Hometown: Colorado Springs, CO
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: B Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Military Honors: Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: March 28, 1969 - KIA in Bình Dương province, South Vietnam
Age: 38 
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Sergeant First Class Fred Lee Gabbin was a career soldier who served in both Korea and Vietnam. He was born on January 18, 1931, in New York City, as the early years of the Great Depression (1929-1939) gripped the United States.

Gabbin’s parents—Joseph and Eva Ruth (Perry) Gabbin—raised Fred and his younger brothers Joseph Jr. and Donald in New York.

After high school, Fred enlisted in the United States Army in 1948. He would re-enlist several times and in his 20 years as an infantryman, Gabbin was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and a Purple Heart.

His military assignments would bring Fred Gabbin to Fort Rucker, 80 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama. There he met his wife Viola, and the two would later welcome four children: Fred Jr., Joseph, Jeanette, and Eva Marie.

When the Army transferred him to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Fred and Viola purchased a home off-base, where they raised their young family.

Following World War II (1939-1945) and the dawn of the atomic age, the United States and the Soviet Union—uneasy allies during the war—emerged as rival superpowers. Both had enormous militaries with nuclear capabilities, and the world entered a new era of fear, distrust, and competition.

Dubbed “the Cold War,” global tensions would reach a state of crisis over the next four decades as the world’s democracies sought to contain the spread of Communism promoted by the Soviet Union. With each side capable of destroying the other with nuclear missiles, the world stood on the brink of destruction with each new conflict.

Sergeant First Class Fred Gabbin served in the infantry during two of the costliest conflicts of the Cold War: The Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (1959-1975).

In the 1960s, the United States sent troops to South Vietnam to prevent the country from being absorbed by Chinese Communist-supported North Vietnam.

SFC Gabbin was assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and sent to South Vietnam. In February 1966, an Associated Press reporter interviewed Gabbin for an article describing the heavy toll in Vietnam. Gabbin is quoted as saying, “each time we go out we take our casualties from mines. First it was one platoon, then another and now another.”

After serving his country for more than 20 years in uniform, Sergeant First Class Fred Lee Gabbin was lost on March 28, 1969 when his truck ran over an explosive device in Bình Dương province, South Vietnam. He was 38 years old.

SFC Gabbin is buried in Long Island National Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York. He is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where his name is inscribed on Panel 28W, Line 69.

Sources
Details submitted by Mr. Franklin Harris, SFC Gabbin’s cousin.
Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, April 2, 1969: Springs Man is Killed in Vietnam
Poughkeepsie Journal, February 23, 1966: Mines, Snipers Still Take Toll
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, The Wall of Faces: Fred Lee Gabbin
Together We Served: Gabbin, Fred Lee, SFC
HonorStates.org: Fred Lee Gabbin
Burial Site: Find a Grave