Operational Report (ORLL) — D Co 2-8 Cav Contact, Dog's Head, 18 March 1970
The 1st Cavalry Division's own Operational Report – Lessons Learned (ORLL) for the quarter ending 30 April 1970 (DTIC AD0512505) carries a dated daily contact log. Its entry for 18 March 1970 records the D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry action in the Dog's Head — the same fight reported in CAVALAIR a few weeks later as "Alpha Blues Surprise NVA Force."
Entry (n) — verbatim (cleaned)
(n) 181110 Mar XT045833: [D Co 2-8] received SA, AW and B-40 fire from an est plat size en force from the N, NE and S of their position. Eng w/org, Arty and A/S. Contact broke at 1125 resulting in 14 US WIA. The following day at 1516 hrs a search of the contact area … revealed 2 fresh graves containing a total of 19 NVA KIA [from] the contact the previous day. Total casu: 14 US WIA and 19 NVA KIA.
Abbreviations: SA = small arms; AW = automatic weapons; B-40 = RPG rocket; en = enemy; Eng w/org = engaged with organic weapons; Arty = artillery; A/S = air strike; WIA = wounded in action; KIA = killed in action; casu = casualties.
What it confirms
The date-time group 181110 Mar is 18 March 1970, 11:10 hrs, at grid XT 045 833 in western War Zone C (the Dog's Head). Contact broke at 1125 — a fifteen-minute fight, exactly as CAVALAIR described it. The enemy used small arms and B-40 rockets, again matching the newspaper. The two accounts diverge only on the enemy body count: the ORLL confirms 19 NVA KIA by the graves found the next day, where CAVALAIR reported 39 (the paper appears to have inflated the figure or merged it with the 19 March 1/9 Cav "Blues" action).
In this period 2-8 Cav was under 1st Brigade (the ORLL lists "the 1st Bde (with the 2-8 Cav, 2-7 Cav and 1-11 [ACR])" and places the 1st Brigade AO in "Western War Zone C (Dog's Head Area)"). The battalion was commanded by LTC Michael J. Conrad and was hunting the NVA 272nd Regiment — the same enemy regiment whose base complex Charlie Co 2-8 struck on 26 March, triggering the Alpha Troop / 1-11 ACR rescue later recognized with a Presidential Unit Citation. The division's Senior Officer Debriefing Report (DTIC AD0509767), Section 10 "Operations in the Dog's Head," gives the commander's narrative of this same March–April 1970 campaign.
Note on casualties
The ORLL entry records 14 US WIA and no US KIA for the 18 March contact. SGT Richard Lee Wiseman (HHC, 2-8 Cav, attached to D Company) is classified "Died of Wounds," 18 March 1970, Tay Ninh Province — i.e. one of the wounded who died of his wounds. The daily log does not name individuals, so the link is near-certain rather than name-confirmed; a named confirmation would require the 2-8 Cav daily staff journal (NARA RG 472) for 18 March 1970. CPL Michael C. Jackson (D Co 2-8, killed 17 March 1970, Tay Ninh) is not corroborated by this log, which shows no 17 March action, and is treated as a separate, unconfirmed event.
Excerpted and transcribed from DTIC AD0512505 and AD0509767 by the archive, 2026. Raw text excerpts preserved at sources/orll-1cd-1970/.
