Harry Griffith Cramer Jr.

Captain Harry Griffith Cramer, Jr. (born May 24, 1926 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, died October 21, 1957 near Nha Trang, Vietnam) was an American soldier who served in Korea and Vietnam. For over a decade he was thought to be the first U.S. casualty in Vietnam. He is the first U.S. Special Forces casualty of the conflict. A street at Fort Lewis is named in his honor. He is buried at the US Military Academy, West Point, New York.

Cramer came from a military family. His grandfather Wilson Cramer had been a First Sergeant of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War, and his father (Harry "Coach"Cramer) had served as a captain in the Army's 808th Pioneer Infantry during World War I. His father was the football coach at Johnstown High School and young Harry played on the football squad.

Cramer graduated from Johnstown High School in 1942 at the age of 16. He applied for West Point, but was underage to attend, so he went to the Carson Long Military Institute in Harrisburg for a year. He entered West Point in 1943 at the age of 17, joining the Class of 1946.

He initially was on the Army football squad. He had to drop it due to academic problems – despite pressures from the coaches and other cadets.

After graduation he went through Infantry Basic Course and Airborne School at Fort Benning. While there, he and classmate Frank "Taffy" Tucker owned a used Taylorcraft light plane. They used to fly cross-country to New Orleans or Savannah on the weekends, barely getting back before Monday classes – earning him the nickname of "Hairsbreadth Harry".

He then served as a Heavy Mortar unit commander with Company B, 1st Battalion of the famous African-American 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division at Camp Majestic, Gifu, during the Occupation of Japan. He was later transferred stateside to the XVIII Airborne Corps, headquartered at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he served as a Recruiting and Induction Officer from June, 1950 to February, 1951.

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