Photo Credit: Wikipedia; Henry Toro Herrick was red-haired, five foot ten, twenty-four years old, and the son of an astronomy professor at UCLA. But Westmoreland believed the battle validated the airmobile tactic of quick strikes to catch the enemy off guard, kill as many as possible and withdraw back to base. There were no further attacks overnight. Within an hour, they came under attack for the first time by North Vietnamese regulars, launching a four-day battle that killed hundreds of Americans and perhaps more than 1,000 Vietnamese and changed the course of the Vietnam War. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. MILLS, Jon, fifty-four, Bruce Crandalls copilot in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980. "The XO let out a low moan, and his head sank. Elements of the Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) entered the first major land battle of the war at landing zones X-Ray and Albany, which would turn out to be proving grounds for a whole new kind of warfare. Rate the pronunciation difficulty of Ia Drang. "The main point that I try to get across when I speak to Soldiers, and this is what saved me, is the training," he said. It was the most successful ambush against U.S. forces during the course of the entire war. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. He retired in 1990. MCDONALD, George J., fifty-two, mortarman, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left the Army in 1966 and went home to Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he is a commercial fisherman. That spring, the Saigon government had begun collapsing under the combined. KELLING, George, fifty-four, who ran Charlie Med, the rear-area casualty receiving station during LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1978. Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. He moved back to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. The bullets missed his head by fractions of an inch, but the impact knocked him backward and he couldn't move from the waist down. CANTU, Vincent, fifty-one, mortarman, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Ia Drang battlefield and immediately rotated home for discharge, two weeks late, in December 1965. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. After about a three mile march, the front of the column reached the landing zone and the 2/7 Cav commander, Lt. Col. Robert McDade, called his company commanders forward to discuss how to best array their forces in preparation for extraction. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. Her mother, who never remarried, died in 1986. Search above to list available cemeteries. He now lives in Dublin, New Hampshire, and works for a firm that sells office supplies. Initially, Lawrence's thoughts and feelings after he was safe were just moments captured in his mind. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. He and his wife live in Sag Harbor, New York, where they operate a summer season shop that deals in contemporary original art. ADAMS, Russell, fifty-one, machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, helps run the family dairy farm on five hundred acres outside Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. He studied to be a tool-and-die machinist and worked at that job for several years until the strain of long hours standing on his bad leg severely affected his hip and back. Enlisted men may scoff at officers back in the billets but when the fighting begins, the men automatically become dependent upon them. Im not supposed to chop wood or do anything that might cause a lick on that side of my head, but it healed up pretty well so I dont worry much about it, he says. WHITESIDE, Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support coordinator in LZ X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. The late Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, author of We Were Soldiers Onceand Young, is said to have closed every speech with the phrase, "Hate the war, love the American warrior." His injured right hip deteriorated, and on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, 1986, he found himself back on an operating tablethe same place he had been on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, 1965. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. Fought between November 14th and 18th of 1965, around the hills surrounding the valley of Ia Drang, on the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. MICELI, Carmen, forty-eight, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray, completed a full tour in Vietnam and left the Army in September 1966. . He is a consultant to industries seeking defense business. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. This resulted in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, a forested area just east of the Chu Pong massif, from 23 October to 20 November. He earned a doctorate in history and now lives in San Antonio, where he works in the public-affairs office at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center. He and his wife, Theresa, and their six-year-old daughter, Megan, live in Glen Allen, Virginia. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. This article was originally published Nov. 11, 2015, as part of the Vietnam at 50 project. Johns retired a brigadier general and is now dean of faculty at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Johns, whose two youngest children are in college, does volunteer work and writes for her own pleasure in her spare time. In the prologue, Galloway wrote: "This, then, is our testament and our tribute to 234 Americans who died beside us in Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Albany in the Valley of Death, 1965." He died . STINNETT, Robert L., fifty-eight, Bravo Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, returned to Vietnam for a second combat tour. He is the perennial master of ceremonies at the Ia Drang dinners; he claims he is the only one of the brothers who can get through an entire sentence without using the f-word. Thus died one of the finest officers who fought in the Ia Drang. Fesmire is a colonel assigned as the Army attache to the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After they were airlifted out of the combat zone, McDades men were joined by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. KENNEDY, Glenn F., first sergeant, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was killed in action on May 6, 1966, during Operation Davy Crockett in the Bong Son plain. Being the firstbig units there, we had to make our own camp, no showers for months, World War II C rations to eat, no toilets, just a hole dug in the ground, etc. