1st Cavalry Division patch
D Co. 2/8 CAV
Angry Skipper Archive
Archive › Roster › 1LT John Karr
John Karr
★
John
Karr
1LT  ·  Skull  ·  1542 · Infantry Unit Commander
KIA
In-Country Service
1969-03-12 –
Home of Record
Kenner, Jefferson Parish, LA
Character of Service
Honorable
Archive Status
Active
Share a Memory
Timeline (3)
Photos (1)
Served alongside (4)
Verbal accounts (0)
Documents (1)
Letters (0)
Service record (1)
External resources (2)

Honor States, Virtual Wall, and the Clooney family remembrance, cross-referenced against CPT Henry Colavita's memoir, "Company Grade: Memoir of an Angry Skipper" (Hellgate Press, 2015) — a ch. 9 photo caption confirming his platoon/callsign, and ch. 10 narrating his actual arrival and assignment directly — see sources/colavita/09-chicken-valley/ and sources/colavita/10-st-barbara/. If you served with or knew John Karr, please use the contribute form to share what you remember.

1969-03-12
Arrived
Arrived in Vietnam — March 12, 1969
1LT John Karr began his tour with D Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry (Airmobile), 1st Cavalry Division, Republic of Vietnam, taking over as leader of White Skull (1st Platoon) after 1LT Doug Magruder was wounded a second time and did not return. Per CPT Henry Colavita's memoir, Karr had completed on-the-job training with Alpha Company beforehand; tall, blond, and confident, he made a strong, immediate impression on Colavita, who introduced him to fellow platoon leaders 2LT Bob Babas and 2LT David Spingath. A separate photo caption elsewhere in the same book confirms Karr's own radio callsign directly: "White Skull 6."
1969-05-25
KIA
Killed in action — May 25, 1969
On May 25, 1969, 1LT John Karr — leader of D Company's Skull Platoon, radio callsign "White Skull" — was killed in Hau Nghia Province when a single command-detonated B-40 rocket, rigged in trees above a trail, was set off over the platoon. The blast killed Karr together with his radio-telephone operator, CPL Wayne Garven, and CPL Richard White; his casualty record gives the cause as an "other explosive device." Remembered by a comrade as a VMI graduate and, possibly, a new father, Karr had been in Vietnam barely ten weeks. See /events/trail-ambush-hau-nghia-1969-05-25/ and the family account left by the son of fellow RTO Ray Clooney.
1969-05-25
Casualty record
D Company Losses — Command-Detonated Ambush, Hau Nghia, May 25, 1969
Hau Nghia Province, III Corps, RVN

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