Rank: Specialist 4
Unit: A Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Army Commendation Medal with Valor Device, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge
Unit awards: Valorous Unit Award, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 12-Apr-1947
Hometown: Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 19-Sep-1966
Start of tour: 20-Sep-1967
Incident date: 6-Mar-1968
Date of casualty: 6-Mar-1968
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, Died. Explosive Device. Other explosive device.
Jerry Allen Beatty died from injury received while a passenger in a military vehicle on a combat operation when the vehicle hit a hostile mine. / (Individual transported to 7th Surgical Hospital, Blackhorse base camp, Long Giao.)
Five Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
PFC Charles Henry Batozynski
SP4 Jerry Allen Beatty
SP4 Floyd McFadden
SP4 John Bernard Shank
CPT Gregory Kent Whitehouse
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam
Place of interment: Sherwood Burial Park, Salem, Virginia, USA
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ARMY COMMENDATION MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JERRY A. BEATTY
3 FEBRUARY 1968
A TROOP, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Specialist Four Beatty distinguished himself by heroism in connection with military operations against an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam on 3 February 1968, while serving as an Armor Crewman with Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, on a reconnaissance in force mission near the village of Thu Due, Vietnam. As his troop was exchanging fire with a well entrenched Viet Cong force, a ranger battalion of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam began to assault the enemy positions, cutting through the zone of friendly suppressive fire. Specialist Beatty voluntarily dismounted his armored personnel carrier and ran across the bullet-swept battlefield to inform the friendly unit of the danger, so that it could alter its course of attack. Specialist Four Beatty’s heroic actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division General Orders No. 2739 (25 April 1968)