This browser does not support getting your location. MILLS, Jon, fifty-four, Bruce Crandalls copilot in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980. The Ia Drang Valley is a valley located near Pleiku in Central Highlands of Vietnam. 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 . Death in the Ia Drang Valley, November 13-18, 1965 By Private 1st Class Jack P. Smith The 1st Battalion had been fighting continuously for three or four days, and I had never seen such filthy troops. 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. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. The two-hour Ia Drang Valley program kicked off the reunion's final day. The column was strung out about 550 yards in the open with dense vegetation to their right. I couldn't grasp it.". She also worked as a teaching assistant in the History Department. 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. He retired a command sergeant major and lives in Columbus, Georgia. SHUCART, William, M.D., surgeon, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, had nearly completed his tour in Vietnam in the summer of 1966, when he suffered a broken back in the crash of a Chinook helicopter. Omaha, "The next morning we were told the B-52s out of Guam were going to bomb the mountains and that we were to move to LZ Albany," Jim said. (67 votes) Very easy. At approximately noon,the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment attacked. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. He spent eighteen months in Army hospitals, and was retired, disabled, in June 1975. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. PARKER, Neal G., a Naval Academy graduate who transferred to the U.S. Army and was a Huey pilot in Bravo Company 229th in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel after thirty years service. 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 died. 1st Lt. Donald Cornett at his base camp in Vietnam, shortly before the battle of Landing Zone Albany where he was killed in action, Nov. 17, 1965. Crandall kept his helicopter on the ground in the line of enemy fire, so that four wounded soldiers could be loaded aboard. He retired a first sergeant in June 1973, with twenty years service. A total of 305 soldiers died. The instructor of that class, Colonel John F. Jeszensky (ret. I guess I was an oddball; everyone else that year was going into teaching to avoid the draft, and then there was me. Jeanette and his wife, Sandra, were married five days before he shipped out for Vietnam. Today he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City. Major Bruce Crandalls UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission in Ia Drang. By whatever measure, the chaotic, bloody Battle of the Ia Drang Valley set the tone for the rest of war. He went home to Anderson County, South Carolina, where he is a deputy sheriff. Lt. Col. Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take on an air assaultin the Ia Drang Valley. He lives in Pleasant Valley, Connecticut, and works in real estate sales and development. The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. After retiring from the Army, Freeman became the northwest area director of aircraft services for the U.S. Department of the Interior. The fighting continued for three hours. He still grows soybeans and corn on the farm in his spare time. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. 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. I have one very vivid memory of the second morning in X-Ray. The survivors of the Ia Drang on November 14, 1965 to Nov 1965 on Nov. 14 with men. 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. 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. The vision of VVMF is to ensure a society in which all who have served and sacrificed in our nation's Armed Forces are properly honored and receive the recognition they justly deserve. 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. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. TANNER, Ray, forty-nine, radio operator, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, returned home to South Carolina in April 1966 and went to work for a utility company in Charleston. The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. I believe it is so I can share our story.". He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. They have a son, who is in college, and a daughter, still in high school. Knowles retired from the Army in 1974 as a lieutenant general. He earned a doctorate in history and now lives in San Antonio, where he works in the public-affairs office at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center. With only 700 effective soldiers left of the original 2,200, the 33d Regiment needed help. After about a three mile march, the front of the column reached the landing zone and the 2/7 Cav commander, Lt. Col. Robert McDade, called his company commanders forward to discuss how to best array their forces in preparation for extraction. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large. His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. 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. The Ia Drang Valley is the place the U.S. really went to warfare. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. 5 memorials LTC Roger Jay Bartholomew 2 Nov 1932 - 27 Nov 1968 Westlawn-Hillcrest Memorial Park Background. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? 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. Please reset your password. "I thought I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. By the end, there were no officers left and only 49 men that were not wounded. Purp is married, the father of three daughters, and cuts hair at Gibbs Barber Shop, where he has worked for the last nineteen years. Companies C and D took the brunt of the Communist attack, and most of the men were quickly hit. He lives in Falls, Pennsylvania. 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. 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. 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. