Rank: Specialist 4
Unit: Howitzer Battery, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 13A – Field Artillery Basic
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Presidential Unit Citation, Valorous Unit Award, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 2-Aug-1947
Hometown: Cadiz, Kentucky
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Start of tour: 15-Jan-1968
Incident date: 18-Dec-1968
Date of casualty: 18-Dec-1968
Age at death: 21
Cause of death: Hostile, Died. Artillery/Mortar/Rocket. Artillery, rocket, or mortar.
Ricky Fay Cossey died from wounds received while at command post when area came under hostile mortar attack. (Individual transported to 93rd Evacuation Hospital, Long Binh, where he expired.)
Five Blackhorse troopers died as a result of this incident:
PFC Robert Lynn Bone
SP4 Norman Harvey Clark
SP4 Ricky Fay Cossey
PFC Charles Marion Dumdei
PFC Ronald Lee Hovis
Location of fatality: Bien Hoa, South Vietnam
Place of interment: Elm Grove Cemetery, Kentucky, USA
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