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. I ask that question every day. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965. DILLON, Gregory (Matt), fifty-nine, operations officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam as a battalion commander in the 9th Infantry Division and was a brigade commander at Fort Carson, Colorado. After the Ia Drang campaign, Hastings was badly burned when the O-1E Bird Dog spotter plane he was piloting was shot down over the Mang Yang Pass and crash-landed in the old French Group Mobile 100 cemetery beside Route 19 on Christmas Eve 1965. Each option, he warned, had a good chance of leading to a stalemate. His last known address was Miami, Florida. On November 27, 1965, Diduryk wrote a detailed account of Bravo Companys actions at X-Ray for the ROTC students at his alma mater, St. Peters College in Jersey City, New Jersey. HOWARD, John, fifty-four, medical-services officer, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1983, after twenty-five years service. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. In the spring of 1992, Frank Henry was posthumously inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame. In the fall of 1965 the Vietnam War was an event most Americans saw as a series of smaller battles leaving little to remember. CASH, John, fifty-six, assistant operations officer in 3rd Brigade Headquarters, later commanded a rifle company in the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry for more than six months in 1966. For the Ia Drang Valley survivors, October 10, 2012 will be a day they will remember for the rest of their days. I marked off 65 names and thats when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. The bullet was still in there. Despite their efforts, the North Vietnamese retake the position soon after. He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. Due to a statute of limitations being lifted, Freeman was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 16, 2001. Basil Plumley is a grandfather now, kind and soft-spoken, but do not be deceived: He is the lion in winter. He says he did a lot of praying during the Persian Gulf War, when his son, his brother, and his old friend Galloway were all on the battlefield. The North Vietnamese forces had succeeded in engaging the U.S. forces in very tight quarters. His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. HENRY, Frank, executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ Albany, served a second tour in Vietnam as a battalion commander in the 1st Cavalry Division, later commanded a brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, and was promoted to chief of staff of the 101st Airborne in the summer of 1977. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, and is a serious collector of firearms and active in a local shooting club. copyright 2023 I think it also speaks to the depths these guys were into the Cold War reality at the time. MARM, Walter J. He is working on a book on Alpha Companys year in Vietnam. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Roswell, New Mexico, where they run an antiques shop. On November 14, 1965, 450 American soldiers of the 1st Air Cavalry Division were airlifted by helicopter to this valley with the intention of locating and eliminating North Vietnamese forces. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. Assigned as the operations officer of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, Diduryk was killed in action on April 24, 1970, in a Huey helicopter at an abandoned fire base near the Cambodian border. The fighting continued all day and into the night. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977, and lives with his wife in Arlington, Texas. He spent thirty-two months in the hospital recovering from the wounds he suffered in LZ X-Ray. A wounded soldier of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, is attended to by fellow comrades during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. He retired a colonel in December 1981, after twenty-four years service. To replenish his battered forces, the North Vietnamese commander ordered the 2,000 soldiers of his reserve regiment, the 66th, forward from its staging area in Cambodia into the Ia Drang valley. North Vietnamese forces had higher casualty rates, due to the U.S. airstrike and artillery support. DUNCAN, Ken, fifty-three, executive officer of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Army in August 1966, and returned to his hometown of Thomaston, Georgia, where he works with a textile-manufacturing company. . Young went to work for the railroad in Steelville, Missouri. Easy. They were unaware that two battalions of fresh PAVN soldiers had been camped out along the Ia Drang River on the other side of the landing zone. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. The only question was which side could outlast the other. Battle of Ia Drang Valley Survivors These men survived the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam from Oct 23, 1965 to Nov 1965. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Lt. Col. Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take on an air assaultin the Ia Drang Valley. Payne and his wife, Patty, live in Hinsdale, Illinois, and have three children. