<Tr> <Th> Rank </Th> <Td> Technical Sergeant </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Battles / wars </Th> <Td> World War II, Vietnam War </Td> </Tr> <P> Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr . (June 21, 1920--June 8, 1956), USAF, 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 airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956 . Through the efforts of his sister and former selectwoman Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999 . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

Who was the first soldier killed in vietnam