Honoring Service: Veteran Christopher Markey, Vietnam

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Christopher Markey lived in Rye and served with U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
Date of Birth: 3/6/1945
Died On: 1/6/1970
Branch of Service: U.S. Marine Corps – 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

2nd Lt. Christopher H. Markey, USMCR, died on Jan. 6, 1970 of wounds received while on patrol in the Danang area of Vietnam on New Year’s Eve 1969. The 23-year old Marine officer graduated from Boston College in 1968 where he was a member of the varsity football team. He attended Resurrection School, Rye, Stepinac High School, White Plains and Bullis Academy in Silver Spring, Md.. Summers while in college he worked as a life guard at NY AC in Travers Island. Christopher was living in Birmingham, MI and was in the Marine Reserves, before he went into extended active duty 7 February 1969, at Quantico.

Lt. Markey who was the leader of his platoon had been in Vietnam for two months before he was fatally wounded. He enlisted in the Marines upon graduation from college and attended officers training school at Quantico, Va., receiving his commission in February 1968. He spent five months at Camp Pendleton, Oak, and was assigned to duty in Vietnam with the First Marine Division, Nov. 1, 1969. Arriving in Vietnam 4 November 1969 he was assigned to 2nd Platoon, Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. Hotel Company was on a sweep near An Luu, 10 kilometers northwest of Bien Ban when Christopher went across a rice paddy dike and tripped 2 M-26 grenades that were booby trapped with a trip wire. Christopher was wounded with multiple fragmentation wounds to the body and was med evac. 2nd Lt Markey died 6 January 1970, at a Station Hospital in Danang of the wounds sustained 31 December 1969

A funeral mass for 2nd Lt. Christopher H. Markey, USMCR, was celebrated in Resurrection Church, on Monday, January 19 1970. Celebrant of the mass was the Rev. Edward J. Hanrahan, Dean of Studies at Boston College. The burial was at St. Raymond’s Cemetery, Bronx, N.Y. with full military honors with the Marine Corps providing pallbearers, firing squad and bugler. Honorary pallbearers were his teammates from college including Robert Hyland of White Plains, then of the Green Bay Packers.

At the time of his death he was survived by his parents, Gerald F & Jeanne M Markey and a sister; Margot Markey all of 2531 Bradway Blvd, Birmingham, MI. His father was a retired USAF Colonel.