Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.. - Wikipedia Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.. Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr. ( 1920 - 06 - 21 ) June 21, 1920 Stoneham, Massachusetts, U.S. June 8, 1956 ( 1956 - 06 - 08 ) ( aged 35 ) Vietnam Allegiance United States of America Service / branch United States Air Force Years of service - 1956 Rank Technical Sergeant Battles / wars World War II, Vietnam War Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr. ( June 21, 1920 -- June 8, 1956 ), USAF, was the first American to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War. He was murdered by another airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956. Through the efforts of his sister and former selectwoman Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, Fitzgibbon 's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999. Following in his father 's footsteps, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III joined the United States Marine Corps and also later served in Vietnam, where he, too, was killed in September 1965. The Fitzgibbon deaths are one of only three amongst all US casualties in which both father and son were killed in the Vietnam War. Navy Lieutenant Commander Leo Hester ( Panel 16E, Line 053 ) died March 10, 1967 in an aircraft crash. His son, Army Warrant Officer Leo Hester Jr, was killed in action November 2, 1969 in an aircraft crash. Army Specialist Five Fred Jenkins, of the 25th Infantry Division died April 2, 1968 by drowning. His son Bert M. Jenkins, an Army Warrant officer ( with the U.S. Army 's First Infantry Division ) died while his aircraft was on convoy ambush support between An Loc and Lai Khe when he was hit in the head by ground fire ). Their story was made into a TLC documentary. Contents 1 Biography 2 Recognition 3 Family 4 Documentary 5 See also 6 Bibliography 7 External links Biography Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. was born on June 21, 1920, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Fitzgibbon was a veteran of the United States Navy having served during World War II. After leaving the Navy, he joined the United States Air Force, rising through the ranks to become a Technical Sergeant. Fitzgibbon was serving as part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group ( MAAG ) ( Detachment 1, 1173rd Foreign Mission Squadron ), which was involved in training military personnel in South Vietnam. Fitzgibbon was not killed in action, but rather was murdered by another American airman. On the day he was shot, Fitzgibbon was serving as the crew chief on an aircraft when he had an angry argument with one of the crew. When the other airman went off duty, he began drinking heavily at a club at the base. When he exited the club, he saw Fitzgibbon across the street playing with some local children and giving out candy. The airman drew his sidearm and shot Fitzgibbon several times. Fitzgibbon died from those wounds on June 8, 1956. Recognition For 43 years, his death was regarded by the United States government as too early to be classified as a Vietnam War casualty. The DoD department that handled the Vietnam Veterans Memorial originally started its database at Jan. 1, 1961. This was because President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared in a speech that Army Security Agency technician Spec / 4 James T. Davis, who died in a Viet Cong ambush near the village of Cau Xang on 22 December 1961, was `` The first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam. '' Fitzgibbon 's family lobbied to have the date changed, and their cause was taken up by U.S. Representative Ed Markey ( D - 7th District, MA ) of Malden, Massachusetts. After a high level review by the DoD and through the efforts of Fitzgibbon 's family, the start date of the Vietnam War Memorial was changed to November 1, 1955. The November 1955 date was chosen because that was when the Vietnam Military Assistance Advisory Group ( MAAG ) was created. With this new date, Fitzgibbon became chronologically the first person to be listed on the memorial, replacing Dale R. Buis. Fitzgibbon 's name was added to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in 1999. The DoD had previously moved the date of the start of the Vietnam conflict to include the death of Capt. Harry Griffith Cramer Jr., who was killed at Nha Trang during a training accident on October 21, 1957. His name was added to `` The Wall '' in 1983, after successful efforts by Captain Cramer 's son, Lt. Col. Harry G. Cramer III USAR, then an active duty Army officer, to get DoD to acknowledge his father 's death, as well as the presence of MAAG forces in Vietnam years prior to the officially recognized date of 1961. Capt. Cramer 's son asked that his father 's name simply be added to the center ( 1E ) stone, out of sequence, but it is still clearly listed in the chronological book at `` The Wall '' as 1957, not 1959. The Army conducted an official ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, from which Capt. Cramer had graduated, in October 2007 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first