Pate, Gary
Air Force Senior master sergeant

Gary Pate, age 21, from Brooks, Georgia, Fulton county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, May 22, 1968
Death details: On May 26, 2010, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Senior Master Sergeant Gary Pate, missing from the Vietnam War. Senior Master Sergeant Pate joined the U.S. Air Force from Georgia and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On May 22, 1968, he was an observer aboard a C-130 Hercules with a crew of nine on a nighttime flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. The Hercules crashed in Vietnamese territory during the mission, killing all nine of its crew. Immediate search efforts could not be conducted due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area. Between 1989 and 2008, Laotian, Vietnamese, and American search teams conducted joint field investigations in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains. In 2010, modern forensic techniques allowed for the individual identification of the remains of the C-130’s crew, including those of SMSgt Pate.
Cemetery: Arlington National

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com