Richard B . Fitzgibbon , Jr . Richard B . Fitzgibbon , Jr . was the first person to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War . He was killed by another U . S . airman . The United States Air Force Technical Sergeant died on June 8 , 1956 . Through the efforts of his sister , Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi , Fitzgibbon ' s name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial in 1999 . Following his father ' s footsteps , Richard B . Fitzgibbon III joined the United States Marine Corps and also served in Vietnam , where he too was killed in September 1965 . The Fitzgibbon deaths are one of only three amongst US casualties in which both father and son were killed in the Vietnam War . Bio . Richard B . Fitzgibbon , Jr . was born on June 21 , 1920 , in Stoneham , Massachusetts Fitzgibbon was a veteran of the U . S . Navy and served during World War II . After leaving the Navy , he joined the United States Air Force rising through the ranks to become Technical Sergeant . Fitzgibbon was serving as part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group ( MAAG ) ( DET 1 , 1173RD FOR MSN SQD ) , which was involved in training military personnel in South Vietnam . Fitzgibbon was not killed in action , but rather was murdered by another United States airman 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 . The family of Fitzgibbon 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 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 the first person to die in the Vietnam War , moving Dale R . Buis to second . Fitzgibbon ' s name was added to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in 1999 . [ This is factually incorrect . DoD had previously moved the date of the start of the Vietnam conflict and officially recognized Capt . Harry Griffith Cramer Jr . , who was killed at Nha Trang during a Viet Cong attack 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 ( U . S . A . R ) , 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 ( Dod was not responsible for erecting " The Wall " - that was done by a private organization , founded and run by Jan C . Scruggs , through contributions from the public . DoD only supplied information . Because the late recognition of Capt . Cramer ' s death would have meant that , in order to have the names inscribed in chronological sequence , the generous contributions of other Americans would have to be spent on carving an entirely new stone for the earliest dates , 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 make 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 . Albert Peter Dewey , who was shot by accident by Viet Minh troops on September 26 , 1945 , was the first known American fatality in Vietnam , killed in the early aftermath of World War II . Fitzgibbon ' s son , Marine Lance Corporal Richard B . Fitzgibbon , III ( 1944 - 1965 ) , was also killed in the Vietnam war making the Fitzgibbons one of only three father - son pairs on the wall . 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 . His son , Robert " Bobby " Fitzgibbon , died in April 2011 . Family . Through Fitzgibbon ' s great - grandmother , Mary Coston Fitzgibbon , Richard is Third Cousin to South African Artist , Jeremy Wafer . Documentary . A year after his name was added to the Vietnam memorial wall TLC did a documentary , " Vietnam : Stories From the Wall " , on the father and son .