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. 4 Oscar E . Hear three personal perspectives from men who survived. 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. Nonetheless, this allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. He was presented with the Medal of Honor on December 19, 1966, and three years later volunteered for a second tour of duty in Vietnam. Hes in a unique position to want to believe these optimistic reports and hes getting a lot of them.. He went home to Murphysboro, Illinois. The first major American direct fire conflict took place in November of 1965 in the Ia Drang Valley. South Carolina, I couldnt grasp it., More from us: Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. The battle was part of a campaign for control of the strategic central highlands, which divided South Vietnam north to south. His helicopter came under intense enemy fire, but they continued to carry out the wounded, even though that wasnt their mission. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. Things were quiet, but in the morning, the North Vietnamese attacked. How could I forget? 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.. During a 14-hour period, Major Bruce Crandall and Captain Ed Freeman, repeatedly landed their helicopter under intense enemy fire at Landing Zone X-Ray. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. Freeman reconstituted the unit and led it back up Pork Chop. 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. USA, Mendenhall, They have four children and three grandchildren. Today he lives in Riverside, Rhode Island, is in the photo business, and is active in veterans affairs. We were taking an administrative break, guys were taking off their packs and lighting cigarettes and the enemy was less than 100 yards on our right flank and deploying and we couldn't see 'em or hear 'em," he said. 4/C Jack P. Smith (Illustration by Noel Sickles, SEPS) Weekly Newsletter SUPPORT THE POST He has written a book about his experiences and has spoken more than 20 times to veterans organizations, junior high and high school students, and civic groups. TULLY, Walter Busill (Buse) Jr., commander, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, returned to Vietnam on a second tour as a major in the Americal Division. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Their mission was to find and kill the enemy. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. This was the first major engagement between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army. In Washington, Ia Drang convinced Johnson that he was in for a long, bloody war. Word reached the battalion traveling to Columbus, who sent Bravo Company back to Albany to serve as reinforcements. Moderate. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and his men continued on, receiving support from artillery units and air strikes, helping the American troops hold themselves against the enemy. The Battle of Ia Drang Still Matters - War Is Boring. Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. Among the many survivors of the ambush was 1st Lt. Rick Rescorla, a platoon chief who died Sept. 11, 2001, rescuing individuals from the World Commerce Heart's south tower till it crashed round him. Some of the men who hadn't slept for close to 48 hours closed their eyes, others smoked or ate. 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. The North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas absorbed even higher casualties from better-equipped American troops on the ground as well as helicopter gunships and B-52s raining bombs, bullets and napalm. Basil Plumley is a grandfather now, kind and soft-spoken, but do not be deceived: He is the lion in winter. 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. And it all began early one fall day. She is an active member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, an organization sponsored by the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 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. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. USA, West Point, That all would change when the First Cavalry Air Mobile Division flew into the Ia Drang Valley in the central highlands of South Vietnam. He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. I have it here with me today. He lives with his wife and family in Steelville. Of the 500 men, 150 were killed and only 84 were able to return to immediate duty. It wasnt until Albany was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close. 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. At various times in recent years he has been reported to be either employed or a patient in VA hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama. Next, he was shot in the chest; as he moved around, he was shot again in the leg. Deleting this Virtual Cemetery cannot be undone. 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. Then after a moment I realized I was still alive and needed to do something.". He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. Battle of Ia Drang American troops in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965. Hear Walters story. This account has been disabled. 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. YOUNG, James, fifty-one, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry in LZ Albany, made it home to the family farm outside Keysville, Missouri, on Christmas Eve, 1965, with an Army discharge in his pocket and a quarter-size hole in the side of his skull. Towles received a masters degree in history from Kent State in 1989, and is currently working on his doctorate. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. Gwin left the Army at the end of his ROTC commitment and went home to his native Boston, where he teaches and writes. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. Thus died one of the finest officers who fought in the Ia Drang. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. We lived in tents. He is married and has four children. 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." 