The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968.
Marines use an M48 tank as cover in the street fighting in Huế, 4 February 1968. Photo: SSgt Jack L. Harlan, USMC, CC BY 2.0. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Wyatt Cecil Gordon.

The Wall › Panel 36E › Indiana › Wyatt Cecil Gordon

WYATT CECIL GORDON

Sergeant · U.S. Army

April 3, 1948 – January 31, 1968

Service record

Wyatt Cecil Gordon, of Lawrence, Indiana, served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died on January 31, 1968, in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 36E, Line 4 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 36E · Line 4

Position of Panel 36E 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
Sergeant (SGT)
Service
Drafted (Selective Service)
Occupation
Infantryman (11B)
Unit (as recorded)
1 CAV DIV AIRMOBILE
Born
April 3, 1948
Home of record
Lawrence, Indiana (Marion County)

Casualty

Date of death
January 31, 1968
Age
19
Province
Binh Dinh
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Hostile
Category
Died of Wounds
Circumstance
Small Arms Fire

Context · from the records

What was happening

246 names on the Wall carry the date January 31, 1968; seven of them were lost in Bình Định Province. In January 1968, 1,546 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), his unit in the record, lost 110 of its members that month.

He died in Bình Định Province while the Tet Offensive was under way. Beginning on the night of 30–31 January 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked more than 100 cities and towns across South Vietnam, including the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. February 1968 was the deadliest month of the war for Americans.

Also on Panel 36E, Line 4

Same unit, same day

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.