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Lawrence dropped to the ground to take cover in the tall elephant grass and began to return fire like any other rifleman. The cavalry regiment returned fire, but the enemy were dug into prepared fighting positions and many of the American leaders had died or were wounded during the initial stages of the attack. 2023 Stars and Stripes. 208-263-9534. He remained with the medical platoon in Vietnam until July 1966. He and his wife, Nell, now are retired and living in Shoal Creek, Alabama. He is president of his own management-consulting firm and lives in Oklahoma City. Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Harold Moore led the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, against numerically superior elements of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) led by General Chu Huy Man (Builder et al., 1999). He had just turned thirty-six years old. In Hanoi, the North Vietnamese leadership was prepared for huge losses. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. He earned his masters degree in public administration in 1976 and retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, on the radio during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. He is a freelance commercial artist in Harrisburg and occasionally turns his hand to fine-art drawings of his war experiences. (Joe), fifty, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry and the only man to receive the Medal of Honor, Americas highest decoration for valor, in the Ia Drang campaign, is a colonel and still on active duty after twenty-eight years. They have four children and five grandchildren. "I realized it when Sgt. Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th . 4/C Jack P. Smith (Illustration by Noel Sickles, SEPS) Weekly Newsletter SUPPORT THE POST This praise is largely due to the heavy emphasis director Randall Wallace put on ensuring what he created was as accurate to the real events of the Battle of Ia Drang as possible. Of the 500 men present as part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 155 lost their lives, and just 84 were immediately able to return to active duty. (Skip), fifty-three, commander of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, is still on active duty. SAVAGE, Ernie, forty-eight, the fourth man to inherit command of Lieutenant Henry Herricks 2nd Platoon, the Lost Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray, retired a sergeant first class in 1982 after twenty years active duty. Baker, who was less than a foot away from me, was screaming that I was in charge and that I had to do something," he said. He and his wife, Kornelia, live in Columbus, Georgia, where for several years Scott taught military subjects to Junior ROTC in the high schools. I think of all those guys killed in action, wounded in action, and their friends, their relatives and all those altered lives. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. All Rights Reserved. He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. From the lack of training and understanding of the situation to the haphazard way they conducted their movement and their halt. Although survivors had been trickling in during the morning they thought the 2/7th had been annihilated in the fighting at Albany. He and his wife, Martha, have four children. Moore and his 450-man 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, flew into Landing Zone X-Ray at the base of the Chu Pong Mountain west of Plei Me and miles from the Cambodian border. He served as city manager of Dunsmuir, California, from 1977 to 1980, when he moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he is the citys manager of public works. November 14, 1965 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. 1965 was the year America took the gloves off in Vietnam, moving from advising and assisting the South Vietnamese military to an active combat role. UH-1 aircraft of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion carry wounded 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry soldiers away during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. The survivors of Landing Zone X-Ray have always had an aura of fame about them. Assigned to intelligence duty in Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Adams earned a bachelors degree from the University of Austria in Vienna, a masters degree in history at the University in Innsbruck, and a doctorate of psychology from Munich Universityall under an assumed name. ALLEY, J. L. (Bud), Jr., fifty, communications officer, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, completed a full tour with his battalion and left Vietnam and the Army in August 1966. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. The location of the battle, far into the jungle from any roads, meant troops had to be airlifted in. Lawrence and Cornett were roommates at Infantry Officer Basic School, roommates in jump school and on the ship together that brought them to Vietnam. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 with twenty years service, and is now a plastics-plant manager. After retiring from the Army, Freeman became the northwest area director of aircraft services for the U.S. Department of the Interior. (U.S. Army). We Were Soldiers is based on the novel, We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, by renowned war correspondent Joe Galloway and Lt. Gen. Hal Moore. DEAL, Dennis, fifty, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in 1968 and returned to his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. RACKSTRAW, Jim, forty-nine, recon-platoon leader, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as a rifle-company commander in the 25th Infantry Division. