Staff Sergeant Gish was a member of the 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron, 7th Air Force. In early 1967, he volunteered for a sensitive assignment named Project Heavy Green. He was placed on temporary duty with Lockeed Aircraft to establish a secret radar site, called Lima Site 85, located on a mountain called Phou Pha Thi near the town of Sam Neua, Laos. He was assisted by 19 other airmen. They spent three months of gathering valuable information. On March 11, 1968, the communists launched an attack on the unarmed site and overran it. Six of the wounded were rescued by a helicopter. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.