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| branch = | rank = | unit = | battles = Rhodesian Bush War }} John Alan Coey (12 November 1950 – 19 July 1975) was an American soldier who served in the Rhodesian Army as one of "the Crippled Eagles", a loosely organised group of US expatriates fighting for the unrecognised government of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) during that country's Bush War. A devout Christian and fervent anti-communist—the African-American historian Gerald Horne described him as a white supremacist of the political ultra-right—he was the first American fatality of the war. He moved to Rhodesia to join its army in 1972, the day after graduating from college in his home town of Columbus, Ohio, and served until he was killed in action in 1975. He kept a journal throughout his service that was posthumously published as ''A Martyr Speaks''. Coey received United States Marine Corps officer training during his studies and was on track to receive a commission when he requested discharge and left for Rhodesia, asserting that the US government had been infiltrated by a "revolutionary conspiracy of internationalists, collectivists and communists" and that fighting for Rhodesia would allow him to better defend Western interests. He joined the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) and passed out with the rank of trooper in November 1972, receiving recognition as one of the army's best recruits of the year. However, his political views led to an acrimonious fall from favour within the SAS, his expulsion from its officer training programme in October 1973 and ultimately to his leaving the unit four months later. He redeployed to the Rhodesian Army Medical Corps, from which he was posted to the Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) heliborne commando battalion in July 1974, concurrently with his promotion to corporal. He thereafter served an instructor and commando medic in the RLI. Though not an officer, Coey exerted some influence on tactical doctrine, making numerous suggestions to his superiors and pioneering the combat medic role in the Rhodesian Army, which caused him to be nicknamed "the Fighting Doc". He was killed in action in the Kandeya Tribal Trust Lands in the country's north on 19 July 1975, shot through the head while running into the open to treat two fallen comrades. His remains, originally buried in Que Que in central Rhodesia, were reinterred in Ohio in 1979. His journal and some of his letters home were compiled into ''A Martyr Speaks'' by his mother soon after he died, and published in 1988. ==Early life== John Alan Coey was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 12 November 1950 to George and Phyllis Coey, both devout Christians. While growing up, John was a keen Boy Scout and attained the organisation's top rank, Eagle Scout. He attended Ohio State University's campus in his home town, studying forestry, and during his studies enlisted in the United States Marine Corps' officer training program as a cadet in its Platoon Leaders Class.〔 During this time he also taught at a local Sunday school. Like his parents, Coey was a fervent Christian, and held forthright views on communism, which he believed was an inherently evil system of government, geared towards the ultimate destruction of Christianity and the West; he later wrote of the "murder" of 65 million people by communists in China and the Soviet Union since the October Revolution of 1917, "and the souls of millions more ... indoctrinated with atheism". In Coey's opinion, only the retention of a society rooted in traditional Western culture and Christian faith would prevent this from happening elsewhere.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Alan Coey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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