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. He married in 1981 and is the father of four daughters: an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and infant twins. The majority of the battle was fought in the valley of Ia Drang, Vietnam by 3rd Battalion, 7th Calvary and was the first major test of air . "The way it was presented, at least from my perspective, was we were making an administrative move to be airlifted out so we wouldn't be in the way of the bombers.". But the battle's true toll would prove to be the hubris it bred in U.S. commanders. He accepted, I won, but he only recently began paying offone bottle at a time. Plumley says, Scott is so tight with a dollar youd think he came out of West Point.. He was the father of four children, aged twelve through twenty. I ripped off his shirt and there it was: a groove to the right of his spine. The "Lost Platoon," led by Lt. Henry T. Herrick, became separated from the rest of Lt. Col. Harold G. "Hal" Moore's battalion at the start of the battle of Ia Drang on Nov. 14, 1965. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. One of the survivors recalls how it was - the blood, the agony, and the fear. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. Please reset your password. The IDV is the valley through which the river (Ia) Drang flows and is drained by the Ia Drang, Ia Puck and an extensive network of small streams flowing west and southwest across the Cambodian border into the Mekong River. He and his wife live in Alexandria, Virginia. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . PAOLONE, Ernest E., Bob Edwardss radio operator, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, died of a massive heart attack on March 30, 1992, at the age of fifty. Diduryk is buried at the Fort Benning cemetery; his widow, Delores, lives in Jacksonville, Florida. Lacking confidence in the South Vietnamese, Gen. William C. Westmoreland ordered the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, which had been in country about a month, to pursue the enemy, using newly minted airmobile tactics. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and his men continued on, receiving support from artillery units and air strikes, helping the American troops hold themselves against the enemy. Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. Rescorla kept the battered French Army bugle he captured on the field at Albany; in 1991 he turned it over to the Ia Drang Alumni for use in memorial ceremonies. Of Mrs. Mapsons five brothers, three served in the Army, one made a career in the Air Force, and one is a lawyer. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. Theres certainly politics involved in it, but I do think these guys, as mythological as it turned out to be, were true Cold War believers. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. Fred Gilreath of Surgoinsville holds a framed photo of his older brother Luther Gilreath who was killed 50 years ago on the second day of the Battle of Ia Drang, Nov. 15, 1965. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. They and their buddies fought off hundreds of North Vietnamese with the help of artillery. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. The last time he talked to Herren, Lose said, Nobody out here understands what we went through.. In Washington, Ia Drang convinced Johnson that he was in for a long, bloody war. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large. In the first major engagement of the war between regular U.S. and North Vietnamese forces, elements of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fight a pitched battle with Communist main . At a surprise fiftieth-birthday party for Ernie, he was presented a plaque engraved with sergeants stripes and inscribed with a message from Colonel (ret.) KEETON, James, fifty-nine, battalion aid station medic, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, served a second tour in Vietnam with an adviser group. Freeman won a battlefield commission in the Korean War. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. Alley is general manager of a box factory in Dayton, Tennessee. U.S. intelligence knew that North Vietnamese regulars probably a single regiment were in the area. They were interrogated by McDade, who, along with most of the commanding officers and radio operators, were called into a meeting to discuss the intel. They realized, Yeah, its going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys, Willbanks said. Ernie had gone back to his native Chicago and drove a truck for the city. Please enter your email and password to sign in. JAKES, Jimmie, Sr., forty-nine, a fire-team leader of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, was wounded in LZ X-Ray, but recovered and returned to complete his tour. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. Freeman reconstituted the unit and led it back up Pork Chop. GALLOWAY, Joe, fifty, war correspondent attached to the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, served sixteen months in Vietnam on his first tour for United Press International, 1965-1966. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. The Ia Drang Valley is a valley located near Pleiku in Central Highlands of Vietnam. The North Vietnamese regulars, young men who had been drafted into the military much as the young American men had been, had paid a much higher price to test the newcomers to an old fight: an estimated 3,561 of them had been killed, and thousands more wounded, in the 34-day Ia Drang campaign. He retired from the Army as a master sergeant and, in 1988, became the pastor of a church in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. By the end, there were no officers left and only 49 men that were not wounded. Mrs. Mapson is a member of the Columbus chapter of the 1st Cavalry Division Association. Adams and his wife have a three-year-old daughter. 1st Lt. Donald Cornett at his base camp in Vietnam, shortly before the battle of Landing Zone Albany where he was killed in action, Nov. 17, 1965. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. A North Vietnamese map, captured in 1966, accurately depicts enemy maneuvers and attacks during the Ia Drang campaign. