[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 5 (Monday, January 31, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E26]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IN MEMORY OF COLONEL (RETIRED) CHESTER BAILEY McCOID

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 31, 2000

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep sadness that I inform the 
House of the death of Colonel (Retired) Chester Bailey McCoid, United 
States Army, of Westfield, Connecticut. He was 77.
  Colonel McCoid, the son of the late Colonel Chester B. McCoid and the 
late Florence Addis, was born on July 31, 1922. He lied about his age 
at 16 years old to enter the Army. By the time he left the service, he 
had fought as a combat infantryman in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. 
Colonel McCoid was one of only 294 three-time holders of the 
prestigious Combat Infantry Badge, awarded for direct engagement with 
enemy ground forces in a conflict.
  During the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, Colonel McCoid 
led a parachute rifle company of the 82nd Airborne Division and later 
refused to stop fighting after being wounded by an enemy gunner. After 
fighting in Korea, he was an exchange officer with the United States 
Navy for four years and he served as a member of the Army General Staff 
at the Pentagon. In 1966, Colonel McCoid began serving the first of 
three tours in Vietnam for a total of 51 months spread over the next 
seven years. He was Deputy Commander of the Independent 1st Brigade, 
101st Airborne Division and commanded the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry 
Division (airmobile) while in the Southeast Asia theater. In an unusual 
assignment heading the American Element of The Four Party Military 
Commission, Region Two, he oversaw the United States' interests in 
negotiations with the representatives of the Communists and South 
Vietnam to end the war. Colonel McCoid left for the United States on 
March 29, 1973, the last ground soldier to serve outside Saigon in the 
Vietnam War.
  In his 34 years of dedicated service, Col McCoid received the 
Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, five Legions of Merit, 
five Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. He was also decorated by 
France twice and eight times by the Republic of Vietnam. He graduated 
from the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, and the Army War 
College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
  Mr. Speaker, Chester McCoid was a professional soldier and great 
American. I know the Members of the House will join me in extending 
heartfelt condolences to his family: his wife of more than 54 years, 
Dorothy M. Jamison McCoid; his two sons, Chester B. McCoid III and 
Scott C. McCoid; his two daughters, Maureen Kennedy and Naomi Litecky; 
his brother and two sisters; and seven grandchildren.

                          ____________________