John Alan Coey

Rhodesian Light Infantry Coey's request to transfer to the Rhodesian Army Medical Corps was granted, and he was accordingly placed in a three-month medical course in Bulawayo, starting in April 1974. On its completion in July, he was promoted to corporal and posted to the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) heliborne commando battalion, where he was installed as an instructor. He expressed pride in teaching "as we did at Quantico—the Marine way!" He was pleased to meet other Americans in the RLI, particularly when they were fellow US Marines. Coey liked and respected his fellow soldiers, who in turn regarded him as strong, capable and brave, but there was mutual animosity concerning their respective lifestyles while off-duty. "They live for pleasure mostly," Coey wrote in his journal, "drinking and whoring. The Christian soldier is sometimes despised and ridiculed."

Coey acquitted himself well in the eyes of his superiors following his move to the RLI, and soon after joining the unit mustered into Support Group as a specialist in tracking, mortars and armored vehicle driving, while also working as a medic. Although his political views had prevented him from becoming an officer, he continued to make tactical suggestions to his superiors, some of which were adopted; for example, combat medics were introduced to RLI patrols at his suggestion, and following his example. However, other ideas of Coey's—such as his proposed use of psychochemical weapons and the "weapon of starvation" against Mozambicans and Zambians—were less well received.

On recovering his journal, Coey's family discovered that portions of it which discussed army operations in too much detail—sometimes brief passages, but occasionally whole months at a time—had been censored by the army, and in some cases removed entirely. not a word remained after 11 November 1974. Having become engaged to a young Rhodesian woman, then renewed his US passport in South Africa.

Death The rough location of where Coey was killed is highlighted in red on this map. On 19 July 1975, a unit from the Rhodesian Territorial Force (TF) contacted a group of guerrillas near a river in the Kandeya Tribal Trust Lands, north-east of Mount Darwin in the area covered by Operation Hurricane. After the Territorials killed two of the insurgents without loss, the cadres fell back and set up an ambush position underneath the roots of some overhanging trees on the riverbank. The TF patrol summoned a Fireforce made up of 7 and 10 Troops, 2 Commando, RLI from Mount Darwin, which arrived soon after. Coey, who was attached to 2 Commando at the time, accompanied 7 Troop as the patrol's combat medic.

Lieutenant du Plooy led his men around the bend, carefully keeping them behind cover, then sent Coey out into the open riverbed to give treatment. and, on 4 July 1976, Willis Carto of the Liberty Lobby announced a posthumous award to Coey to commemorate the bicentenary of the United States. Members of the Rhodesian public donated money to help the Coey family travel to Rhodesia to attend his funeral service. On arrival, Coey's parents told the Salisbury Sunday Mail that they believed his death had not been in vain, as he had fallen defending "the last bastion for fighting communism that is left in the Western world".

When the family returned to Ohio, Phyllis Coey compiled her son's journal and a selection of his letters home into a book entitled A Martyr Speaks, which she first attempted to have published in 1975. Because of the controversial views it contained (including Coey's dedication of his journal "to the 100,000 American dead of Korea and Vietnam who were betrayed by their own government" ), the book was turned down by publishers for over a decade.

Publications

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