Master Sergeant Chester Melvin Ovnand (also known with surname Ovnard) (September 8, 1914 – July 8, 1959) was the first American casualty of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

killed at the hands of the

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

. His name is the second listed on the

Vietnam Veterans Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those ...

Life and career

Chester M. Ovnand (also called "Chet") was from

Thief River Falls, Minnesota Thief River Falls, sometimes referred to as Thief River or abbreviated as TRF, is a city in Pennington County in the northwest portion of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 8,749 at the 2020 census. Thief River Falls is the county ...

and was born to Engebret Ovnand and Maybelle Welch. Army records conflict as to what his actual name was—Charles Melvin Ovnand or Chester Melvin Ovnard—though that the latter appears on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is possibly an indication of general consensus among the Memorial's planners. On March 1, 1940 he and his wife Catherine Irene Reynard (June, 1917 - November, 1994) bore a daughter, Margret Ann Ovnand. Five years after her birth Chester Ovnand left for Copperas Cove, Texas, where he met his second wife Mildred, who forbid him from making contact with his daughter. He returned once when Margret was twelve before leaving for war. He served 1943-1945 in WWII, 1950-1953 in the Korean war and 1958-1959 in Vietnam. On July 8, 1959, he and Major Dale R. Buis (visiting from

MAAG Maag is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Bruno Maag (born 1962), Swiss type designer * Dan Maag (born 1975), German film producer * Karin Maag (born 1962), German politician * Peter Maag (1919–2001), Swiss conductor * R ...

5) were killed at

Biên Hòa Biên Hòa (Northern accent: , Southern accent: ) is the capital city of Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam and part of the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area and located about east of Ho Chi Minh City, to which Biên Hòa is linked by Vietnam Hi ...

, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. He was part of the

Military Assistance Advisory Group Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is a designation for United States military advisors sent to other countries to assist in the training of conventional armed forces and facilitate military aid. Although numerous MAAGs operated around ...

7 sent to train the South Vietnamese army. The

attacked the mess hall where he and five officers were watching the movie ''

The Tattered Dress ''The Tattered Dress'' is a 1957 American CinemaScope film noir crime film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Jack Carson, Gail Russell and Elaine Stewart. Plot In a Californi ...

''. M/Sgt Ovnand switched on the lights to change to the next reel, when VC guerrillas poked their weapons through the windows and sprayed the room with automatic weapons fire. M/Sgt Ovnand was hit with several 9mm rounds. He immediately switched the lights off and headed to the top of the stairs, where he was able to turn on the exterior flood lights. He died from his wounds on the stairs. Major Buis, at that time, was crawling towards the kitchen doors. When the exterior flood lights came on, he must have seen an attacker coming through the kitchen doors. He got up and rushed towards the attacker, but was only able to cover 15 feet before being fatally hit from behind. His actions startled the attacker who was about to throw his satchel charge through the door. The attacker's satchel charge had already been activated and his moment of hesitation caused him to blow himself up. Two South Vietnamese guards that were on duty that night were also killed by the Viet Cong. The wounded were Captain Howard Boston (MAAG 7) and the Vietnamese cook's eight-year-old son.

Life and career

See also

Further reading