Gerald Young was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois.  He served in the Navy from 1947 to 1952 and again from 1955 to 1956  when he transferred to the Air Force.  During the Vietnam War he served as a captain in the 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, a helicopter unit operating out of Da Nang Air Force Base, Republic of Vietnam.

On the night of November 8–9, 1967, Young's aircraft was one of two HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopters sent to extract five survivors of a U.S. Army Special Forces reconnaissance team in Laos.  The extraction site was known to be hot, surrounded by a well-disciplined, crack North Vietnamese Army (NVA) battalion.  Two helicopters had already been shot down and destroyed in the area.  Illuminated by a C-130 Hercules dropping LUU-2 parachute flares, "Jolly 29" made a pickup of three survivors before being driven off by intense enemy fire.  Young, piloting "Jolly 26," then attempted to pick up the remaining two survivors, both now wounded.  Fighting was intense both in the air and on the ground.  A U.S. Air Force pararescueman aboard Young's aircraft, Larry W. Maysey, jumped from the helicopter and ran down a steep slope, rescuing the two remaining men.  "Jolly 26" was now being hit with small arms fire.  Just after Maysey had helped both survivors safely on board, a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) struck the number one engine, fatally crippling the craft.  The engine exploded, inverting the helicopter, which rolled and skidded down a deep ravine and burst into flames; Young and one other man survived the crash and escaped the burning wreckage.  Despite severe wounds, Young evaded capture for seventeen hours until being rescued later that day.  As a result of Captain Young's efforts, the other survivor of the crash was ultimately rescued and the bodies of those servicemembers who perished were also recovered.   For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.  The pararescueman, Maysey, was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross.

Young reached the rank of Lieutenant colonel before leaving the Air Force in 1980.  He was 60 years old when he died and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. 

 

At our institution ceremony, LTC Young's widow, Yadi Young, presented the post with a scrapbook of pictures and news articles about Gerald's actions, his internment at Arlington National Cemetery, and memorials dedicated to his life.