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. FESMIRE, John A. 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. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. The Battle of Ia Drang Still Matters - War Is Boring. 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. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. That spring, the Saigon government had begun collapsing under the combined. Please reset your password. He then formed a computer-software company. He didn't know that he was the one in charge at that time. Box 159 Lawrence dropped to the ground to take cover in the tall elephant grass and began to return fire like any other rifleman. 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. Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. He is assistant principal of a public high school in the Bronx. The column was strung out about 550 yards in the open with dense vegetation to their right. Then he somehow managed to crawl away, saying that he was going to organize the troops. 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. 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. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. It is republished unedited in its original form. Florence County, 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 and his wife and their four Saint Bernard dogs live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. 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. Although each survivor's story is unique, they all carry the same lessons. 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 ask that question every day. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. On November 14, 1965, Captain Ed Freeman made repeated flights into the Ia Drang Valley under intense fire to bring in supplies and evacuate the wounded. Hear Bruces story. 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. (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. Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. 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. This account has been disabled. Pronunciation of Ia Drang with 6 audio pronunciations. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. The Ia Drang Valley is a map featured in Battlefield Vietnam. The men were still in an administrative maneuver, so when the word to halt came they plopped down where they were. He lives in Falls, Pennsylvania. 1/7 Cavalry lands at LZ X-Ray. However, Americans killed an estimated 1,800 North Vietnamese, through rifles, artillery, helicopters, and jets. 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. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. . copyright 2023 Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. But Charlie was back in the air, flying F-4 Phantoms, less than a year later. JOHNS, Barbara Geoghegan, fifty, widow of Lieutenant John Lance (Jack) Geoghegan of the 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, killed in action in X-Ray, married Lieutenant Colonel John Johns in 1969. Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore, a no-nonsense West Pointer, was the commander of the . Battle of Ia Drang American troops in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965. He and his wife have two teenage children. He holds two masters degrees, is employed in the defense industry, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. LAVENDER, David A. 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 spent that night among the dead and wounded. He left the Army in 1971 with the rank of captain, returned home to Puerto Rico, and earned a law degree. 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. He was made famous by the account of his actions during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965, the Americans' first major battle of the Vietnam War. 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. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. 1965, just after the start of the U.S. campaign that led to the Ia Drang Valley. 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. A high school dropout, he went back to college, earned a B.A., and was working on an M.A. The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam 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. The four day battle in the Ia Drang Valley began on the morning of November 14, 1965 when the 1st battalion of the 7th Cavalry, my sister battalion, landed in a clearing at the foot of Chu Pong Mountain. Purp is married, the father of three daughters, and cuts hair at Gibbs Barber Shop, where he has worked for the last nineteen years. He and his wife have two college-age children. 311 memorials USA, Mendenhall, Scott and Basil Plumley meet most Fridays over breakfast at a local cafe for spirited discussions of the relative merits of their service, their two 7th Cavalry battalions, and other weighty issues. NYE, George (China Joe), demolition-team leader, 8th Engineers, attached to the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in Landing Zone X-Ray, died of an apparent heart attack at age fifty-one on December 8, 1991, at his home in Bangor, Maine. Still on active duty, he is a major general, and is deputy to the Army inspector-general. Some of the survivors broke into tears of relief. 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 . Nonetheless, this allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area. POLEY, Clinton, forty-eight, assistant machine gunner, 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, was discharged from Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado, early in 1966, and went home to Iowa and the family farm. His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. Enlisted men may scoff at officers back in the billets but when the fighting begins, the men automatically become dependent upon them. JEKEL, Alex (Pop), seventy, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany, retired in the late 1960s as a chief warrant officer-4. BY DAVID A. MAURER. 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. 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 earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. The film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and owns and operates a real estate brokerage firm. 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. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. We were caught inside of what was essentially an L-shaped ambush.". He lives on a farm near Rainier, Washington, and has been writing down his memories of Vietnam duty for his children and grandchildren. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. He was chief of security at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, until his death on April 18, 1992. Although he was a civilian, Galloway was awarded the Bronze Star medal for helping to rescue wounded soldiers during the battle. 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. Today he is an orchestra leader and serves in the state militia. Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. 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. 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. Major Bruce P. Crandall's UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission. Moore considered the outcome a draw. We have set your language to 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. They died dirty. The XO had been hit in the small of the back. He is married and has a daughter in college and a son in the U.S. Marines. They died thinking that their loved ones would never know how they died. He lives in Washington, D.C. SPIRES, James W., operations officer, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1976 and owns and operates his own industrial representational firm. 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. Every night I rub a towel over all my scars and see them in the mirror. CARRARA, Robert J., fifty-four, battalion surgeon of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in LZ X-Ray, served eleven months in Vietnam and was discharged in July 1966. LADNER, Theron, fifty, machine gunner with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in X-Ray, lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he owns a nightclub and a stable of Thoroughbred racehorses. Book Sources: The Battle of Ia Drang Valley We were soldiers once -and young : Ia Drang, the battle that changed the war in Vietnam by Ha Moore; Joseph Galloway Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DS557.8.I18 M66 1992 ISBN: 0679411585 Publication Date: 1992-10-20 Everyman in Vietnam by Michael Adas; Joseph J. Gilch Gen. Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. He and his wife and young son live in Lawndale, California. ROZANSKI, Gordon P. (Rosie), fifty-four, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry S-4 in the Ia Drang, was wounded in both arms, both legs, and the stomach in the Bong Son campaign in early 1966. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. Moderate. 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. TULLY, Robert (Bob), sixty-eight, commander, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam in 1968 as a brigade commander in the Americal Division. Bob Edwards saying that these were the stripes Paolone earned at LZ X-Ray but never got. He was paralyzed. Easy. HAZEN, Robert D., fifty, Lieutenant Bob Tafts radio operator in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, retired from the Army a master sergeant in 1988 after twenty-seven years service. George Nye was a sparkplug of Operation Welcome Home, which brought veterans groups, brass bands, and Bangor townsfolk to the airport by the hundreds to hug and shake hands with the Desert Storm veterans. Adams and his wife have a three-year-old daughter. They had this Learning to be a Teacher program; I tried it and loved it. The battalion commander had ordered his command helicopter to land and check out a North Vietnamese soldier killed by the door gunner. 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. Forces, was Time magazines Man of the Year. 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. After Vietnam, Hazen maintained a correspondence with the mother of the young lieutenant who died in his arms. In 1982, he joined U.S. News & World Report magazine. In his spare time Wal-lenius draws, paints, and does etchings and prints, sometimes of Vietnam War scenes. (U.S. Army). He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. By the end of the first day, the 1st BN, 7th Cavalry was reduced to approximately 340 men. 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. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. Setelin is president of the Major General George W. Casey chapter of the 1st Cavalry Division Association and a member of the national associations board of trustees. Diduryk is buried at the Fort Benning cemetery; his widow, Delores, lives in Jacksonville, Florida. A Chicago native, Doc Carrara returned home, changed his specialty to pathology. (Purp), fifty, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, was evacuated to Japan. 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. 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. American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. 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. 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. "Survivor's guilt is something that most people who have seen combat, seen friends die, deal with almost daily," Lawrence said. He and his wife live in Phoenix, Arizona. Together, they flew in supplies, water, and ammunition needed for the troops. 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. Draws, paints, and one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and earned a B.A. and... And their four Saint Bernard dogs live in Phoenix, Arizona declared the battle of Drang. An L-shaped ambush. `` BN, 7th Cavalry was reduced to approximately 340 men to... Runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike or more uppercase lowercase. 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