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Casualty Info
Home Town Harbor Springs
Last Address 316 Fairview Street, Harbor Springs, MI 47940
Casualty Date Apr 09, 1968
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location Binh Dinh (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Lakeview Cemetery - Harbor Springs, Michigan
FINAL MISSION OF PFC GEORGE E. MCDONALD JR. - Shortly after noon on April 9, 1968, an estimated enemy squad ambushed a 359th Transportation Company convoy traveling east on Highway 19, approximately 18 miles west of An Khe in Binh Dinh Province, RVN. The enemy employed small arms, B-40 rockets, and grenades, killing one U.S. military personnel, wounding one, and moderately damaging one 5,000-gallon tanker. The lost American was driver PFC George E. McDonald Jr. The following is a personal account of McDonald’s loss by Mike Little: Just before reaching our checkpoint, a Viet Cong sniper put an AK-47 round through the door of your 5000-gallon tanker truck, killing you. Losing control, you rolled the truck down a dirt embankment, ending upside-down. Lucky for everyone else, your load of diesel fuel didn't explode. But you were dead anyway, either from the bullet wound or a broken neck. When I arrived, somebody motioned me to the cab. I gazed at your slumped body. Your eyes were closed, as if in a peaceful sleep, a bullet hole in your side, leaking very little blood. I looked away and wished we had a medic around to help. You didn't have a pulse, but we called for a medivac anyway. I held your hand until the helicopter arrived, then cradled your head as we carried you to it. "Been shot in the side" I told the door gunner. I think he was pissed for risking his life to retrieve a dead guy. That was it, you were gone. I didn't get drunk that night because I couldn't stop thinking about your family, who would soon receive news of all. The Army installed armor plating in all the truck doors a few weeks later, but it was too late to save you, that day on Highway 19 in 1968. [Taken from coffeltdatabase.org, togetherweserved.com, and Lessons Learned, Headquarters, 1st Logistical Command, Period Ending April 30, 1968]