D Company's Night Ambush at Tam Quan — December 11, 1967 (Death of SP4 Follett and SP4 Paulson)
December 11, 1967 — a night ambush south of Tam Quan
Confirmed action, sourced to the after-action report. Two men of D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry were killed on 11 December 1967 during the Battle of Tam Quan. The 1st Brigade's Combat Operations After Action Report records the D Company action of that night — a 22:15 ambush of PAVN troops escaping south — and both men's casualty records match it. What is not in the AAR is the man-by-man detail: which of the two fell to small arms, which to the explosive device, and whether others were wounded.
By the second week of December 1967, the Battle of Tam Quan had turned into a pursuit. After the 1st Brigade broke the PAVN 22nd Regiment's headquarters position at Dai Dong on 6–7 December, the regimental commander slipped his command south toward the Cay Giep Mountains, leaving his battalions to fight and exfiltrate as best they could. The U.S. and ARVN forces spent the following days trying to seal the escape routes south across the Bong Son Plain.
D Company, 2/8 Cavalry had air-assaulted to BS 925996 on 10 December to block the enemy's escape routes into the Cay Giep Mountains. The next night it set ambushes at BS 926048. The 1st Brigade Combat Operations After Action Report records what followed: "Ambush elements of D 2-8 Cav located at BS 926048 had contact with an unknown sized enemy force at 2215 hours and 2245 hours. The enemy was moving from north to south attempting to escape when contact was made with the ambush elements." It was in that night action that the company lost two men:
- SP4 Allan Eugene Follett, 23, of Independence, Missouri — killed by small-arms fire — Wall Panel 31E, Line 79
- SP4 John Paul Paulson Jr., 20, of Neenah, Wisconsin — killed by an explosive device — Wall Panel 31E, Line 82
Their names sit three lines apart on the Wall, and they had arrived in Vietnam a day apart in May 1967. The two different causes — small arms and an explosive device — fit the shape of a close night ambush (rifle and machine-gun fire alongside a mine, grenade, or RPG) rather than a single shared blast. See their profiles: Allan Follett and John Paulson.
The unit and its commanders
2/8 Cavalry fought Tam Quan as a 1st Brigade battalion under LTC John Stannard, who days earlier, on 7 December, had personally taken command of the battalion's C Company when its commander was killed crossing a rice paddy. The brigade commander, Col. Donald V. Rattan, had placed LTC Christian F. Dubia (CO of the 1/8 Cavalry) in tactical charge of the battle; the division was commanded by MG John J. Tolson. D Company would fight on through the battle — holding blocking positions on 15 December and making the air assault that opened the final fight at An Nghiệp on 19 December — before the operation closed on 20 December.
What's still open
The after-action report fixes the ambush in place and time — BS 926048, contacts at 2215 and 2245 — but it does not name the men or break out friendly casualties. So which of the two fell at which contact, and whether other D Company soldiers were wounded, still await the 2/8 Cav daily staff journal (NARA RG 472). Two further threads remain: confirming LTC John Stannard as the 2/8 Cav commander against the AAR distribution list (the name here comes from a 2/8 Cav veterans' account — the AAR itself is signed by the brigade commander, Col. Rattan), and verifying a possible Silver Star for SP4 Paulson (listed by Honor States, no citation located).
Help us complete the record
If you served with D Company, 2/8 Cavalry at the Battle of Tam Quan, or knew Allan Follett or John Paulson, please reach us through the contribute form.
If you served with D Company, 2/8 Cavalry at the Battle of Tam Quan, or knew SP4 Allan Follett or SP4 John Paulson, we'd like to hear from you — especially anyone who was on the 11 December 1967 night ambush south of Trường Lâm / Dai Dong.
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