Maj. Dale R. Buis and Master Sgt. Chester M. Ovnand became
the first Americans killed in the American phase of the Vietnam 
War when guerrillas strike a Military Assistance Advisory Group
(MAAG) compound in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon.

The group had arrived in South Vietnam on November 1, 1955,
to provide military assistance. The organization consisted of
U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel  
who provided advice and assistance to the Ministry of
Defense, Joint General Staff, corps and  the division
commanders, training centers, and province and district
headquarters.

Sergeant Stubby, a bull terrier mutt, received a gold medal from America’s WWI commanding general John Pershing for
“heroism of highest caliber” in 17 battles.

Stubby died in his sleep in March 1926. He was 8 or 9 years old.

Gen. John Pershing awards Sergeant Stubby with a medal
from the Humane Education Society at a White House
ceremony.

Sergeant Stubby’s brick at Liberty Memorial.

Near Sojong, South Korea, Private Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-
year-old infantryman from Skin Fork, West Virginia, became
the first American reported killed in the Korean War.

Shadrick, a member of a bazooka squad, had just fired the
weapon at a Soviet-made tank when he looked up to check
his aim and was cut down by enemy machine-gun fire.

The total U.S. dead in the Korean War numbers 36,516.

July 3, 1863: On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking
the Union line ended in disastrous failure, bringing the most
decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end.

Robert E. Lee by Pompeo Coppini – University of Texas
at Austin, Austin, Texas.

In the first major offensive ordered for U.S. forces in Vietnam,
3,000 troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade—in conjunction
with 800 Australian soldiers and a Vietnamese airborne unit—
assault a jungle area known as Viet Cong Zone D, 20 miles
northeast of Saigon.

The operation was called off after three days when it failed to
make any major contact with the enemy. One American was
killed and nine Americans and four Australians were wounded.

The State Department assured the American public that the
operation was in accord with Johnson administration policy
on the role of U.S. troops.