Who died at Camp Holloway/Pleiku on February 7, 1965?

by attawaygregory

I can find very little information about this attack. I am looking for the names of people present, those that died, details of the attack, etc.

k1990

I just ran a search on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall site for US casualties between 6-7 February 1965 (the date of the attack on Camp Holloway).

The search returned 10 dead during that time-frame. Of those, one died in a vehicular accident elsewhere, and one was a downed naval aviator. This page says that 8 US servicemen were killed in the Camp Holloway attack.

So, from looking at the casualty list, and the units stationed at Holloway, I believe the casualties were:

  • Pfc Joseph Kenneth L. Belanger, 18th Airfield Operation Detachment
  • SP4 Ralph Wayne Broughman, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • SP5 David Craig III, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • SP5 Gerald Dean Founds, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • Pfc Theodore Lamb, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • Capt George Markos, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • Pfc Alvin G. Parker, 52nd Aviation Battalion
  • SP5 Jesse Andrew Pyle, MACV

None of those names have exact death locations, but all are listed as KIA in South Vietnam, and from their unit designations all were plausibly stationed at Camp Holloway.

I hope that helps.

Edit: this seems to be a pretty solid firsthand account of the history of Camp Holloway from someone who was stationed there during the war. It also has some interesting detail on the attack of 6-7 February, including scans of official journal entries by a captain in the 52nd Aviation Battalion about the attack: part 1 / part 2 / part 3.

That site also has a list of casualties at Holloway which appears to confirm 7/8 of the names I listed, and includes another (Pvt Norman Ray Garrett, 52nd Aviation Battalion) that I didn't find on the first search. The Camp Holloway site lists his date of death as 7 February 1965, but the date on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is 15 February — not sure why that is, but it could be either that he was wounded in the attack and died later, or a mixup with military records. The name not listed on that site is the MACV advisor, SP5 Pyle — but this post from one of his relatives confirms he died at Pleiku. So it appears the total number of casualties was 9, not 8.