Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr.

Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr., USAF (June 21, 1920 – June 8, 1956) was the first American to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War. He was murdered by another American airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956. Through the efforts of his sister Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, a former Stoneham, Massachusetts selectwoman, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999.

Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr.
Born(1920-06-21)June 21, 1920
Stoneham, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJune 8, 1956(1956-06-08) (aged 35)
Saigon,[1] South Vietnam
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Navy
United States Air Force
Years of service1942–1946 (USN)
1946–1956 (USAF)
Rank Technical Sergeant
Battles/warsWorld War II
Vietnam War

Following in his father's footsteps, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III joined the United States Marine Corps and also later served in Vietnam, where he, too, was killed in September 1965. The Fitzgibbon deaths are one of only three amongst all US casualties in which both father and son were killed in the Vietnam War.[2]

Biography

Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. was born on June 21, 1920, in Stoneham, Massachusetts.[3] Fitzgibbon was a veteran of the United States Navy having served during World War II. After leaving the Navy, he joined the United States Air Force, rising through the ranks to become a Technical Sergeant. Fitzgibbon was serving as part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) (Detachment 1, 1173rd Foreign Mission Squadron),[3] which was involved in training military personnel in South Vietnam.[4]

Fitzgibbon was not killed in action, but rather was murdered by another American airman Staff Sergeant Edward C. Clarke. On the day he was shot, Fitzgibbon had apparently reprimanded Clarke for an incident on a flight that day. When Clarke went off duty, he began drinking heavily at a club at the base. When he exited the club, he saw Fitzgibbon across the street playing with some local children and giving out candy. Clarke drew his sidearm and shot Fitzgibbon several times. Clarke fled the shooting scene and exchanged fire with Vietnamese policemen who were chasing him. During the pursuit, Clarke jumped or fell to his death from a second-story balcony. Fitzgibbon died from his wounds on June 8, 1956.[5][6]

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.[7] This was because President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared in a speech that Army Security Agency technician Spec/4 James T. Davis, who died in a Viet Cong ambush near the village of Cau Xang on 22 December 1961, was "the first American killed in the resistance to aggression in Vietnam."

Fitzgibbon's family 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.[8] After a high level review by the DoD and through the efforts of Fitzgibbon's family, the start date of the Vietnam War Memorial was changed to November 1, 1955.[7] The November 1955 date was chosen because that was when the Vietnam Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) was created.[9] With this new date, Fitzgibbon became chronologically the first person to be listed on the memorial, replacing Dale R. Buis. Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in 1999.

The DoD had previously moved the date of the start of the Vietnam War to include the death of Capt. Harry Griffith Cramer Jr., who was killed at Nha Trang during a training accident on October 21, 1957.[10] His name was added to "The Wall" in 1983, after successful efforts by Captain Cramer's son, Lt. Col. Harry G. Cramer III USAR, 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. 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 mark the 50th Anniversary of the first Vietnam casualty. ref.[11]

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.[8]

Although not the first American to be killed in Vietnam, Fitzgibbon is chronologically the first casualty on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Lieutenant Colonel Albert Peter Dewey was mistakenly shot during an ambush by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. He was the first known American fatality in Vietnam, killed in the early aftermath of World War II.[12]

Family

Fitzgibbon's son, Marine Lance Corporal Richard B. Fitzgibbon III (March 11, 1944 – September 7, 1965), was also killed in the Vietnam War.[8] 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 (whose son is American football player Jonathan Compas). Another son, Robert "Bobby" Fitzgibbon, died in April 2011.

Through Fitzgibbon's great-grandmother, Mary Coston Fitzgibbon, Fitzgibbon was third cousin to South African artist Jeremy Wafer.

Documentary

A year after his name was added to the Vietnam memorial wall TLC did a three-part documentary called Vietnam: The Soldier's Story. The second episode, titled "Stories From the Wall" (which aired May 29, 2000), did a segment on the father and son.[4]

See also

Bibliography
Notes
  1. "Sacrifice recalled Vietnam sacrifices recalled Vietnam sacrifices recalled" – boston.com
  2. Navy Lieutenant Commander Leo Hester (Panel 16E, Line 053) died March 10, 1967 in an aircraft crash. His son, Army Warrant Officer Leo Hester Jr, was killed in action November 2, 1969 in an aircraft crash. Army Specialist Five Fred Jenkins, of the 25th Infantry Division died April 2, 1968 by drowning. His son Bert M. Jenkins, an Army Warrant officer (with the U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division) died while his aircraft was on convoy ambush support between An Loc and Lai Khe when he was hit in the head by ground fire).
  3. FootNote.com 2010
  4. Petersen-Swift 2000, p. A7
  5. Tovo 2005, p. 24
  6. Williams, Kenneth (2019). The US Air Force in Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War A Narrative Chronology Volume I: The Early Years through 1959 (PDF). Air Force History and Museums Program. p. 220. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. DoD 1998
  8. Turco 1999
  9. Lawrence 2009, p. 20
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2014-09-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. http://www.army.mil/article/5692/army-marks-50-years-since-first-vietnam-casualty/
  12. NYT 1945, p. 1
References
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