Hometown: Harding, MN
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: B Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: November 26, 1970 - KIA in Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam
Age: 20 
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

Lyle Hayes grew up on a farm near Harding, Minnesota, along with three brothers and four sisters. He loved animals, had his own horse, and—like many farm children—was active in 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

He graduated from Little Falls (MN) High School in 1968. Lyle and his older brothers, along with their cousins, loved to go ice racing in old cars on frozen Vinegar Lake.

Lyle worked for Eagle Construction Company and was also called upon to work the family farm as his older brothers Butch and Gerard were away serving in the military.

Older brother Rhynard remembers, “Lyle was always thinking of something, always had something to do. He would have been a great inventor. He could make things out of nothing.”

When Butch and Gerard returned home from active duty, Lyle was drafted into the Army and entered the service on May 5, 1970. He went through basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and infantry training at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

Hayes was sent to Vietnam on October 4, 1970. Less than two months later, he was killed in an explosion during hostile action on November 26—Thanksgiving Day—in the mountains of Quang Ngai province, South Vietnam.

PFC Hayes was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for distinguished service in ground operations, along with a Purple Heart and Army Commendation Medal.

Lyle Dennis Hayes is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., his name inscribed on Panel 06w, Line 83.

Sources
Details submitted by Mr. Zaryn Schwab, PFC Hayes’s great-niece
Card photo (digitally restored) provided by the family
Together We Served: Hayes, Lyle Dennis, PFC
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Wall of Faces: Lyle Dennis Hayes
The Virtual Wall: Lyle Dennis Hayes
HonorStates.org: Lyle Dennis Hayes
Burial Site: Find a Grave