What are the dates 1959 and 1975 on the Wall?
1959 is the year that the Department of Defense gave as the date in which the first American casualties occurred. The first two men listed, Dale R. Buis and Chester N Ovnard (this name was a misspelling, it should have read “Chester A Ovnand”), were military advisors, killed on July 8th in Bien Hoa while watching a movie in a mess tent. However, after the dedication of the Memorial in November 1982, it was learned that a Captain Harry Cramer had been killed in action in 1957. His name was subsequently added to the Memorial, but it was impossible to change the 1959 date on the granite panel. In 2000, Richard Fitzgibbon, Jr. who had been killed in 1956 had his name inscribed on the Wall.