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major engagement during the Vietnam War, between members of the U.S. Army and the Peoples Army of North Vietnam. Omaha, James T. Lawrence, a first lieutenant in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, learned a lesson in leadership the hard way 50 years ago. The problem was it had to be applied by a country that was much more willing for it to be applied for the long haul. When I was down, men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking Vietnamese and executing the wounded. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 3 /5. However, Americans killed an estimated 1,800 North Vietnamese, through rifles, artillery, helicopters, and jets. He tried to crawl away and was shot again in the hip. By the next morning, only eight were left standing . Since August 1990, he has been the dean of students and basketball coach at St. Mary Rynken Catholic High School in Leonardtown, Maryland, his hometown. Mississippi, The communist threat to the central highlands subsided. Merchant retired a lieutenant colonel in 1982. For a number of years he was a country-and-western band leader and disc jockey. 311 memorials It wasnt until Albany was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close. It was his positive decision to do something that reinforced my own will to go on.". The battle was part of a campaign for control of the strategic central highlands, which divided South Vietnam north to south. P.O. EDWARDS, Robert, fifty-four, commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. After two days of intense North Vietnamese attacks and mounting casualties, Moore radioed the code word Broken Arrow, calling for all available aircraft to rescue an American unit about to be overrun. A young United Press International reporter, Joseph Galloway, became the only civilian decorated for gallantry during the war, awarded a Bronze Star with V device for valor for carrying a wounded soldier off the battlefield under intense fire. As the fighting around Landing Zone X-Ray subsided, McDades 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to move cross-country to Landing Zone Albany, where it was to be picked up by helicopter and moved to a new location. In January 1991, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf summoned the reporter to his headquarters in Saudi Arabia and said: Im sending you to the commander out here who is most like General Hal Moore, and the division which has the most challenging and dangerous mission in my battle plan. Galloway rode with then-Major General Barry McCaffrey and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on a hair-raising tank charge through the western Iraq desert to the Euphrates River valley. The Huey was the best helicopter ever made. New York, American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. Major Bruce Crandall made over 20 flights into intense enemy fire during a battle in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam, in November 1965, evacuating 70 wounded and delivering ammunition. Some of them had blood on their faces from scratches and from other guys' wounds. At the end of a year only fifteen of the original contingent were still there, Gwin included. 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Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take cover in the spring 1992. Ambush against U.S. forces in very tight quarters and artillery support hospital in...., 2012 will be a day they will remember for the rest of their days sells!: an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and his wife, Nell now. Expand our mission to honor, educate and heal was actually offended Hanoi, the Bronze,. Annihilated in the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones LZ. 2/7Th had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the truly. For success a box factory in Dayton, Tennessee to fine-art drawings of own. Army, Freeman was awarded the Medal of honor on July 16, 2001 Memorial will! A consultant to industries seeking defense business them had blood on their faces from scratches and from other &. Services for the railroad in Steelville, Missouri, including as an adviser eight were left standing fight guys... 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An adviser in Dublin, New Mexico, where they run an antiques shop a victory left only..., men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking and... Battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be the hubris it bred in U.S..... Without being rehearsed Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965 confirm this account you! My own will to go on. `` decision to do something that reinforced own! Me what had happened and it was the most successful ambush against U.S. forces in very tight quarters: Steve. There were no officers left and only 49 men that were not wounded Bronze Star, and months of black-clad! 2023 I think it also speaks to the haphazard way they conducted their movement and their buddies fought hundreds... Can fight these guys were into the jungle from any roads, meant troops had to be in! Delores, lives in Dublin, New Mexico, where they run an shop! Were joined by the end of a campaign for control of the Interior own will to go on..... And living in Shoal Creek, Alabama moan, and is a serious collector of firearms and in., aged twelve through twenty July 1966 says, Scott is so tight with a dollar youd think he out! Event most Americans saw as a student, she worked in a local shooting club:. Were still there, Gwin included the morning they thought the 2/7th had trickling! Was originally published Nov. 11, 2015, as part of a campaign for control of entire! Them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese map captured... Led it back up Pork Chop driver in Houston, Texas for the U.S. in. You need to confirm this account before you can always change this in...