Saturday, March 20, 1999
1LT John Cochrane
Killed in Action
--- General / Personal ---
Last name: COCHRANE
First name: JOHN FLOYD
Home of Record (official): DEARBORN
State (official): MI
Date of Birth: Wednesday, April 16, 1941
Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian
Marital Status: Married
--- Military ---
Branch: Army
Rank: 1LT
Serial Number: O5325229
Component: Reserve
Pay grade: O2
MOS (Military Occupational Specialty code): 9630
--- Action ---
Start of Tour: Unknown/Not reported
Date of Casualty: Monday, October 24, 1966
Age at time of loss: 25
Casualty type: (A1) Hostile, died
Reason: Other explosive device (Ground casualty)
Country: South VietNam
Province: Unknown/Not Reported
The Wall: Panel 11E - Row 102
LASTNAME: COCHRANE FIRSTNAME: JOHN FLOYD IDNO: O5325229
SVC: A COMP: V RANK: 1LT GRADE: O2 MOS: 9630 AGE: 25 HOME:
DEARBORN ST: MI CASDATE: 19661024 CAS1: A1 CAS2: G CAS3: 7 BODY:
--- CTRY: VS PROV: 99 LSVC: 04 BIRDATE: 19410416 RACE: C REL: PN
MAR: M SEX: M CIT: 1 TOURD: ------ PANL: 11E LINE: 102 REFNO: 3438
PDATE: 6610
Details:
While in the 409th, 1LT John Cochrane was the operations officer and my OIC and was killed on 24 Oct 66. I remember that day very well. The detachment commander, LT Cochrane and an acting Sargeant, who was driving, left the Long Binh staging area in search of PRD1 sites. When out of sight of the staging area, the Captain told the Sergeant to get in back and let him drive. That placed LT Cochrane in the passenger seat. Somewhere south of Xuan Loc, in the vicinity of what was to be the 11th ACR compound,
a sniper fired two shots. The first went through the oil filter stopping the engine. The second shot went through the windshield, clipped LT Cochrane's helmet liner and struck him between the eyes. There are pictures showing the only visible damage to the M151 as a hole in the windshield. I guess the reason I remember it so is that the Captain chewed my ass out for not knowing that the sniper was there (hell we usually could not pin point the regiments, let alone a single VC). The Captain proceeded to the
303rd BN while we at the detachment had to contact LT Cochrane's wife who was enroute to Hawaii to meet him on R&R. It was shortly after that I put in a transfer to the 337th RR Co to vary rotation dates.
David N. McDonald
dmcdonld@mail.sdf.bellsouth.net
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