David
Wilson
Wilson
SP4 · ·
Known as "Doc"
In-Country Service
1965 – 1965
Home of Record
Character of Service
Archive Status
Active
Sourced from SP4 David "Doc" Wilson's own account in the "Trooper's Tale" column of The Saber (1st Cavalry Division Association), March/April 2023. A senior D Co medic, Wilson described being wounded during the 4 November 1965 battalion action near Hill 732 (Plei Me / Ia Drang area) and evacuated via LZ Cavalier. Details are his recollection recorded decades later; verify against unit records where possible.
4 Nov 1965
Combat Action
Wounded
Wounded as senior medic — 4 Nov 1965 action near Position Cavalair, Pleiku Province
Serving as a senior medic with the D Company Recon element, Wilson treated wounded — including his platoon sergeant, SGT Robert Wilson (later CSM, 1st Cavalry Division) — through a daylong battalion fight against a company-plus PAVN force (elements of the displacing 33rd Regiment) on 4 November 1965. The battalion's own after-action report fixes the contact at the "Cavalair" position (grid 979049): the Recon patrol made contact 600–900 m out and drew in successive elements through the afternoon. Wilson's own 2023 account instead places the fight "near Hill 732" in the Plei Me / Ia Drang area — Hill 732 being the 33rd Regiment's command post nearby (the division AAR fixes it at YA885106), which the regiment was abandoning that same day. By his account Wilson was the last of his element to be wounded, carried back to LZ Cavalier by stretcher, and evacuated that evening, beginning a long recovery that ended with a 15-month stay at Fort Gordon Army Hospital.
⚠ Source Notice — Multiple Accounts Exist
First-person recollection published in 2023, ~58 years after the event — now corroborated by the primary 2/8 Cav after-action report for 4 Nov 1965, which lists SP/4 Wilson among the 9 WIA and recommends him for the Bronze Star w/V. See his account and the AAR under the November 4, 1965 event.
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