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. Surprisingly, Adams, Beck's buddy who was shot in the head, was among the. "I can't even begin to explain it," he said. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. In Vietnam, it never got any worse than it did in the Ia Drang, a distant valley in the Central Highlands, tangled in elephant grass and simmering in heat. On the second day, North Vietnamese forces launched a heavy attack including hand-to-hand combat. Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. Being the firstbig units there, we had to make our own camp, no showers for months, World War II C rations to eat, no toilets, just a hole dug in the ground, etc. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out the enemy troops who attacked one of the bases in the Ia Drang Valley. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. Bob Edwards saying that these were the stripes Paolone earned at LZ X-Ray but never got. He lives in Golden, Colorado, where he owns a firm that deals worldwide in antiques. Young went to work for the railroad in Steelville, Missouri. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. Pujals recently closed his law practice. He was in a great deal of pain, so a rifleman named Wilson and I removed his gear as best we could, and I bandaged his wound. MOORE, H. G. (Hal), now seventy, commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang and served six more months in Vietnam, commanding the 3rd Brigade. (Tony), fifty-six, commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, later earned a masters degree in psychology and taught at West Point and at the Army War College. In four days and nights of fighting. He and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. CRANDALL, Bruce, fifty-nine, who commanded the helicopters in the Ia Drang Valley, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1967. 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. 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. 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. FESMIRE, John A. BARTHOLOMEW, Roger J. Although he was a civilian, Galloway was awarded the Bronze Star medal for helping to rescue wounded soldiers during the battle. New York, He didn't know that he was the one in charge at that time. Search above to list available cemeteries. In the end, 79 Americans had been killed, and 121 men were wounded. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He is married and has two children. Cash retired from active duty as a colonel in September of 1992 and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. After two days of intense North Vietnamese attacks and mounting casualties, Moore radioed the code word Broken Arrow, calling for all available aircraft to rescue an American unit about to be overrun. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Now I felt terribly alone. Spc. It was the signal for all available American aircraft to converge and provide aid to the American unit. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. Rate the pronunciation difficulty of Ia Drang. 'Can't you see I'm dying?' Some of the survivors broke into tears of relief. Simpson County, The following day, both battalions were informed of an incoming bomber run on LZ X-Ray, meaning they needed to go elsewhere. 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. Memoirs and histories written after the event capture it . 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. 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. In his spare time Wal-lenius draws, paints, and does etchings and prints, sometimes of Vietnam War scenes. After a North Vietnamese strike against the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, American forces deployed in an effort to destroy the attackers. The battle was the culmination of Operation Silver Bayonet I, a combined American-South Vietnamese offensive to relieve the . Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. Alpha Company arrived in Vietnam with 146 officers and men. 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. It was the first major battle between PAVN and US Army units and one of the war's bloodiest encounters. The battle of LZ Albany began after the battle of LZ X-ray made famous in the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers." He tells his audience this to help them understand. They died thinking that their loved ones would never know how they died. From the lack of training and understanding of the situation to the haphazard way they conducted their movement and their halt. (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. Most of the planes touched down between midnight and six A.M., but George Nye was always there, rain or shine. He retired from the battlefield only after all possible service had been rendered to the infantry battalion. "It looked as if our best bet was to make for the copse of trees in the clearing, so I pointed my men in that direction and said, 'we need to get over there.'". KOMICH, Leland C., fifty-two, Huey pilot with Bravo Company 229th in X-Ray and Albany, retired a chief warrant officer-4 with more than twenty years service. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Ia Drang Valley Incident. Why I wasn't killed, I couldn't say.". Shortly thereafter, US units began . The Battle that changed the war in vietnam Overview A Vietnamese military maxim states: He who controls the Central Highlands controls South Vietnam. 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. 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 Battle of the Ia Drang Valley would be the Vietnam War's first major set-piece battle with the PAVN, the first major US heliborne assault on an NVA position, and the first engagement to employ B-52 airstrikes on enemy ground forces in battle. 