Nearly 60 Years Later, Vietnam War Hero Laid to Rest in Arlington National Cemetery

FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

02.26.2026

Story by William Costello 

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Master Sgt. Donald P. Gervais, 24, of New Orleans, Louisiana, killed during the Vietnam War, will be interred Mar. 2, in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Murphy Funeral Home will coordinate graveside services preceding the interment.

Gervais was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On May 1, 1968, 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. On July 25, 1978, the U.S. Army changed Gervais’ status from Missing in Action to Killed in Action and posthumously promoted him to the rank of Master Sgt.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Gervais on May 16, 2025.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Master Sgt. Gervais’s remains, please visit: [https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4281757/soldier-accounted-for-from-vietnam-gervais-d/](https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4281757/soldier-accounted-for-from-vietnam-gervais-d/)

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Murphy Funeral Home, 703-920-4800.

• Date Taken: 02.26.2026
• Date Posted: 02.26.2026 13:48
• Story ID: 558991
• Location: FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US
• Hometown: NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US