"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. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. Theres a lot of pain but at least I lived. Jeanette says: When I was in the hospital in 1966, I was down in the doldrums, feeling sorry, and they tried to nudge me out of that. Simpson County, He knew he had to get out of the clearing, so he started pulling himself along the ground using only his arms, when someone grabbed him and dragged him the rest of the way into the trees. WALLENIUS, Jon, forty-nine, mortar observer, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, got out of the Army in August 1966. 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. Omaha, Absent was an effective plan for winning over the civilian population caught in the crossfire, said James Willbanks, a Vietnam veteran who is the director of the Department of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. From the lack of training and understanding of the situation to the haphazard way they conducted their movement and their halt. Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore, a no-nonsense West Pointer, was the commander of the . 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. Married and the father of three children, Winter works for the Long Island Railroad and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, New York. For the next four years he was executive vice president of the company that developed the Crested Butte, Colorado, ski area. USA, Mendenhall, 1/7 Cavalry lands at LZ X-Ray. Fought between November 14th and 18th of 1965, around the hills surrounding the valley of Ia Drang, on the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. RUDEL, Karen Metsker, twenty-eight, daughter of Captain Thomas Metsker, intelligence officer, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in Landing Zone X-Ray, killed in action November 14, 1965, lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband, Scott. Moore commanded the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, was commanding general at Fort Ord, California, and then was the Armys deputy Chief of Staff for personnel. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. LUND, Bill, fifty, who was Myron Diduryks artillery forward observer in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, left Vietnam in March 1966, upon completion of his two-year reserve officer obligation. Somebody grabbed him under his arms and dragged him toward the trees, but dropped him in the clearing where air support was dropping napalm. They have a son and two daughters. He was paralyzed. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. Purp is married, the father of three daughters, and cuts hair at Gibbs Barber Shop, where he has worked for the last nineteen years. Charlie Hastings moved back home to Tucson after retiring, and he lives there with his wife and children. In a 1967 article for the Saturday Evening Post, former ABC reporter Jack Smith, who was a private first class in Charlie Company during the battle, wrote about Cornett's last moments. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. "When things started it just erupted," Lawrence said. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. MERCHANT, Dick, fifty-four, assistant operations officer, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, served a second tour in Vietnam in 1968 as Lieutenant Colonel Matt Dillons battalion executive officer. Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. (Purp), fifty, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, was evacuated to Japan. 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. Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. Recalling the aftermath of the fight, he said, Back then Stars and Stripes would carry the casualty reports and I had a red pen and started checking off the names of guys I knew who were listed as KIA. WALLACE, Bruce M. Jr., sixty-one, Air Force A-IE Skyraider pilot over the Ia Drang, served two more tours in Vietnam and retired a colonel in 1976. AINSWORTH, Hank, fifty-four, who flew the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav command helicopter in the Ia Drang, retired a chief warrant officer 4 on May 30, 1977, after twenty-two years service. He and his wife and young son live in Lawndale, California. MEYER, Edward C. (Shy), sixty-three, 3rd Brigade executive officer in the Ia Drang, retired as Army Chief of Staff, a four-star general, in 1983 after thirty-two years service. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. I couldnt grasp it., More from us: Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. 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. RESCORLA, Cyril R. (Rick), fifty-three, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, completed a full tour with Bravo Company in Vietnam and did another year teaching at Officer Candidate School in the States. On November 18, 1965, the US forces were able to gather their dead. 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 . "The emotions are so high, the noise is tremendous, the confusion is everywhere; they had overrun us by now. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. Easy. There was a problem getting your location. Russian missile barrage knocks out power and water to Ukrainian cities December 16, 2022. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. PARISH, Willard, fifty-one, mortarman in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who won the Silver Star for his work as a machine gunner in LZ X-Ray, was among the draftees who rotated home in December 1965 for discharge. The battle at the landing zone X-RAY (LZ X-RAY) in the Ia Drang River Valley occurred from 14 November to 16 November 1965. Deleting this Virtual Cemetery cannot be undone. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. Facebook Twitter Alley is general manager of a box factory in Dayton, Tennessee. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. It was the signal for all available American aircraft to converge and provide aid to the American unit. Lefebvre earned graduate degrees in secondary school administration and public administration. Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. In 2016, he joined a panel of Ia Drang survivors at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga., to share their experiences with both young and seasoned officers and noncommissioned officers. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. How could I forget? "Why did I deserve to live? Freeman won a battlefield commission in the Korean War. The Pleiku Campaign took place from 20 October to 26 . That headquarters type turned up and he returned my old helmet, bullet hole and all. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. The bullet was still in there. He is brutally honest, even with his actions as a leader. