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. I felt a flash of panic. 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. It featured a question-and-answer session with some of the battle's key players, including retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore. Freeman reconstituted the unit and led it back up Pork Chop. South Carolina, The last time he talked to Herren, Lose said, Nobody out here understands what we went through.. As one writer concluded, "The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war," and it "set the tone for the" many years of relentless fighting that would follow. (U.S. Army). BECK, Bill, forty-nine, assistant machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, left the Army in 1966 and went home to his native Steelton, Pennsylvania. I've also included soldiers who survived and died later and the wife of the commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Julia Moore for her role in supporting the grieving widows of the men slain. "To do it you've got to get up. Linda Carole Mustion has not added any memorials to this virtual cemetery. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Read More He and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. He still grows soybeans and corn on the farm in his spare time. 208-263-9534. BEAN, Roger, fifty-two, Huey pilot who was wounded in LZ X-Ray, was wounded again in early 1966 in the Bong Son campaign. The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. He and his wife, Martha, have four children. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. I pulled the muscles in that leg so badly yanking it free that I couldnt walk for three months, he said. Pronunciation of Ia Drang with 6 audio pronunciations. He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. The enemy was so close he could hear them talking and he could see them right in front of him. He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. "My gut told me, this is wrong, this isn't right, something's wrong here. He now manages the quartermaster laundry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was chief of security at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, until his death on April 18, 1992. Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment fought at the former for three days, beginning on November 14. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965. I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmorelands corner. 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. They and their buddies fought off hundreds of North Vietnamese with the help of artillery. He asked for a volunteer to go with him and Captain Ed Freeman agreed to pursue it with him, displaying extraordinary heroism. Temperatures reached 100 degrees, and by the afternoon there was a firestorm battle for survival. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? It was the most successful ambush against U.S. forces during the course of the entire war. 5 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. 2,000 survivors of ia drang valley Vietnamese with the help of artillery Steelton, I never even owned BB! In four days and nights of fighting. More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. He and his wife, Deurice, live in Columbus, Georgia, where he is president of the 1st Cavalry Division Association local chapter and an occasional quail hunter. The bullet was still in there. After three days of fighting, 240 Americans had been killed and another 300 wounded (more troops were brought in in support). Their mission was to find and kill the enemy. Each option, he warned, had a good chance of leading to a stalemate. It is laced with hard facts, observations, anger, sadness and even some humor. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Today he is an orchestra leader and serves in the state militia. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. Major Bruce Crandalls UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission in Ia Drang. (U.S. Army). The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. Dillon is a scratch golfer who does his best to get in eighteen holes every day, even if it means a drive downslope to find a course that isnt closed on account of snow in the Colorado winter. He had . Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. . They died thinking that their loved ones would never know how they died. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He would recover after some physical therapy and return to duty in 1966 to finish his tour. By Staff. The group is devoted to bringing together the families and friends of men killed in Vietnam. LOMBARDO, Riccardo, sixty-one, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany and Pop Jekels good buddy, was retired on one hundred percent disability after a serious back injury in 1967, when he was thirty-six. I think it also speaks to the depths these guys were into the Cold War reality at the time. The central highlands had few roads and challenging terrain, making air mobility the only viable mode of transportation. 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). One of those soldiers was Army Captain David Moore, 82nd Airborne Division, son of his old battlefield commander in X-Ray, and that homecoming gave George the greatest pleasure of all. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. (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. (Skip), fifty-three, commander of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, is still on active duty. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. Nonetheless, this allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. HASTINGS, Charlie W., fifty-three, forward air controller at LZ X-Ray, retired as a colonel from the U.S. Air Force on March 1, 1992, after thirty years service. The service members killed in the Battle of la Drang are remembered on Panel 3E of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 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. 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. He worked as a sales executive in the corrugated-box industry and went to school nights to earn his MBA. 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. (U.S. Army), This strategy, as flawed as it was, had some potentiality of working, Wiest, the historian, said. 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. copyright 2023 In 1974 he transferred from the infantry to the military police. 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. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. I ask that question every day. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. He told Moore to execute an airmobile assault into the Ia Drang valley north of the Chu Pong peak early the next morning and to conduct search and destroy operations through 15 November. The living, wounded and dead of the first and second battalions of the US 7th Cavalry were flown back to their bases, given fresh food and clothes, and reformed for another day of fighting. 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. 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. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. 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. 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. Crandall kept his helicopter on the ground in the line of enemy fire, so that four wounded soldiers could be loaded aboard. The fighting continued all day and into the night with the enemy relentlessly making assault after assault. They have a son and two daughters. Although survivors had been trickling in during the morning they thought the 2/7th had been annihilated in the fighting at Albany. 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. In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. The only question was which side could outlast the other. SCOTT, James A., sixty-nine, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, served a second Vietnam tour in 1970-71 as command sergeant major, USARV Scott retired as a command sergeant major on May 1, 1973, after thirty years, ten months, and twenty days of service, wearing the Combat Infantrymans Badge with one star; six Bronze Stars; three Purple Hearts; a European Campaign ribbon with four battle stars and one invasion arrow; a Korean Service ribbon with two battle stars; a Vietnam Service ribbon with four battle stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. Lefebvre earned graduate degrees in secondary school administration and public administration. Hear Bruces story. 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. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Weve updated the security on the site. Nebraska, His friends completed the tree for him and dedicated it to Sergeant China Joe Nye. 4 Oscar E . In Washington, Ia Drang convinced Johnson that he was in for a long, bloody war. TADEMY, Dudley, 3rd Brigade fire-support coordinator in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry and retired a colonel in January 1987, after thirty years service. BUNGUM, Galen, forty-nine, rifleman in Lieutenant Henry Herricks Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Army in April 1966 and went home to Hayfield, Minnesota. Crandall and Freeman successfully rescued some 70 wounded men. Today he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City. Sources 1st Cavalry Division Association: 1st Cavalry Division Medal of Honor Recipients. He wanted the Gulf veterans to have the welcome-home that none of the Vietnam veterans got. He was paralyzed. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. FESMIRE, John A. He went home to Anderson County, South Carolina, where he is a deputy sheriff. For the next four years he was executive vice president of the company that developed the Crested Butte, Colorado, ski area. He retired a command sergeant major and lives in Columbus, Georgia. TIFFT, Richard P., Pathfinder team leader in LZ X-Ray, later served as commander of the Golden Knights, the Armys parachute team. BARKER, Robert L., fifty-five, artillery-battery commander in LZ Falcon, served a second tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1969-1970 and later served a third combat tour. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. 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. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. 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. FORREST, George, fifty-four, who commanded Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 after twenty-one years service. 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. 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. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. (U.S. Army). 'Can't you see I'm dying?' His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. The fighting continued all day and into the night. Orange County, Pujals recently closed his law practice. But Charlie was back in the air, flying F-4 Phantoms, less than a year later. The first U.S. ground combat troops arrived there in March. SMITH, Jack P., forty-seven, returned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry after his wounds healed, and completed his tour. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. 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. 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. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. For Lawrence, telling the story of LZ Albany is not only a way to keep the memory of those who died alive, but also a way to educate others. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large formation of American troops faced well-trained, well-equipped regulars of the Peoples Army of Vietnam. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. Finally, after 10 months, had some makeshift buildings. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. 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. He and his wife, Theresa, live on a farm in northern Virginia with their sons Lee, fifteen, and Joshua, twelve. THORPE, Henry, fifty-eight, commander, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in September 1967, after eight years service, and went home to his native North Carolina. Privacy Policy 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. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. 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