John Alan Coey (12 November 1950 – 19 July 1975) was a U.S. Marine who served in the Rhodesian Army as one of the "Crippled Eagles", a loosely organised group of U.S. expatriates fighting for the unrecognized government of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) during that country's Bush War. A devout Christian, vitriolic anti-communist, 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 U.S. 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 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 favor 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 as 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 Mashonaland 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 Zimbabwe, 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.
John Alan Coey was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 12 November 1950, to George and Phyllis Coey, both devout Lutherans. While growing up, John was a keen Boy Scout and attained the organization'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 Sunday school at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio where he was a member.
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.
Coey was on track to receive an officer's commission into the Marines as soon as he graduated from college, but he became severely disillusioned by the course of the Vietnam War. Puzzled by America's failure to win the war, he developed a theory that the United States government had been infiltrated by a "revolutionary conspiracy of internationalists, collectivists and communists", which he claimed was deliberately bringing about defeat in Vietnam to demoralize Americans as a precursor to bringing the United States under a totalitarian world government. His attention was caught by the situation in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), where a war pitted the unrecognized government, made up predominantly of the country's minority whites, against communist-backed black nationalist guerrilla groups. Coey interpreted this as Rhodesia "holding the line" on the behalf of Christendom against communism, and surmised that he would better serve the United States and the Western world if he fought in the Rhodesian Army rather than the US Marine Corps. He successfully requested a discharge from the Marines just before he would have received his commission, and flew to southern Africa the day after he graduated from Ohio State in late March 1972 to join the Rhodesian Army.
Foreigners like Coey who volunteered for the Rhodesian Army received the same pay and conditions of service as local regulars. Ideologically and religiously motivated, Coey viewed himself as a kind of latter-day crusader. He kept a thorough journal of his thoughts and experiences throughout his army service. "I believe God intended me to come here for some purpose," he wrote soon after enlisting. "This action has cost me an Officer's Commission, and ... my citizenship may be revoked, [but] this is the most I can do for my country under the circumstances." He told the historian Gerald Horne that he believed communists had already compromised top levels of the US government, and that by serving in Rhodesia he was helping to unify "his people" against a foreign conspiracy. His religious views also affected his views on Zionism: he believed that the State of Israel's existence prior to the Second Coming of Christ was contrary to scriptural prophecies and that it should therefore be destroyed.
Though foreign soldiers in the Rhodesian Army were only required to immediately commit to three years' service, Coey volunteered on arrival for at least five. He joined the Special Air Service (SAS), an elite commando unit. He was one of several foreigners in his barrack room, and they decorated their quarters with the flags of their home countries. Coey performed well during his initial training, and was recognized as one of the Rhodesian Army's top recruits of 1972; after passing out in November that year with the rank of trooper, he was picked out in January 1973 for instruction as an officer. While training for this new role, he contributed articles to various Rhodesian and South African publications, sending work to the latter under the Afrikaans pseudonym "Johann Coetzee". The political and religious views reflected in his journal continued: on 18 September 1973, he expressed profound joy at the overthrow of Chile's Marxist President Salvador Allende, and painted the incident as a victory for Christianity and the West.
In October 1973, Coey submitted an inflammatory article detailing his views on America's foreign policy to the army magazine, Assegai; the firmly anti-establishment piece, "The Myth of American Anti-communism", was deemed "subversive" by the army, which blocked its publication. Coey was removed from the officer training programme soon after, officially because of his "temperament". Though disappointed by his expulsion, and suspicious about the true reasoning behind it, Coey did not complain, writing that as an ordinary trooper he would be free to broadcast his views to the public unhindered.
Coey first saw combat action in November 1973, in a covert external operation in Portuguese Mozambique's north-western Tete Province. He enjoyed it, comparing the experience to the American Indian Wars of the 19th century. The following month, however, he was informed by his commanding officer that he would be not be used as a paratrooper, and would not be going on patrol again, as he was, in the commander's words, "not worth it". Coey felt so humiliated that he considered leaving, but resolved to stay and fight on. Despite his commander's order to remain on base, he joined a patrol into Mozambique and crossed the border on 7 January 1974. The commanding officer flew into a rage when he discovered Coey's insubordination two weeks later, and immediately had him brought back. Meanwhile, Coey persevered with "The Myth of American Anti-communism", and secured its publication in the conservative, nationally distributed journal Property and Finance on 7 February 1974. Five days later, he was barred from taking part in a parachute exercise with his unit, and on 14 February, he was instructed to choose another army corps or regiment by the 18th; the SAS no longer wanted him.