Remembering the 17 Navy and U.S. Marine Corps Cryptologists who gave their lives while serving in Southeast Asia. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, enacted August 10, 1964, was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

This resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of “conventional” military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist “any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty”. This included involving armed forces.

Name of those KIA:

CAPT James Westley Ayers, USMC        May 26, 1967   
SSGT Alfred T Dwyer, USMC                    Jan 30, 1968
CPL Stephen Lee Traughber, USMC      Sep 10, 1967       
LCPL Larry Allan Jones, USMC               Apr 24, 1968       
CPL Walter James Dancer, USMC           May 3, 1968       
CPL William Ivan Inman, USMC               May 3, 1968       
SGT Paul Jay Kingery, USMC                  May 13, 1968
CTC Robert S. Gates, USN                        Dec 28, 1969   
MSySgt Edward Reynold Storm, USMC  Dec 28, 1969       
SGT Larry Wade Duke, USMC                  Mar 10, 1970       
SGT Robert Hrisoulis, USMC                    Jan 21, 1971       
CTO3 James M. Coon, USN                      Dec 12, 1971
CTISN John M. Deremigio, USN              Dec 12, 1971
CTOI Donald E. Dickerson, USN              Dec 12, 1971
CTOSN Stephen H. Elliott, USN               Dec 12, 1971
CTRI Walter R. Woods, Jr., USN               Dec 12, 1971
CTM2 Gregory K. Zeller, USN                   Dec 12, 1971

Important side note: SPC4 James T. Davis, an Army cryptologist, assigned to the 3rd Radio Research Unit was one of the first to be killed in Vietnam.  He died on December 22, 1961 while conducting direction finding (DF) mission.