After-Action Report — 2/8 Cavalry, action of 4 November 1965 (Position Cavalair)
The battalion-level after-action report for the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry's action of 4 November 1965 — the company-and-platoon companion to the division Pleiku Campaign AAR, and the primary record behind the casualty event. Prepared 6 November 1965 and signed by Capt. Samuel Linton, commanding officer of Company D.
What it documents
The action began as Reconnaissance patrol #14 (Lt Ward, 17 men) departing Position "Cavalair" on azimuth 030°, with the mission of locating and destroying a reported camp 600–900 m out. The patrol captured a sick prisoner (~1025), then took fire from a small hill (point #3) and an enemy camp (point #2). Lt Col Hix ordered contact maintained, and the battalion fed in successive elements through the afternoon:
- "Buckeye" — FSG Marshall and Sgt Julien (~10 men), attached to Co B
- "Flanker Right (-)" — Lt Trapnell (Co B XO), with 2nd Platoon, A Co, a medic, Capt Slifer + interpreter, and Lt Wiest
- "Right Guard" — Capt McIlrey, CO A Co, with one platoon of A Co
- Company C — Capt Kercison, guided in late (~1835) by Lt Ward
The enemy was assessed as a company-plus PAVN unit in a rest area, surprised and scattered; snipers and small groups resisted until about 1700, then withdrew to the north and east. The camp and the enemy equipment that could not be evacuated were burned.
Casualties (per the report)
Consolidated friendly casualties for the Recon, Buckeye, and Flanker Right (-) elements: 4 killed — SGT Richard Coffey, CPL Eddie Hill, PFC Wright Hamill, and a South Vietnamese interpreter ("Sgt Be") — and 9 wounded, named in the report: Lt Parrack, Sgt Wilson (platoon sergeant), Sgt Baker, [Pvt/PFC] Frolleny, SP/4 Spencer, SP/4 David "Doc" Wilson (senior medic), SP/4 Patterson, Sgt Taylor, and PFC Ortiz. A mid-battle figure for the separate "Right Guard" (A Co) element — "5 KIA and 17 WIA" at ~1430 — does not reconcile with the final consolidated count and reads as an unrevised field report (see the casualty event for the reconciliation).
The report recommends decorations including the Silver Star (SSG Jones) and the Bronze Star with "V" for several troopers — among them posthumous awards for Coffey, Hill, and Hamill, and a Bronze Star with "V" for SP/4 Wilson.
Machine-OCR transcript (uncorrected) held at sources/aar-2-8cav-4nov65-OCR.md; original scan AA Rpt 4Nov65.pdf in the KIA research folder. Verify quotations against the page images before publication.
