WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Master Sgt. Donald P. Gervais, 24, of New Orleans, Louisiana, killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for May 16, 2025.
Gervais's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In the spring of 1968, Gervais was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On May 1, he was the door gunner on an OH-6A Cayuse helicopter on a reconnaissance mission over the A Shau Valley, Republic of Vietnam. A nearby aircraft reportedly witnessed the helicopter hit a dead tree and crash into a ravine. Due to enemy ground fire and dense vegetation over the rough terrain, the aircraft was unable to conduct a visual reconnaissance of the crash site. A nearby infantry platoon attempted to investigate the area but were forced to withdraw when they encountered enemy fire. On July 25, 1978, the U.S. Army changed Gervais’s status from Missing in Action to Killed in Action and posthumously promoted him to the rank of Master Sgt.
From 1989 to 2010, joint teams investigated several locations possibly associated with the crash and conducted multiple witness interviews, including a former area military commander who stated that he saw bodies after the crash but heard later that the helicopter, and presumably the bodies as well, had been completely destroyed by United States bombing.
In June 2013, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a DPAA predecessor organization, traveled to Thua Thien-Hue Province to interview Truong Ngoc Huyen, a 12.7mm Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Squad Leader at the time of the incident. Huyen recalled that sometime between April 27 and April 29, 1968, while he and his squad were in Hamlet 39, they observed a “UTT” helicopter flying near their location, and they began to open fire. Huyen identified a photograph of an OH-6 Cayuse. He recalled that the helicopter had broken into two pieces, falling to the ground.
On June 5, 2013, the JPAC team interviewed Hoang The Phuong, a former Master Sergeant, Assistant Recon Squad Leader, 23rd Company, Binh Tram 42. Phuong recalled that, on approximately May 1, 1968, during an air cavalry assault by U.S. forces, he witnessed Huyen’s squad shoot down an OH-6, and the following morning, he visited the crash site.
From October 2018 to April 2025, DPAA recovery teams conducted eight excavations of the crash site, where they recovered osseous remains, life support equipment, and aircraft wreckage, that was accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory.
To identify Gervais’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental analysis, as well as material evidence.
Gervais’s name is recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Gervais’s will be buried on a date yet to be determined.
For family and funeral information, contact the U.S. Army Casualty office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the government of Vietnam for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Gervais’s personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BTMsEAO .
Read Gervais's initial ID announcement here: Gervais.