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. After they were airlifted out of the combat zone, McDades men were joined by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. But UPI sent him back to Vietnam in 1971, in 1973, and again in 1975 for the final chapter. The XO was going fast. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. He and his wife, Julie, divide their time between homes in Auburn, Alabama, and Crested Butte, Colorado. Army Specialist Four (SP4) Bill Beck was an assistant machine gunner assigned to the 1 st Battalion, 7 th Cavalry Regiment (1/7 Cav), 1 st Cavalry Division on November 14, 1965, when the unit airlifted into Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. Other donors to the fund are readers of the book from across America, Veterans, and supporters of the fund. The mission of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is to honor and preserve the legacy of service and educate all generations about the impact of the Vietnam War. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. Adams and his wife have a three-year-old daughter. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. They saved some 70 soldiers. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965. I didn't do as I should have.". That spring, the Saigon government had begun collapsing under the combined. With a passion for historical learning and historical education, her writing interests include social history, and war history, especially researching obscure facts about the Second World War. 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. Her daughter, Camille, was soon joined by a brother, Robert, and a sister, Barbara. LARSEN, Stanley R. (Swede), seventy-seven, commanding general, II Field Force Vietnam, retired a lieutenant general in 1972 and for seven years was president of a large company in San Francisco. However, Americans killed an estimated 1,800 North Vietnamese, through rifles, artillery, helicopters, and jets. God rest you, George. He retired from the Army as a staff sergeant in 1976, and now serves in the Alabama National Guard. He tells his audience this to help them understand. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. 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. "I'm just as guilty. Rozanski returned to the Ia Drang five times on various intelligence missions and described the place as a cemetery. He was retired, disabled, as a major in the mid-1970s. He and his wife live in Lake Forest, Illinois. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. 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. The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. We were caught inside of what was essentially an L-shaped ambush.". The machine gunner was mowing them down. The day before he died, George picked up a Christmas tree, which he planned to decorate with yellow ribbons and small American flags for the airport terminal; soldiers from the Gulf were still arriving and he didnt want them to think they had been forgotten. One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. He is married and the father of two children. After he flew the men back to base, he knew the soldiers on the ground were running short of ammunition, so he decided to fly back in. Mississippi, MILLS, Jon, fifty-four, Bruce Crandalls copilot in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980. James Lawrence, a 77 year-old Vietnam veteran from Alabama, tells people about his best friend and the battle he died in whenever he gets the chance. He retired in 1990. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. North Vietnamese forces had higher casualty rates, due to the U.S. airstrike and artillery support. 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. It would remain the U.S. militarys single bloodiest day in Vietnam through the entire war. I thought to myself. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. Nebraska, This was the first major engagement between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army. Read More Landing Zone Xray Lead elements of the under strength 450 man 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry air assault into a small clearing in scrub jungle below the 2300 foot Chu Pong Massif. "The fear factor, when you know someone is within yards of you and is trying to kill you desperately, the fear factor can shut you down. It was the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and Lawrence and . Box 159 DIDURYK, Myron F., commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, completed his tour in Vietnam with Bravo Company in 1966, and later returned to Vietnam and the 1st Air Cavalry Division as a major. One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair. In Hanoi, the North Vietnamese leadership was prepared for huge losses. "The XO let out a low moan, and his head sank. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. Today he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City. He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. He spent more than 14 hours in the air andcompleted a total of 22 flights, most under intense enemy fire. Florence County, In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. 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. The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. TOWLES, Robert, forty-seven, rifleman, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, spent five months in Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania, recovering from twenty-eight shrapnel wounds he received at LZ Albany. Clinton Poley was an assistant machine gunner, who said they landed in grass that was 5 feet high and didnt know where the other troops were. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. It had been a small undeclared war mainly fought by South Vietnamese troops with a few U.S. advisers in the mix, sometimes on the ground, sometimes in helicopters, said Andrew Wiest, a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and the founding director of its Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. He was 92 years old. 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.. Most of the planes touched down between midnight and six A.M., but George Nye was always there, rain or shine. The Tragedy of LZ Albany: Teaching the lessons of a battle lost. And it all began early one fall day. 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. He wanted the Gulf veterans to have the welcome-home that none of the Vietnam veterans got. His friend, James Lawrence, speaks with organizations and Soldiers about the lessons learned from the Army engineer recognized for exemplary work in obsolescence management, Norway adds top-tier military experience to State Partnership Program, Army's Environmental Restoration Program revitalizes contaminated lands, Army Lt. Col. Adams: A pioneer worthy of commemoration, US and UAE soldiers train together at Joint Readiness Training Center, Unified network operations underpins Army's digital transformation, SMA plans to reward Soldiers who meet rising standards. We have set your language to Successful in their mission, the Americans travel back to their landing zone to be taken back to base. 