The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. They realized, Yeah, its going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys, Willbanks said. 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. Shucart says, It was interesting; they just figured I was another grunt and I didnt tell them different. 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. 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. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. Next, he was shot in the chest; as he moved around, he was shot again in the leg. Omaha, Although survivors had been trickling in during the morning they thought the 2/7th had been annihilated in the fighting at Albany. In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. He lives on a farm near Rainier, Washington, and has been writing down his memories of Vietnam duty for his children and grandchildren. He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. Lt. Col. Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take on an air assaultin the Ia Drang Valley. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh had warned the French, who were trying to restore control over their former protectorate, that you can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.. GILREATH, Larry M., platoon sergeant, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, did two more tours in Southeast Asia and retired a master sergeant in April 1972. KINNARD, Harry W. O., seventy-seven, former commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, retired from the Army as a lieutenant general in 1969. Moore, who says he graduated from West Point by the skin of my teeth, was the first Army officer of his class (1945) to achieve one-, two-, and three-star rank. Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. 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. 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. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. 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 . Then he somehow managed to crawl away, saying that he was going to organize the troops. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. 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. Luckily for him, not a single shot he received hit any vital organs. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. MARM, Walter J. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. They died dirty. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. He retired in August 1990, and now lives in Peekskill, New York. Hal Moore ensured that all of the men came home, and they therefore did . 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 . We lived in tents. The Troopers of 2/7 Cav relieved their sister unit, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, on Nov. 16, following 1/7 Cav's three day battle with the People's Army of Vietnam near the base of the Chu Pong Massif. (AP Photo) A wounded American soldier is aided to a helicopter for evacuation from Ia Drang Valley area, near Plei Me, Vietnam, November 18, 1965. I fought for this country and now I own and farm 120 acres of my country. But UPI sent him back to Vietnam in 1971, in 1973, and again in 1975 for the final chapter. They have two grown children and one still at home. Enlisted men may scoff at officers back in the billets but when the fighting begins, the men automatically become dependent upon them. His old company commander, John Herren, and all the survivors of the Lost Platoon believe that Charles Lose should have been awarded the Medal of Honor that they recommended for him. Controlling the central highlands would enable the North Vietnamese to cut the south in two and separate South Vietnams northern cities of Hue and Da Nang from the capital, Saigon, to the south. MCDADE, Robert, seventy, who commanded the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel in 1975. One infantry company began the day of Nov. 14 with 110 men. 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. Shocked and wounded U.S. troops gather at a jungle clearing of South Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley in mid-November 1965, as they wait for an ambulance helicopter. Battle of Ia Drang American troops in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965. Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. Now a senior writer for U.S. News, Galloway recently had one last combat tour. Lt. Don Cornett along with 154 Troopers from 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment were killed in the Ia Drang Valley, Nov. 17, 1965, at a small clearing known as Landing Zone Albany. He was paralyzed. He is now an attorney in San Diego, California. American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. EDWARDS, Robert, fifty-four, commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. I was standing back there in the column and the column was stopped. For information, the 1st Air Cavalry arrived in the fall of 1965, about the same time I did as a member of the 1stInfantry Division. Moderate. Mrs. Mapson is a member of the Columbus chapter of the 1st Cavalry Division Association. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. Survivors described savage, close-range combat, sometimes hand-to-hand, over several hours. Second Lieutenant Walter Joe Marm, Jr., led an attack against a heavily fortified enemy force on November 14, 1965, personally knocking out several positions in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam. 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. A bitter conclusion to the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley came soon afterward, when Gen. Westmoreland told the 2nd Battalion survivors that they had achieved "a great victory over the Communists from the North." His primary job is helping communities located near Army chemical-weapons depots write their emergency-response plans. He and his wife and their four Saint Bernard dogs live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Payne and his wife, Patty, live in Hinsdale, Illinois, and have three children. He personally shook the hands of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers. I think of all those guys killed in action, wounded in action, and their friends, their relatives and all those altered lives. This operation responded to the NVA attack on an American . 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. Two men - Sgt. He is a consultant to industries seeking defense business. BARTHOLOMEW, Roger J. MAPSON, Betty Jivens, forty-two, daughter of Sergeant Jerry Jivens, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, killed in action at X-Ray on November 15, 1965, is married, the mother of two, and works as a secretary at the Medical Center Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. The fighting continued all day and into the night with the enemy relentlessly making assault after assault. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. His lieutenants bars were pinned on by General James Van Fleet and, at Freemans request, his first assignment was as commander of Bravo Company. Thanks for your help! New York, I pulled the muscles in that leg so badly yanking it free that I couldnt walk for three months, he said. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. 1965, just after the start of the U.S. campaign that led to the Ia Drang Valley. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . SELLECK, Pat, fifty-one, radio operator, recon platoon, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, was discharged from the Army on November 29, 1965, and returned to his old job at the telephone company. He asked for a volunteer to go with him and Captain Ed Freeman agreed to pursue it with him, displaying extraordinary heroism. When I was down, men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking Vietnamese and executing the wounded. Pronunciation of Ia Drang with 6 audio pronunciations. Among the survivors of the ambush was 1st Lt. Rick Rescorla, a platoon leader who died Sept. 11, 2001, rescuing people from the World Trade Centers south tower until it crashed around him. The outcome convinced the North Vietnamese that they could reduce the threat of U.S. firepower by engaging the Americans at close quarters where U.S. airstrikes would prove risky and then melt away into the jungle or across the border into sanctuaries in Cambodia. He now manages the quartermaster laundry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. (U.S. Army). Privacy Policy Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. He and his wife, Martha, have four children. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. I felt a flash of panic. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? He married in 1981 and is the father of four daughters: an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and infant twins. He lives in Falls, Pennsylvania. Don Cornett had a wife and a son, a mother and a father and two sisters. USA, Fort Benning, BY DAVID A. MAURER. based on information from your browser. Shortly after the battalion set out, the North Vietnamese sprang a massive ambush. In addition, they were exhausted from the fight at X-Ray, so it was easy for hundreds of NVA troops to sneak up and launch an attack. 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. He didn't know that he was the one in charge at that time. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. He and his wife, Nell, now are retired and living in Shoal Creek, Alabama. He went home to Anderson County, South Carolina, where he is a deputy sheriff. The two-hour Ia Drang Valley program kicked off the reunion's final day. 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. (U.S. Army). In the spring of 1992, Frank Henry was posthumously inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. Jemison works part-time as a security guard in Columbus, Georgia, and he says: Each night I go back to Vietnam to fight that same battle, over and over.. It was Nov. 15, 1965, in the valley of the Ia Drang in the wild mountains of the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. We were caught inside of what was essentially an L-shaped ambush.". The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. It was his first real combat; first, he got a round to the side of his neck. Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1985; on November 26, 1987, he was killed in the crash of a private plane in Bakersfield, California. No one pulled security. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977, and lives with his wife in Arlington, Texas. 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. The first U.S. ground combat troops arrived there in March. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. (Photo Credit: US Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. The fighting continued for three hours. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. The machine gunner was mowing them down. Alex Kolyer for MPR News On this Veterans Day,. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. 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.) What was essentially an L-shaped ambush. `` a five-year-old, and lives with his wife,,! His wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope the best Vietnam War ever. 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