Rank: Sergeant
Unit: D Company, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11E – Armor Crewman
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device and Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 9-Jul-1948
Hometown: Castro Valley, California
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 19-Jan-1968
Start of tour: 7-Jan-1969
Incident date: 18-Apr-1969
Date of casualty: 18-Apr-1969
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Small Arms Fire. Gun or small arms fire.
Don Jay McAtee was killed while commander of a military vehicle on combat operation when a hostile force was encountered. / Tank commander on tank on combat operation when engaged hostile force in firefight.
Nine Blackhorse troopers died as a result of this incident:
SP4 James Alexander Baka
SP4 Thomas M. Fitzpatrick
2LT Daniel Michael Leahy
SP5 Roy Francis Maas
SGT Don Jay McAtee
SP4 Robert Leroy Morgan Jr
SP4 Joseph Edward Morrow Jr
SP4 Donald William Noel
SP4 Ronald Eugene Pongratz
Location of fatality: Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, XT 430 600
Place of interment: Willamette National Cemetery, Portland, Oregon, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
SERGEANT DON JAY McATEE
18 APRIL 1969
D COMPANY, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Sergeant McAtee distinguished himself by heroism in connection with military operations against a hostile force on 18 April 1969 while serving as a Tank Commander with Company D, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date while on a reconnaissance mission, Company D came under small arms, automatic weapons, and anti-tank rocket fire from a well entrenched enemy force. Although his tank came under intense hostile fire as it helped lead an assault on the hostile fortifications, Sergeant McAtee relentlessly covered the enemy positions with devastating fire. While he was fighting aggressively in the center of the contact area, he was hit and mortally wounded by hostile small arms fire. Sergeant McAtee’s courage and devotion to duty 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, II Field Force Vietnam General Orders No. 1248 (23 May 1969)