That is the theme of Lawrence's book and of his talks. Hear Walters story. I couldn't grasp it.". Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. They are representative of the more than three million Americans who served the United States of America in its long and bitter war in Vietnam, representative of those who loved one of the more than 58,000 Americans who died in that war. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. On the morning of November 14th, the 1st Cavalry landed at Landing Zone X-Ray at the base of the Chu Pong mountain and by noon they were already under attack from the North Vietnamese. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. Things were quiet, but in the morning, the North Vietnamese attacked. When I go to the wall, I see Don Cornett's name 58,000 times.'. The majority of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Lt. Col. Robert McDade, didnt enter the fight until X-Ray had already been relieved by Moore. JEANETTE, Robert J., fifty, Ghost 4-6, weapons-platoon leader, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, lives in Monsey, New York, a suburb of New York City. At the end of a year only fifteen of the original contingent were still there, Gwin included. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. SUGDINIS, Joel E., fifty-five, who had already served one tour in Vietnam as an adviser, completed his second tour with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry. Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. LAVENDER, David A. Difficult. 3 /5. 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. The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. Payne and his wife, Patty, live in Hinsdale, Illinois, and have three children. Col. Bruce Crandall, Commander ofCompany A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), led the first major division operation of airmobile troops into Landing Zone X-Ray. KEETON, James, fifty-nine, battalion aid station medic, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, served a second tour in Vietnam with an adviser group. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. 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. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. He wanted the Gulf veterans to have the welcome-home that none of the Vietnam veterans got. 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. Luckily for him, not a single shot he received hit any vital organs. He served in both Brazil and El Salvador, was a history instructor at West Point, and served in the Center of Military History for a number of years. There is a problem with your email/password. As the command ship touched down, other NVA soldiers opened up; Myron Diduryk was struck in the stomach in the doorway of the chopper. Enlisted men may scoff at officers back in the billets but when the fighting begins, the men automatically become dependent upon them. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. Her mother, who never remarried, died in 1986. 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. In four days and nights of fighting. Both later were awarded the Medal of Honor, our nations highest award for heroism in combat. He personally shook the hands of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers. 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. The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. P.O. It is laced with hard facts, observations, anger, sadness and even some humor. Search above to list available cemeteries. He spent seven months there while his shattered thigh and legs were repaired. He retired a colonel in 1983. He is senior Army adviser to the 79th Army Reserve Command in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, and is a serious collector of firearms and active in a local shooting club. After Vietnam, Hazen maintained a correspondence with the mother of the young lieutenant who died in his arms. The idea was that whole battalions could be dropped and complete their mission on the ground, calling in artillery barrages, helicopter support, and bombing sorties (including . Fighting was so intense that a battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, reported finding a dead American with his hands at the throat of a dead North Vietnamese soldier. The North Vietnamese Army starts with the most flags but to combat this the 7th Cavalry Regiment has superior airpower meaning that the USA can quickly insert and extract players into and out of flags. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. He was judged seventy percent disabled due to wounds suffered in LZ X-Ray. American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. NADAL, Ramon A. The Tragedy of LZ Albany: Teaching the lessons of a battle lost. I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmorelands corner. Shortly thereafter, US units began . 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. Westmoreland, a veteran of World War II in Europe, declared Ia Drang a victory because the North Vietnamese were driven from the field after suffering major casualties. BRAVEBOY, Toby, rifleman, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav, recovered from his wounds and his week-long ordeal alone on the abandoned battlefield at Albany and returned safely to his family in Coward, South Carolina. The men were still in an administrative maneuver, so when the word to halt came they plopped down where they were. 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. SMITH, Jack P., forty-seven, returned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry after his wounds healed, and completed his tour. Facebook Twitter 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 Ia Drang Scholarship Fund was founded in 1994 by LTG (Ret) Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway from earnings on their book We Were Soldiers Once-And Young. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. By the third day of the battle, the Americans had gained the upper hand. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. He is married and the father of two children. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. TIFFT, Richard P., Pathfinder team leader in LZ X-Ray, later served as commander of the Golden Knights, the Armys parachute team. He checked in with the nearest Veterans Administration hospital; they sent him home, telling him they would call him back for an operation to place a plate over the hole. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. 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. Resend Activation Email. 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. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. Between the Army and the Interior Department, Freeman logged a total of seventeen thousand hours flying time in helicopters and eight thousand hours in fixed wing. Sandpoint, ID 83864 BEAN, Roger, fifty-two, Huey pilot who was wounded in LZ X-Ray, was wounded again in early 1966 in the Bong Son campaign. Survivors described savage, close-range combat, sometimes hand-to-hand, over several hours. copyright 2023 He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. He returned for a second Vietnam tour as an adviser in IV Corps in August 1968; in the 1970s he earned bachelors and masters degrees. The idea was to kill the enemy, not necessarily hold ground, and bleed the North Vietnamese until they tired of war. Moore considered the outcome a draw. He retired a colonel in December 1981, after twenty-four years service. He is married and has four children. He was discharged a sergeant, completed his college education, and is now an on-air national news correspondent for ABC Televisions Weekend News. He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. 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." MCDADE, Robert, seventy, who commanded the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel in 1975. Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran, serving in the 1st Infantry Division and is a business owner in Priest River. MARTIN, John C., fifty-one, rifleman in Lieutenant Sissons platoon detached from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry for duty in X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. He won a National Magazine Award for his October 29, 1990, cover article on the Ia Drang battles. Galen Bungum, 72, was a soldier in the Vietnam War and fought in the first major battle of the war, the battle of Ia Drang, on November 14, 1965. Due to wounds suffered in LZ X-Ray and: the Battle of Ia. The men automatically become dependent upon them seven months there while his shattered thigh and were. 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