First to die in VN Sp4 James T. Davis, 22 December 1961
President Johnson later termed Davis "The first Amercian to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam." Although the US had been in Vietnam as early as 1954, and soldiers were killed in 1957 and 1959, Davis was the first casualty of what has come to be known as 'The Vietnam War.'
James Thomas Davis
3RD RADIO RESEARCH UNIT, MAAGV
Army of the United States
01 June 1936 - 22 December 1961
Livingston, Tennessee
Panel 01E Line 004
On 22 December 1961, his team was required to go to a new position. On the way, the team was ambushed by the VC. The truck in which they were riding hit a road mine, and the men were thrown from the truck. Davis was still able to function and managed to fire several rounds from his M-1 before being killed. From an investigation of the ambush area and an interview with a survivor, it was obvious that Specialist Davis died defending his comrads-in-arms. He was the first Army Security Agency soldier to be killed in the Vietnam War.
President Johnson later termed Davis "The first Amercian to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam."
For the record, the first "official" Vietnam loss is Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon on 08 June 1956; regretably his son, Marine Lance Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbon 3rd, also appears on the Wall - he was killed in action on 07 Sep 1965 while serving with H&S Company, 1/4 Marines.
The first hostile action losses were two members of an Army advisory team, Major Dale R. Buis of Pender, Nevada, and Master Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand , of Copperas Cove, Texas, who were killed (along with two ARVN security guards) in a VC raid on the team's Bien Hoa headquarters on 08 July 1959.
None of which, of course, detracts in any way from SP4 Davis' service to our country. http://www.virtualwall.org/u-army/armysecagency.htm
In the mid-1960s, the Army Security Agency, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command’s predecessor, began to send a steady flow of Soldiers to the Republic of Vietnam. These deploying Soldiers, like those currently deploying to Iraq, faced a “360-degree battlefield,” where the front lines were not clearly defined and support troops found themselves in combat situations. To prepare its Soldiers for this, the ASA Training Center and School at Fort Devens, Mass., established the Tactical Training Course in July 1965.
The TTC’s establishment fell to Lt. Col. Lewis L. Millett, who received the Medal of Honor for leading a bayonet charge during the Korean War. Millett wanted to produce the most realistic training experience possible. He found Vietnamese speaking Soldiers or Asian-American Soldiers to play the role of Viet Cong aggressors. Lacking funding to create what he envisioned, Millett and his training staff ingeniously used available resources, including lumber from razed barracks and wood from his own farm in Maine to build an authentic looking Vietnam village in the Fort Devens training area. Within two years, the TTC would boast two “Vietnamese” villages: one “friendly” and one “hostile.” The former had a Buddhist shrine, rice paddies and sapling fence, while the latter had a tunnel system and spider holes.
The 10-day training cycle was divided into two phases. During the first phase, Soldiers trained on the weapons and equipment of an ASA company that directly supported a combat division. During driver training, they practiced blackout driving as well as ambush drills. Weapons training on the rifle, machine gun, and grenade launcher were culminated with live-firing. More importantly, the Soldiers learned to perform patrolling, establish perimeters and other squad tactics. Throughout the phase, the TTC instructors stressed the six-paragraph code of conduct.
During the second phase of TTC the tactical scenarios became more intense for the students. They received Army-mandated training on the geography, history and politics of Vietnam, the Communist strategy and threat, and the U.S. mission there. This was done in the friendly Vietnamese village of Mot Dong. Between tactical squad exercises and rehearsals, the TTC instructors trained the Soldiers on emergency destruction of equipment and information as well as escape and evasion techniques. On the ninth day of the training, the students prepared for their final exercise.
In the scenario, Student Company was ordered to move from its defensive position to a more secure area. It began in a tactical convoy, but “Viet Cong” guerilla bands ambushed the convoy and destroyed its vehicles with land mines or grenades. Employing the newly trained ambush drills, the students repulsed the final assault, but were forced to continue on foot. Upon approaching the enemy village of Hai Dong, they received orders to sweep the village and its subterranean tunnel complex. The students fought their way into the village and then defended it against a counterattack. At this point, the TTC instructors told the students that they needed to organize into groups of two or three and exfiltrate to friendly lines. If successful, the student was debriefed by the intelligence officer and taken to the TTC administrative area.
Not all students were successful in making their way back to friendly lines, and some were captured by “Viet Cong” patrols. Those students underwent simulated, but surprisingly harsh, interrogation. The simulated capture and interrogation gave the Soldiers an opportunity to practice and apply the Code of Conduct. After 15 to 20 minutes of interrogation, the students were allowed to escape and rejoin their comrades.
The next morning, the students struck their bivouac and cleaned and turned in their weapons.
The TTC was an important addition to the training at the ASA Training Center and School. While most of an ASA Soldier’s training concentrated on the technical skills of the collection and analysis of signals intelligence, the TTC’s training gave basic Soldier skills needed to successfully perform their mission on the battlefield where the combat zone was ill-defined. As one deployed Soldier, reflecting on his TTC experience, wrote, “I really hope that I’ll never have to put such training to use. But, on the other hand, it is always reassuring that I’ve had it in the first place.”
