Donald Cleaver Pike
Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps

Donald Cleaver Pike was born on 11 November 1944, in Boyle County, Ky, the son of Mrs. Lee Evans. He graduated from Parksville High School in 1962 where he was active in basketball and other extracurricular activities.

On 2 July 1967, Sergeant Donald Cleaver Pike was serving with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Amphibious Force in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.

On 2 July 1967, two NVA battalions attacked from the northeast out of the DMZ with the objective of overrunning the Con Thien, which was manned at the time by 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. Bravo Company 1/9, screening Con Thien to the northeast, took the brunt of the onslaught. Once the NVA units were fixed, two additional Marine battalions were heli-lifted in and inserted in the path of the NVA advance. 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, led by Major Woodring (Delta Company TBS), and Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/3 took up positions abreast to protect Con Thien. As the bodies of 36 Marines from Bravo Company 1/9 were still on the battlefield, one of the additional missions for the two forward battalions was to continue pushing back the NVA until all of the Bravo Company bodies had been recovered.

Once in place, 3/9 to the west of Route 561 and BLT 1/3 to the east advanced slowly to the north guiding on Route 561. Once BLT 1/3 was committed to the fight, 1stLt Hayes' tanks were debarked from the USS Duluth (LPD-6) through the facilities at Naval Support Activity Dong Ha on 3 July. By 5 July, 1stLt Hayes’ tank platoon had moved from Dong Ha to Con Thien and was in the field again supporting BLT 1/3. At approximately 05:00 on 6 July, 1stLt Hayes reported to the Commanding Officer of Bravo Company BLT 1/3 with a heavy section (two gun tanks and 1 flame tank). As the morning progressed, a squad from BLT 1/3’s Charlie Company, 2nd platoon, patrolling forward of the frontline, got pinned down, a platoon from Bravo Company, BLT 1/3, led by 1stLt Mike Parker, was dispatched with the three tanks to extract them. By the time they arrived, the small arms fire had ceased, so 1stLt Hayes was directed to use his tanks to reconnoiter the 400 meters of open ground between the frontline and the tree line to the north. 1stLt Hayes took his two gun tanks and moved forward about 300 meters. 1stLt Hayes had the top hatch on his tank open, but he was hunkered down to facilitate providing navigation and targeting instructions to his crews. As he closed to 100 meters from the tree line, shots rang out and he was shot in the left arm, left cheek, left eye and left side of the head. With his tank crew preoccupied dealing with their Lieutenant’s wounds, the NVA moved a 57mm recoilless rifle into position and at 12:10 fired a round at the tank, which disabled its turret. The tank crew pulled 1stLt Hayes and another wounded crewman out of the turret and laid them on the ground behind their tank. A corpsman from Bravo Company BLT 1/3 rushed forward to assist the wounded.

Six Marines and a Navy Corpsman from BLT 1/3 were killed in action as a result of the NVA ambush on 6 July 1967 and in the follow-on actions to recover the dead and wounded. The following were killed while participating in Operation Buffalo in Quang Tri Province approximately 3 kilometers northeast of Con Thien (YD 140723). All bodies were recovered:

● 1stLt Wayne Michael Hayes [Honoree Record ID 252427] Died of wounds from small arms fire.
● SSgt Gilberto Caballero [Honoree Record ID 237948] Died of wounds from artillery, rocket, or mortar fire.
● SSgt John J. Malloy [Honoree Record ID 262055] Died of wounds from small arms fire.
● Sgt Donald C. Pike [Honoree Record ID 270671] Died of wounds from small arms fire.
● Sgt Randall K. Russell [Honoree Record ID 274804] Died of wounds from artillery, rocket, or mortar fire.
● PO3 Thomas L. McCarter [Honoree Record ID 263325] Died of wounds from artillery, rocket, or mortar fire. Posthumous promotion.
● PFC Verne M. Greeley [Honoree Record ID 250083] Died of wounds from artillery, rocket, or mortar fire.

Medals and Awards

Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal

Honors

The name Donald Cleaver Pike is located on Panel 23E Line 022 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Family

Donald was married to Ruth Ann Regan Pike and they had two sons, Dan and Anthony Todd Pike.

Burial

Sergeant Donald Cleaver Pike is buried at Danville Memorial Gardens in Danville, KY.