Army Marks 50 Years Since First Vietnam Casualty
A wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the first U.S. service member to die in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam Conflict was conducted Sunday at West Point Cemetery.
Capt. Harry G. Cramer Jr. died Oct. 21, 1957 near Nha Trang, South Vietnam, from an explosion.
In 1957, Capt. Cramer was placed in command of a Mobile Training Team with the mission of organizing and training the cadre of the South Vietnamese Special Forces. A graduation exercise in late October was to include realistic ambushes and raids in a field about 10 miles south of Nha Trang.
At dusk on Oct. 21, Capt. Cramer was watching the initiation of the ambush drill. The official report of death states that a "TNT block exploded" while a trainee was "in throwing position." Two Special Forces medics who treated Capt. Cramer, however, said that several Viet Cong mortar rounds were also fired at the Special Forces advisors when the ambush drill began.
Capt. Cramer was a member of the United States Military Academy Class of 1946 and he was buried at the West Point Cemetery.
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Capt. Harry G. Cramer Jr. died Oct. 21, 1957 near Nha Trang, South Vietnam, from an explosion.
In 1957, Capt. Cramer was placed in command of a Mobile Training Team with the mission of organizing and training the cadre of the South Vietnamese Special Forces. A graduation exercise in late October was to include realistic ambushes and raids in a field about 10 miles south of Nha Trang.
At dusk on Oct. 21, Capt. Cramer was watching the initiation of the ambush drill. The official report of death states that a "TNT block exploded" while a trainee was "in throwing position." Two Special Forces medics who treated Capt. Cramer, however, said that several Viet Cong mortar rounds were also fired at the Special Forces advisors when the ambush drill began.
Capt. Cramer was a member of the United States Military Academy Class of 1946 and he was buried at the West Point Cemetery.
[HNN Editor: The first US military casualty of the war, according to the Pentagon, was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. , who was killed in 1956.]