Jerry Dean Hatcher

Jerry Dean Hatcher attended the Humboldt schools where he participated in football and Glee Club. He worked part time as a heavy equipment operator for his father and as a body repair man for Linhart's Chevrolet Company of Humboldt prior to enlisting in the Marine Corps in August 1965. He completed his trainings in San Diego and at Camp Pendleton. LCPL Hatcher started a 13 month tour in Southeast Asia in January 1966. He was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in the 3rd Marine Division as a rifleman. Four months into his tour he was killed in action. LCPL Hatcher’s unit was participating in Operation Big Horn in the Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam. On April 8, 1967 he was killed by multiple fragmentation wounds inflicted by an enemy grenade during a night patrol. The 23-year-old’s body was returned to Iowa and buried at the Indian Mound Cemetery in Humboldt.