Vietnam War Memorial Slide Show
July 8, 1959, in a South Vietnamese mess hall, American and Vietnamese soldiers were gathering to watch a movie. While they were enjoying the film, guerillas from North Vietnam surrounded the building – after the first reel of film had finished, they opened fire.
It was during this attack the first two Americans were killed in the Vietnam conflict. Army Maj. Dale R. Buis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand were both shot and killed in the attack, in addition to two South Vietnamese guards.
Wednesday, July 8, marked the 50th anniversary of these men’s deaths. The leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund commemorated their sacrifice by hosting a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (“The Wall”) on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The two Soldiers weren’t originally going to be included among the listed casualties of the Vietnam War, because the Department of Defense didn’t consider the war to have begun until 1961. The struggle to recognize Buis and Ovnand echoes the surviving veterans’ struggles for respect and recognition after returning from the battlefront.
With the help of retired Army Col. Nathaniel P. Ward III, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army Military Assistance Advisory Group in Vietnam from 1958 to 1960, the two were included on the list. Their names now grace the apex of the memorial, directly under the year 1959, when America lost its first men fighting the North Vietnamese.
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