CPL Gene DiRita
Roseville, Michigan
14 Sep 1947-10 Dec 1967
Recon Platoon

This is a continuing project to attempt to identify and honor those members of the United States Army who sacrificed their lives while serving with the 2nd Battalion 60th Infantry 9th US Infantry Division.  Every possible effort has been and will continue to be made to accurately and correctly associate names with battalions and with companies within battalions.  We deeply regret any omissions from this list and we also deeply regret any erroneous identifications in
this list.  This is a very difficult undertaking given that the effort was begun 32 years after the battalion deployed in-country in South Vietnam and given that there is no single source of casualty documentation available for research (and none which contains unit identification below Division level). If you have knowledge which suggests an addition, a deletion, or a correction to the list, please contact former members of the battalion involved with this project.

Approximately 200 former members maintain memberships in the Joint Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force Association, Vietnam. You may contact us through the MRFA at http://www.mrfa.org, or via the Mobile Riverine Force Association, 106 Belleview Drive NE, Conover, NC 28613.

This Listing is based on a variety of sources or evidence including circumstantially by reason of date, province, cause of death and MOS.  The first basic point of reference is the Department of Defense Combined Area Casualty File (CACF) of November, 1993, which lists the names and much other information for the more than 58,000 members of the Armed Forces who died in Southeast Asia. The second basic point of reference is The Adjutant General’s Central Casualty File (TAGCEN) which identifies each casualty with a Major Command (in our case, the 2,630 total casualties of the 9th Infantry Division).  Attempts are being made to visit the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to examine microfiche of 2nd 60th source documents including Battalion Rosters and organic company Morning Reports.  Many former members of the battalion have assisted in compiling this list through personal recollections.  In addition, we have been greatly assisted by information provided by Mr. Richard Coffelt who served as a Sergeant in the US Army in the 1950's.  Mr. Coffelt has studied the American involvement in Vietnam for many years and has assisted several Unit Associations with historical research.  In particular, Mr. Coffelt provided us with the names of more than 700 9th Infantry Division casualties identified down to the company/battery/troop level which he has painstakingly researched for 13 years.  We greatly appreciate Mr. Coffelt's assistance and are deeply grateful to him.  Additional sources include VIETNAM STUDIES, RIVERINE OPERATIONS 1966-1969, published by the Department of the Army, and DA, HDQS, 2D BATTALION, 60TH INFANTRY, APO SAN FRANCISCO 96371, Annual Supplement to Unit History 1968, provided by US Army History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA.

THIS LISTING SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDES NON-INFANTRY, NON-MEDIC, MOS's except in unusual cases and as such is not a "complete" list for the 9th Infantry Division.

CASDATE OR CASUALTY DATE - Usually, but not nearly always, the date in this column is the date of the casualty. Sometimes, however, this date is the date of death where the date of death and the date of casualty are not the same.

CLASSIFICATIONS - due to the methodology employed in constructing this list, some names with Medical MOS's do not have casualty classifications. This will be corrected in subsequent listings.


HOSTILE Casualty Classifications

Air Crash Land    
Artillery, Rocket, Mortar   
Artillery, Rocket, Mortar While Missing    
Burns   
Drowned, Suffocated    
Drowned, Suffocated While Missing   
Explosive Device (Booby Trap)   
Fragmentation Wounds   
Fragmentation Wounds While Missing   
Hostile Causes   
Hostile Died Missing Cause Not Reported   
Hostile Died While Missing Unknown Causes   
Hostile Not Reported   
Hostile Other Causes While Missing   
Hostile Vehicle Crash    
Misadventure (usually Friendly Fire)
Misadventure While Missing (usually Friendly Fire)


NON-HOSTILE Casualty Classifications

Accidental Homicide
Non-Hostile Accidental Homicide
Non-Hostile Accidental Self Destruction
Non-Hostile Air Crash
Non-Hostile Air Crash Land
Non-Hostile Cause Not Reported
Non-Hostile Died (miscoded ?)
Non-Hostile Drowned Suffocated
Non-Hostile Drowned Suffocated While Missing
Non-Hostile Heart Attack
Non-Hostile Illness
Non-Hostile Intentional Homicide
Non-Hostile Suicide
Non-Hostile Vehicle Crash
Non-Hostile Other Accident

SOURCES OF IDENTIFICATION
(where noted, more than one)

1969 Roster Match with early 1969 Bn Roster

Bn Hist circumstantial Probable match based on Bn History
(see above)

C Co Roster Match with early 1969 Bn Roster circumstantial Where casualty type, date and location, match those of other casualties identified by unit (MOST casualties in the areas and time frame in which the 9th Inf Div served of the same type, location, and date are from the same battalion if not the same company. Additionally, in MANY of the provinces in which the 9th Inf Div served, it was the only US Army Major Command in that province.)

Coffelt Previously identified by Richard D. Coffelt

DA 68 Battalion History Match based on date and location described in the Bn History (see above)

DSC - Published Distinguished Service Cross, Posthumous Award, published in public documents

Medal of Honor - Published Medal of Honor, Posthumous Award, published in public documents

ORNpaper Match with 2nd 60th Inf name appearing in The Old Reliable Newspaper

Personal Recall Identification by a former member of the 2nd 60th Inf

Published Published publicly in other books

Tan Tru Attack date - 1 KIA (self explanatory)

VS Riverine Operations Match based on date and location described in the pamphlet "Vietnam Studies, Riverine Operations" (see above)


SOURCES OF ERRORS - Regrettably, the probability is overwhelming that this file contains errors. Where known, these errors have been corrected. Where we are informed of errors, we will correct them in subsequent lists. There are errors in the CACF and TAGCEN files. Other errors may have been made in processing, analyzing, and listing the data. The errors may have
originated in one or more of the following ways.

1. SOURCE DOCUMENTATION - The information was not recorded correctly by the responsible individuals at the time of casualty and/or death.

2. CODING OR PROCESSING I - The information was not transcribed correctly at data entry into electronic media and/or errors occured while processing the data for the CACF and TAGCEN files.

3. CODING OR PROCESSING II - The information was not processed correctly while preparing this listing.

4. MIS-ANALYSIS - Some of the matching of individual names with particular units, especially where the indicated source is "circumstantial" may have been incorrect even though such a matching would seem to have a high probability of being correct.

5. You can download the entire 9th Infantry Division Casualty Microsoft Excel file by clicking the file name 9idcas.xls , the file size is 606 kb.

2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry
Killed in Action
Casualty File