Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: F Troop, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, 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: Regular
Date of birth: 12-Aug-1945
Hometown: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 31-Mar-1966
Start of tour: 6-Dec-1967
Incident date: 19-Aug-1968
Date of casualty: 19-Aug-1968
Age at death: 23
Cause of death: Hostile, Died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds.
Gale Edward Deering died from wounds received while commander of a military vehicle on combat operation when engaged hostile force in firefight.
Five Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
SSG Gale Edward Deering
SSG Aldon Cecil Jones
PFC Edward Austin McKenzie
SP4 Salvador Joe Mendez
SP4 William Leonard Sandersen
Location of fatality: Binh Long, South Vietnam, XU 732 078*
Place of interment: Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
View this soldier‘s Find a Grave page (opens in a new window)
Vietnam Veterans Memorial panel and row: 48W (view Vietnam Veterans Memorial link in a new window)