 21, 1966
- RONALD LYNN GUYERLance Corporal · May 25, 1966
- LAWRENCE EDWARD PAYNEMaster Sergeant · December 6, 1966
- TIMOTHY C ABRAMS JRPrivate First Class · January 3, 1967
- JERRY FRANKS HOGANLieutenant Commander · January 21, 1967
- ROBERT VICTOR CRAINSergeant First Class · March 15, 1967
- MICHAEL GEAN RUSHINGCorporal · May 29, 1967
- HENRY LEON LITTLECorporal · June 15, 1967
- BENJAMIN F ROBERTSON JRMajor · June 17, 1967
- THOMAS CARPENTER JRSpecialist Four · January 10, 1968
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.