Vietnam casualty. ref. As part of the ceremony to add his name to the memorial, The Today Show host Katie Couric interviewed members of the Fitzgibbon family at their Harwich Port summer residence. Although not the first American to be killed in Vietnam, Fitzgibbon is chronologically the first casualty on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Lieutenant Colonel Albert Peter Dewey was mistakenly shot during an ambush by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. He was the first known American fatality in Vietnam, killed in the early aftermath of World War II. Family Fitzgibbon 's son, Marine Lance Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbon, III ( 1944 - 1965 ), was also killed in the Vietnam War. Both father and son are interred at Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree, Massachusetts. He is survived by his wife Eunice Fitzgibbon Jackson, daughters Trudy McDermott and Linda Compas ( whose son is American football player Jonathan Compas ). Another son, Robert `` Bobby '' Fitzgibbon, died in April 2011. Through Fitzgibbon 's great - grandmother, Mary Coston Fitzgibbon, Fitzgibbon was third cousin to South African artist Jeremy Wafer. Documentary A year after his name was added to the Vietnam memorial wall TLC did a three - part documentary called `` Vietnam : The Soldier 's Story ''. The second episode, titled `` Stories From the Wall '' ( which aired May 29, 2000 ), did a segment on the father and son. See also United States Air Force portal Capt. Harry Griffith Cramer Jr. was a Special Forces adviser with the Mobile Training Team, 14th SFOD, 1st Special Forces Group, MAAGV. He was wounded by a faulty explosive charge during a training exercise and died from his injuries on October 21, 1957. He was previously considered the first Vietnam War casualty from 1983 to 1999 and is still considered the first Special Forces casualty of the Vietnam War and the first casualty of the 1st Special Forces Group. His name was added to the Wall in 1983. Major Dale R. Buis ( d. July 8, 1959 ) and Master Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand ( d. July 8, 1959 ), were formerly the first names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the US. Buis and Ovnand were MAAGV advisers stationed at a compound in Bien Hoa that trained units of the South Vietnamese army. They and two ARVN soldiers and a child were killed and another adviser was wounded during a VC attack on their base. Like Fitzgibbon they were previously discounted because they died before the January 1, 1961 deadline. Bibliography Notes ^ Jump up to : FootNote.com 2010 ^ Jump up to : Petersen - Swift 2000, p. A7 Jump up ^ RICHARD B FITZGIBBON - Randy Gravenor Jump up ^ Tovo 2005, p. 24 ^ Jump up to : DoD 1998 ^ Jump up to : Turco 1999 Jump up ^ Lawrence 2009, p. 20 Jump up ^ `` Archived copy ''. Archived from the original on 2012 - 05 - 25. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 24. Jump up ^ http://www.army.mil/article/5692/army-marks-50-years-since-first-vietnam-casualty/ Jump up ^ NYT 1945, p. 1 References DoD ( November 6, 1998 ). `` Name of Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ''. Department of Defense ( DoD ). Retrieved March 31, 2010. FootNote.com ( 2010 ). `` Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr ''. National Archives and Records Administration. FootNote.com. Retrieved March 31, 2010. Hall, Billy ( 2009 ). Bulletproof : In Vietnam ( 2009 ed. ). AuthorHouse. ISBN 1 - 4490 - 4227 - 9. - Total pages : 224 Lawrence, A.T. ( 2009 ). Crucible Vietnam : Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant ( 2009 ed. ). McFarland. ISBN 0 - 7864 - 4517 - 3. - Total pages : 247 NYT ( September 28, 1945 ), Indo - China rebels kill U.S. Officer ; Slay Lieut. Col. A. Peter Dewey From Ambush, New York, N.Y. : The New York Times, p. 1. Petersen - Swift, Deborah ( May 26, 2000 ). `` Vietnam Documentary puts spotlight on family 's losses ''. The Hartford Courant. Hartford. p. A7. Retrieved March 31, 2010. Tovo, Ken ( March 18, 2005 ). `` From the ashes of the Phoenix : Lessons for contemporary counterinsurgency operations '' ( PDF ). Air University. Retrieved March 31, 2010. Turco, Al ( June 2, 1999 ). `` Fitzgibbon 's name is on the Wall ''. Stoneham Independent. Archived from the original on December 19, 2006. Retrieved March 31, 2010. United States, Government ( 2010 ). `` Statistical information about casualties of the Vietnam War ''. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 6, 2010. External links Vietnam Wall memorial Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_B._Fitzgibbon_Jr.&oldid=843043393 '' Categories : United States Air Force airmen 1920 births 1956 deaths American military personnel killed in the Vietnam War American military personnel of World War II United States Navy sailors People from Weymouth, Massachusetts Murdered military personnel People murdered in Vietnam American people murdered abroad Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 26 May 2018, at 13 : 46. About Wikipedia

Question: who was the first soldier killed in vietnam
Answer: Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr.