Lance CpI. Stephen Ernest Bayles

Aug. 18, 1950 - Nov. 10, 1969

Biggs

Steve Bayles grew up in Biggs excelling at sports, but his real love was horses. His mother says he could “break any horse, ride any horse.” He even took a horse with him in 1968 when he left Biggs to finish high school at Orme School in Mayer, Arizona.

After he graduated from Orme, Bayles returned to Biggs. Three months later, on Sept. 10, 1968. he enlisted in the Marine Corps. In May of 1969 he was shipped over to Vietnam.

The 19-year-old Marine was wounded once and sent to a hospital in the Philippines to recover. When his wounds healed he was sent back to the front, such as it was in Vietnam.

Near dusk on November 10, 1969, while he was sitting in a defensive position with his platoon four miles from a combat base near An Hoa, an enemy booby trap was detonated next to Bayles.

Although a corpsman rushed to his side, the young rifleman was mortally wounded by the fragments and died almost instantly.

Chico News & Review, May 26, 1988

National Archives

Chico News & Review