Charles Ovnand
Encyclopedia
Master Sergeant Chester Melvin Ovnand (September 8, 1914 - July 8, 1959) was formerly listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for during the War.Its...

 as the second American killed in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

.

MSGT Ovnand (also called Charles Ovnand, but listed on the wall as Chester) was from Copperas Cove, Texas
Copperas Cove, Texas
Copperas Cove is a city located in central Texas at the southern corner of Coryell County, with city limits extending into neighboring Bell and Lampasas Counties. Founded in 1879 as a small ranching and farming community, today the city is the largest in Coryell County, with more than 30,000...

. 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.

He and Dale R. Buis
Dale R. Buis
U.S. Army Major Dale Richard Buis was formerly the first name listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.Buis originally hailed from Pender, Nebraska, and graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri. He was part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group sent in 1955 to train...

 were killed at Bien Hoa
Bien Hoa
Biên Hòa is a city in Dong Nai province, Vietnam, about east of Ho Chi Minh City , to which Bien Hoa is linked by Vietnam Highway 1.- Demographics :In 1989 the estimated population was over 300,000. In 2005, the population wss 541,495...

, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. He was part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group
Military Assistance Advisory Group
Military Assistance Advisory Group is a designation for American military advisers sent to assist in the training of conventional armed forces of Third World countries. Before and during the Vietnam War, there were three of these groups operating in Southeast Asia...

sent to train the South Vietnam army. The Vietcong attacked while the two were in a mess hall watching a movie.

Further reading

"Death at Intermission Time", Time, July 20, 1959.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK