USNS Geiger
| Occupancy | Element | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug 1965 – 20 Sep 1965 | 1st Brigade, 1st Cav Div (incl. 2/8 Cav)high | 1st Bde veteran accounts (C/1-12 Cav history; vietnamwarclerksdiary deployment notes); 1st Cav Div deployment record The 1st Brigade — 1/8, 2/8, and 1/12 Cav with 2/19 Artillery in direct support — shipped together aboard the Geiger. A brigade veteran recalled a 32-day passage with a 12-hour stop at Honolulu, a stop at Guam, and one hurricane, marching ashore at Qui Nhon on 20 September 1965. |
Overview
Before the 1st Cavalry Division fought a single action in Vietnam, it had to get there — and in 1965 that meant a sea voyage. The division's 1st Brigade, which included the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry and so D Company, crossed the Pacific together aboard the troop ship USNS Geiger, marching ashore at Qui Nhon on 20 September 1965 and moving inland to the new base at An Khe.
This matters for how the archive reads the early war. The men who made this crossing went over as a unit, together — the same ship, the same month at sea. The replacements who filled the company's ranks in the years that followed almost always arrived individually, by air, dropped into an established war one or two at a time. The voyage of the Geiger is one of the few experiences the original cohort genuinely shared, and it is worth marking as a place of its own.
The passage
The 1st Brigade boarded in Savannah, Georgia in the latter half of August 1965 and sailed for Vietnam. By a brigade veteran's account the crossing ran about 32 days, with a roughly twelve-hour stop at Honolulu, a call at Guam, and one hurricane along the way, before the brigade disembarked at Qui Nhon on 20 September 1965. From the pier the troopers moved straight inland to An Khe (Camp Radcliff) — loaded onto trucks at the dock and then onto Chinooks for the short flight up. That last detail comes from an anonymous account of the crossing — "we were stacked on a truck and off loaded onto a Chinook for a quick flight to An Khe" — and squares with the unit record's "moved inland by air." It corroborates how the troops got from Qui Nhon to An Khe; the source can't be tied to a particular soldier, or confirmed as D Company.
Who was aboard
The archive can already place several D Company men on this crossing by their arrival dates. Among them: Roger Coffey, Wright Hamill, and Eddie Hill — three of the company's earliest combat deaths, killed near Hill 732 on 4 November 1965, barely seven weeks after stepping off the ship — along with Paul Malec and David Wilson. Their presence aboard is strong circumstantial evidence (their service begins with this movement), not yet individually confirmed; the soldiers list below is labeled accordingly.
If you or someone in your family crossed on the USNS Geiger in 1965 — or remembers the boarding at Savannah, the stop at Honolulu, the hurricane, or coming ashore at Qui Nhon — we'd like to hear it. A name, a photo, or a memory of those weeks at sea all help complete the record, and can confirm who was aboard.
Sources
| Claim | Source | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Brigade sailed on USNS Geiger; ashore Qui Nhon 20 Sep 1965 | 1st Cav Div deployment record; C/1-12 Cav unit history; vietnamwarclerksdiary deployment notes | High |
| 2/8 Cav was a 1st Brigade battalion | 1st Cav Div / brigade order of battle | Confirmed |
| ~32-day passage, Honolulu + Guam stops, one hurricane | 1st Brigade veteran recollection (C/1-12 history) | Reported |
| Boarded at Savannah, GA, latter half Aug 1965 | C/1-12 Cav history (boarding ~20 Aug 1965) | High |
| USNS Geiger = Barrett-class transport, named for USMC Gen. Roy S. Geiger | USNS Geiger ship record | Confirmed |
| Truck-then-Chinook from Qui Nhon to An Khe | Anonymous account, Facebook, Jun 2026 (unit unconfirmed) | Corroborating detail |
Open Questions
- [ ] Confirm 2/8 Cav specifically sailed on the Geiger (vs. a sister ship) — the brigade-aboard claim is a veteran recollection; capacity (~1,900–2,000) makes "whole brigade, ~3,000" likely loose.
- [ ] Pin the exact embarkation date and port (boarding ~19–20 Aug 1965, Savannah).
- [ ] Passenger / movement manifests (NARA) to confirm which D Co men were aboard.
Today: USNS Geiger (T-AP-197) was a Barrett-class Navy transport (~1,900–2,000 troop capacity). Inactivated in 1971 and later scrapped.
The voyage brackets are the boarding (mid-to-late August 1965, Savannah) and the landing at Qui Nhon on 20 September 1965. In the archive's own records, Coffey, Hamill, and Hill carry an "arrived" date of 19 August 1965 (the sail date), while Malec carries 20 September 1965 (the day ashore) — the two dates are the two ends of the same crossing.