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. BEAN, Roger, fifty-two, Huey pilot who was wounded in LZ X-Ray, was wounded again in early 1966 in the Bong Son campaign. STOCKTON, John B., seventy, commander, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel in 1967. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. Adams and his wife have a three-year-old daughter. Major Bruce Crandalls UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission in Ia Drang. 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. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. JEMISON, Robert, Jr., sixty-one, platoon sergeant, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, retired as a sergeant first class in 1976, after twenty-four years service. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. Please reset your password. Despite their efforts, the North Vietnamese retake the position soon after. In August 1977, at the age of forty-four, Colonel Frank Henry died when an aneurysm ruptured. He did not know at the time that his friend, Don Cornett, had died. He added a masters degree in Latin American studies to his M.A. James T. Lawrence, a first lieutenant in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, learned a lesson in leadership the hard way 50 years ago. I attended every one of those funerals., LEFEBVRE, L. R. (Ray), fifty-nine, commander of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, spent eighteen months at Martin Army Hospital, Fort Benning, recovering from the wounds he suffered at X-Ray. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. He would recover after some physical therapy and return to duty in 1966 to finish his tour. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. He worked as a sales executive in the corrugated-box industry and went to school nights to earn his MBA. He is a civilian specialist on NATO affairs for the Defense Department; he and his wife, Sally, live in Bethesda, Maryland. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. The bulk of the fighting lasted about 6 hours and in that time 2/7 Cav lost 155 killed and 124 wounded. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. He retired in August 1990, and now lives in Peekskill, New York. 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. "I can't even begin to explain it," he said. The losses at Ia Drang prompted the North Vietnamese to rethink their plan to confront U.S. forces with large, conventional formations, reverting to hit-and-run attacks where U.S. air and artillery power was less effective. "Back then Stars and Stripes would carry the casualty reports and I had a red pen and started checking off the names of guys I knew who were listed as KIA. 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. Where the difference between We Were Soldiers and reality lies is that the battle didnt end with Moore and his men evacuating, nor was there a final heroic charge. Next, he was shot in the chest; as he moved around, he was shot again in the leg. They successfully hit many of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops, while also shooting some of the Americans with friendly fire. Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. He is a captain and the commander of Engine Company Number One. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. Westmorelands biggest problem with the strategy was that he thought it would work in two or three years when it would have taken 10 or 12.. The American death toll was a shock to President Lyndon Johnson, who immediately dispatched Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to Saigon to find out what was going on. BARTHOLOMEW, Roger J. By the end, there were no officers left and only 49 men that were not wounded. New York, His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. Douglas County, Please try again later. GEOGHEGAN, Camille, twenty-seven, daughter of Lieutenant John Lance (Jack) Geoghegan, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, killed in action November 15, 1965, is a human resources specialist at a company in McLean, Virginia. ROBINSON, Edward Charles, fifty-five, Huey pilot at LZ X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. Please enter your email and password to sign in. The British-born Rescorla earned a masters degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. He asked for a volunteer to go with him and Captain Ed Freeman agreed to pursue it with him, displaying extraordinary heroism. Lawrence, even in his paralyzed state, was able to give some direction to his company. Of Mrs. Mapsons five brothers, three served in the Army, one made a career in the Air Force, and one is a lawyer. On January 31, 1966, The New York Times profiled Moore as The Man Who Can Find the Viet Cong. He pressed for another assignment to troop command in Vietnam, only to be told that he had already had his turn. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. 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. Gen. Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. After LZ Albany, Thorpe requested a transfer from his company command to the division public-information office and finished his tour as an escort officer for visiting press and VIPs. On Nov. 14, 1965, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, loaded onto helicopters and flew to a remote patch of ground in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnams central highlands. 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. At approximately noon,the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment attacked. 208-263-9534. 3 /5. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. On November 27, 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Bartholomew was killed in action. The Battle of Ia Drang Valley was a series of engagements between the U.S 1st Cavalry Division and the B-3 front, North Vietnamese Army. KINNARD, Harry W. O., seventy-seven, former commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, retired from the Army as a lieutenant general in 1969. Alpha company along with most of the command group had setup a perimeter in the trees, but the rest of the battalion was cut off. He and his wife live in Phoenix, Arizona. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. CRANDALL, Bruce, fifty-nine, who commanded the helicopters in the Ia Drang Valley, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1967. James Lawrence, one of the men who fought at LZ Albany, later recounted his experiences. P.O. I ripped off his shirt and there it was: a groove to the right of his spine. He became a legend in the unit for his behavior in combat, and his face became an American icon when a young reporter named Peter Arnett snapped his photo. The Alabama National Guard staff sergeant in 1976, and Lawrence and by brother. 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