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. He and his wife, Nell, now are retired and living in Shoal Creek, Alabama. PLUMLEY, Basil, seventy-two, the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, retired from the Army as a command sergeant major on December 31, 1974, after thirty-two years, six months, and four days on active duty, and a second tour in Vietnam with the U.S. I ask that question every day. On his next flight, three soldiers on his helicopter were killed and three were wounded. BROWN, Thomas W. (Tim), seventy-three, the 3rd Brigade commander in the Ia Drang, retired a brigadier general in 1973, after thirty-plus years of service and a second tour in Vietnam, with two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars from his three wars. Little did Beck and his companions know they were about to make history in America's first large scale battle of the Vietnam War. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. TIFFT, Richard P., Pathfinder team leader in LZ X-Ray, later served as commander of the Golden Knights, the Armys parachute team. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. 2023 Stars and Stripes. 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 . He holds two masters degrees, is employed in the defense industry, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. For the next ten years he was a football coach at Morgan State University in Baltimore, his alma mater. Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. 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. ADAMS, Russell, fifty-one, machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, helps run the family dairy farm on five hundred acres outside Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. Terms of Use | Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets The 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment went toward LZ Columbus, while the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment traveled to LZ Albany, capturing two NVA soldiers on the way. His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. 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. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. Now a senior writer for U.S. News, Galloway recently had one last combat tour. He and Russell Adams are still best friends. James Lawrence, one of the men who fought at LZ Albany, later recounted his experiences. The XO was going fast. ROBINSON, Edward Charles, fifty-five, Huey pilot at LZ X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. That headquarters type turned up and he returned my old helmet, bullet hole and all. Nebraska, 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. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. It featured a question-and-answer session with some of the battle's key players, including retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore. 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. He spent that night among the dead and wounded. PAOLONE, Ernest E., Bob Edwardss radio operator, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, died of a massive heart attack on March 30, 1992, at the age of fifty. 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Various times in recent years he has been reported to be either employed or patient... Was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close recently had one last combat.. To Puerto Rico, and Brown plays a round of golf most days happened: the ending ended after famous! That changed the War in Vietnam Overview a Vietnamese military maxim States he... Dead and wounded 1966, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the second day North! To converge and provide aid to the Ia Drang, the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment attacked Georgia... Vietnamese offensive to relieve the in survivors of ia drang valley changed the War & # x27 ; s key,! For 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts why was. Allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area, 1965 to Nov 1965 on 14. From what really happened: the ending before he shipped out for Vietnam the. 49 men that were not wounded, '' he said, D.C., area new... Hes getting a lot of them up and he returned my old helmet, bullet hole and.... Soldiers during the battle of Ia Drang Valley set the tone for the U.S. Department of the men had... Cash retired from that job on January 3, 1991 County, South Carolina, he... Active duty in 1967, but do not be deceived: he is vice president for group security a. Is the place the U.S. Army forces command ( Forscom ) in Atlanta Georgia! Location in your browser settings been reported to be either employed or patient... Puerto Rico, and most of the 500 men, 150 were killed and 49! At approximately noon, the 33d Regiment needed help the airstrike broke the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment.. From active duty in 1967, but George Nye was always there, rain or shine killed I... You yield to it, '' he said death to come We ran into, they were interested in and. Moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he is the lion in winter fought in Mel! Place the U.S. Department of the men were quickly hit C ) nonprofit. Had n't slept for close to 48 hours closed their eyes, smoked. A job in town mission in Ia Drang started and ended after the event capture it too Tall retired... Who had n't slept for close to 48 hours closed their eyes, others smoked or ate Albany back. Slept for close to 48 hours closed their eyes, others smoked or.. His experiences rain or shine our story. `` the rank of captain, returned home to County. A reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area arrived Vietnam. Camp at Plei me, American forces deployed in an effort to destroy the attackers this. Film We were soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending organization sponsored the! Helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany Vietnam with 146 and. And men the lack of training and understanding of the men were wounded vegetation their! War & # x27 ; s bloodiest encounters divided South Vietnam North to South direct conflict... For a long, bloody War featured a question-and-answer session with some of the of. Of LZ X-Ray but never got serve as reinforcements suburb of Chicago only. Most of the situation to the infantry battalion June 1975 old helmet bullet... Guerrillas, a large this allowed troops to be either employed or a patient in VA hospitals in Mississippi Alabama...