Post a reply || Back to 1/50th Infantry Association Message Board

Our KIA LIst - Coffelt Database

Submitted by Jim Sheppard - Assn. Historian <kiss-ac@juno.com> on 19/Jun/2008
138.89.225.250

Message:

Folks,

Please take a minute to look over the latest version of the Coffelt Database Uploaded to the site yesterday (go to the “In Memoriam” page: http://www.ichiban1.org/html/bnkia.htm ).

As most of you know, this is a list of casualties, put together by a group of mostly concerned Veteran volunteers, to try to list all casualties by unit. It is a massive undertaking, and the initial version, which was distributed about 6 years ago, had so many errors that most historians use it as a tool only very cautiously.

We are currently attempting to update our KIA files…primarily to find surviving family members and have their contact information for various reasons, not the least of which is to invite them to participate in future memorial services at Fort Benning.

As this search progresses, we are finding mistakes in our own list of KIAs.

You all should know that, given the limited sources of accurate information, our list was assembled (Mostly by former Webmaster Ray Sarlin) using a basic philosophy of “It’s better to have too many…or a wrong inclusion, than to leave someone off who belongs”. I wish I had Ray to work with as we do this, but he has more or less abandoned us. We are still grateful for all the work he did for us in the past, and I am still amazed that we have not, to this date, found anyone who was left off our memorial! Good job Ray!

With about 1/3rd of our casualties having been researched so far, we have found 4 men on our list who were definitely not in the 1/50th. This does not include one or two Forward Air Controllers who were “attached” personnel. We expect to find more.

For a broad overview, Coffelt has roughly one hundred sixty something names…and we still list over 200! It’s easy to see there is much room for correction on both sides.

For an example of how these wrong unit affiliations are sometimes listed…I will include a response I sent to Barbara Anne Daniels, our finding aide person, when she asked about a man listed in several places as 4th Infantry Division…at a time when we were clearly assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade:

Barbara,

In this instance (and if you check our list "By Date", you will see 5 or 6 in a row listed as 4th Inf. Div.) we were operating in the area of Highway 19...between Anh Khe and Pleiku. The 4th Infantry Division was based at Pleiku & it is very likely that severely wounded men would have been taken (Usually via helicopter, “medivac”) to Pleiku's Medical facility. Often, those keeping records "Assumed" the casualty was from the Major Command in their location...or they had to "guess" since records were slow to catch up to casualties at times. For these reasons, the record may erroneously reflect the wrong unit affiliation.

These errors are being corrected...one at a time by those working on the Coffelt Database. It is extremely encouraging to see these men so dedicated to this work. I can also see vast amounts of progress as I peruse their latest updated database. They are very dependant on organizations such as ours to provide information...both eyewitness and documented...to aid them in this refinement.

With this statement in view, I ask you all to go to our “In Memoriam” page and download the latest version of the Coffelt Database. The document is in Microsoft Excel Format & requires that you have that application on your computer to view to document. If you do not have Microsoft Office or the Excel Application, you might be able to download a program to” view only” from Microsoft: Go to the Microsoft Home Page or do a search for “Excel Viewer”. I believe it is a free download and will enable you to view the document, but not change it in any way.

If you find something in error, please forward the information to Jim Sheppard. I ask that you send information ONE MAN AT A TIME, and not any massive list of errors. We are looking for names and dates that you definitely remember as being with the 1/50th. Look for omissions and for inclusions that are wrong on Coffelt. If you believe someone on our list is wrong, send me a note on that man as well. I will respond to all such submissions.

Best Regards,

Jim Sheppard
Your Historian

Replies to this post

No replies yet