John Alan Coey, American mercenary and medic in the Rhodesian Bush War

John Alan Coey 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 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.

A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather than for political interests.

The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War, Second Chimurenga as well as the Zimbabwe War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country U.D.I. Republic of Rhodesia.

July 19 is the 200th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 165 days remain until the end of the year.