1st Cavalry Division patch
D Co. 2/8 CAV
Angry Skipper Archive
Wayne Garven
Wayne
Garven
CPL  ·  Skull  ·  11B10 · Infantryman
KIA
In-Country Service
1969-02-21 –
Home of Record
Mt Vernon, Knox County, OH
Character of Service
Honorable
Archive Status
Active
Timeline
Photos
Served alongside
Verbal accounts
Documents
Letters
Service record
External resources

Service timeline not yet compiled. If you served with or knew Wayne Garven, please use the contribute form to share what you remember.

1969-02-21
Arrived
Arrived in Vietnam — February 21, 1969
CPL Wayne Garven began his tour with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry (Airmobile), 1st Cavalry Division, Republic of Vietnam.
1969-05-25
KIA
Killed in action — May 25, 1969
On May 25, 1969, CPL Wayne Garven was killed in Hau Nghia Province while serving as a radio-telephone operator with D Company — radio callsign "White Skull" — of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry. According to a family account left by the son of fellow RTO Ray Clooney, Garven was carrying 1LT John Karr's radio that day, the result of a coin flip among the company's RTOs, which placed him beside the platoon leader. A single command-detonated B-40 rocket, rigged in trees above a trail, killed Garven, Karr, and CPL Richard White together. His casualty record gives the cause as an "other explosive device." He was 21 years old and had been in-country three months. See /events/trail-ambush-hau-nghia-1969-05-25/.
1969-05-25
Casualty record
Hau Nghia Province, III Corps, RVN

Did You Know Wayne, or Serve Alongside Wayne?

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