FB Gonder
| Occupancy | Element | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 20 May 1970 – 27 Jun 1970 XU 807 383 |
2/8 Cav and 2/5 Cav (with B/2/19th Abn Arty, C/1/30th Arty)documented | 2-8-cav-fsb-by-year data A cross-border fire support base of the Cambodian Incursion. 2/8 Cav (a 3rd Brigade battalion under Task Force Shoemaker for the operation) shared the position with 2/5 Cav and the supporting artillery. Co-located with Picatinny East (XU807369), a C/2/8 Cav cache site worked in the same period. |
Overview
FB Gonder was a 1st Cavalry Division fire support base inside Cambodia, established during the division's Cambodian Incursion (1 May – 30 June 1970). The 2/8 Cavalry firebase-by-year working data places it at grid XU807383, occupied from 20 May to 27 June 1970 by 2/5 Cav and 2/8 Cav, with B/2/19th (Airborne) Artillery (105mm) and, from 29 May, C/1/30th Artillery (155mm) in support. It lay in the same grid square as Picatinny East (XU807369), where C Company, 2/8 Cav worked an enemy weapons cache between 27 May and 2 June — part of the chain of cache discoveries the incursion overran in the eastern border region.
The name
The base almost certainly honors CPL Kenneth Walter Gonder of D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, who died on 19 May 1970 — one day before the base opened. Naming a new fire support base for a recently killed soldier of the occupying unit was common practice, and the one-day gap, the matching battalion (2/8 Cav held the base), and the timing all point the same way. This is a strong circumstantial inference, not yet confirmed by a primary naming citation. (Gonder's own death was recorded as non-hostile — an accident in Binh Duong Province — so the base carries his name as a memorial, distinct from where and how he died.)
Built from the 2/8 Cav firebase-by-year working data (
sources/fsb-locations/2-8-cav-fsb-by-year.md), which cites DTIC after-action references and the 1/30th Artillery's 1970 history. The grid and dates are documented there but not independently field-verified; the Gonder naming is an inference pending a primary source. This overview will expand as the 1970 Cambodia event pages and any veteran accounts are added.
Today: Forested border country of eastern Cambodia, roughly opposite Phuoc Long Province; the O'Rang / Bu Gia Map approaches worked by the 1st Cavalry during the 1970 incursion.
FB Gonder was a fire support base inside Cambodia, established during the 1st Cavalry Division's Cambodian Incursion (1 May–30 Jun 1970). The 2/8 Cavalry firebase-by-year working data records it at grid XU807383 (lat 12.1034, long 106.6576), occupied 20 May–27 June 1970 by 2/5 Cav and 2/8 Cav with B/2/19th (Abn) Artillery (105mm) and, from 29 May, C/1/30th Artillery (155mm). It sat in the same grid square as Picatinny East (XU807369), where C/2/8 Cav worked a weapons cache 27 May–2 June. The base opened **one day after CPL Kenneth W. Gonder of 2/8 Cav died (19 May 1970)** and is **very likely named for him** — a strong circumstantial inference (one-day gap, same battalion, the standard practice of naming fire bases for recently killed men); no primary naming citation has been located yet.
