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Gerald Dean Jerde
Specialist Four
HHT, 1ST SQDN, 10TH CAVALRY, 4TH INF DIV, USARV Army of the United States Ottawa, Illinois January 14, 1947 to May 11, 1969 GERALD D JERDE is on the Wall at Panel W25, Line 49 |
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Shortly after midnight on the night of 10/11 May 1969 "The Oasis", at Thanh An, about 24 kilometers south-southwest of Pleiku, was struck by a battalion of NVA troops. The attack was initiated against a part of the defensive perimeter manned by soldiers from the 366th Aviation Support Detachment, an air traffic control unit. SP5 Edward Barlow and SP4 Malcolm Bell were in a defensive bunker hit by a rocket-propelled grenade near the outset; Bell was killed and Barlow wounded by the round. The after-action report indicates ten US soldiers were killed in the action, one (SSG Thomas Bumgarner) died of his wounds three days later, and three were missing in action.
The three men missing had been captured; all survived and repatriated on 27 March 1973:
Gerald was born to Don and Louise Jerde in Ottawa, Illinois. Gerald was survived by his paternal grandparents, Ethel (McGlasson) (1902-1979) and Joseph A. Jerde (1901-1998), maternal grandfather Albert Charlier (1901-1981), mother Louise Mae (Charlier) (1926-1983), father Donald D. Jerde (1925-2012), two sisters, Denise (Frank) Velez and Wendy (Gary) Hoffman, both of Ottawa; and one brother, Gary Jerde, of Ottawa. His father served in WWII in the Southwest Pacific Area from May 1944 to November 1945. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandmother, Eva M (Kleckner) Charlier (1906-1965). SP4 Gerald Dean Jerde was buried, as are his parents, in Oakwood Memorial Park, Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois. 
The family requested the Department of the Army for Gerald's replacment medals, they received the medals below: 
- - The Virtual Wall, January 7, 2019
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