The survivors of Landing Zone X-Ray have always had an aura of fame about them. 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 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1stCavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. He holds two masters degrees, is employed in the defense industry, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. It was his positive decision to do something that reinforced my own will to go on.". More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. 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. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. 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 . SAVAGE, Ernie, forty-eight, the fourth man to inherit command of Lieutenant Henry Herricks 2nd Platoon, the Lost Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray, retired a sergeant first class in 1982 after twenty years active duty. Ia Drang Valley, Battle of the (1965). Although the fighting had ended, the Battle of Ia Drang didnt officially conclude until the next day, as it took two days to collect the bodies. Nearly 70 percent of the battalions soldiers were killed or wounded before airstrikes, artillery and reinforcements drove the North Vietnamese into nearby Cambodia. His friends completed the tree for him and dedicated it to Sergeant China Joe Nye. They were unaware that two battalions of fresh PAVN soldiers had been camped out along the Ia Drang River on the other side of the landing zone. Hear Walters story. I have one very vivid memory of the second morning in X-Ray. I couldn't grasp it.". 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. We have set your language to Throughout the day, he changed helicopters after some were so badly damaged to stay in the air. In the last operation, his shattered left knee joint was removed and the leg bones fused, leaving his left leg frozen straight and two inches shorter than his right leg. Every night I rub a towel over all my scars and see them in the mirror. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. He and Russell Adams are still best friends. In March 1991 he found a new purpose in life: meeting the chartered airliners touching down at Bangor International Airport, the first American landfall, bringing American soldiers home from the Persian Gulf. He became a legend in the unit for his behavior in combat, and his face became an American icon when a young reporter named Peter Arnett snapped his photo. Still on active duty, he is a major general, and is deputy to the Army inspector-general. Moderate. Crandall won the first Helicopter Heroism Award of the Aviation/Space Writers Association, for two daring nighttime landings under fire to rescue twelve badly wounded troopers from Captain Tony Nadals Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in Operation Masher-White Wing in January 1966. He returned to serve two more tours in Vietnamone with the Special Forces, one with an intelligence agency. We lived in tents. 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. (U.S. Army). Since I cant have that, I would like a job working as closely with the Army as possible. He is married and the father of four children. 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 was paralyzed. CASH, John, fifty-six, assistant operations officer in 3rd Brigade Headquarters, later commanded a rifle company in the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry for more than six months in 1966. November 14, 1965 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He had . 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. U.S. intelligence knew that North Vietnamese regulars probably a single regiment were in the area. He tried to crawl away and was shot again in the hip. 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. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. Cash retired from active duty as a colonel in September of 1992 and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. 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. When someone shook me and tried to get me moving I was actually offended. He spent eighteen months in Army hospitals, and was retired, disabled, in June 1975. 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. He is a captain and the commander of Engine Company Number One. 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. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. This account has been disabled. One infantry company began the day of Nov. 14 with 110 men. Although it was left out of We Were Soldiers, Albany was no less bloody than X-Ray. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and owns and operates a real estate brokerage firm. North Vietnamese forces had higher casualty rates, due to the U.S. airstrike and artillery support. 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. I thought to myself. He is president of the Army Relief Fund and a trustee of the Association of Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. Gwin left the Army at the end of his ROTC commitment and went home to his native Boston, where he teaches and writes. 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. Today, Doc Shucart of Landing Zone Albany is the chief of neurosurgery at Tufts University Medical School. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. The following day, both battalions were informed of an incoming bomber run on LZ X-Ray, meaning they needed to go elsewhere. Today he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City. 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. They never did. He and his wife, Arlene, have three sonsa banker in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a lawyer in Connecticut; and a divinity student in college. Galen Bungum, left, and Joe F. Mackey, two of the unhurt survivors of Lt. Henry Herrick's Lost Platoon. A high school dropout, he went back to college, earned a B.A., and was working on an M.A. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. He retired a colonel in 1982, with twenty-three years service. I have it here with me today. He lives with his wife and family in Steelville. Luckily for him, not a single shot he received hit any vital organs. JEKEL, Alex (Pop), seventy, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany, retired in the late 1960s as a chief warrant officer-4. He was discharged a sergeant, completed his college education, and is now an on-air national news correspondent for ABC Televisions Weekend News. Alley is general manager of a box factory in Dayton, Tennessee. 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. Georgia, Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th . He lives on a farm near Rainier, Washington, and has been writing down his memories of Vietnam duty for his children and grandchildren. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. It is based on the Battle for Landing Zone X-Ray, part of the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle of the Vietnam War. I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmorelands corner. Since retiring he serves on the boards of half a dozen major corporations and also works as a consultant to defense industries. In the same way, the story of his experiences at LZ Albany is a story that could be told by the nearly 400 Troopers of 2/7 Cav who fought and died at LZ Albany, or the 1/7 Cav Troopers at LZ X-ray or the more than 2.6 million US personnel who served in Vietnam. A U.S. platoon was lured into a trap and surrounded, holding off repeated North Vietnamese attacks despite the death of the platoon leader and several noncommissioned officers. Today he lives in Riverside, Rhode Island, is in the photo business, and is active in veterans affairs. Please enter your email and password to sign in. I believe it is so I can share our story.". In Washington, Ia Drang convinced Johnson that he was in for a long, bloody war. He was judged seventy percent disabled due to wounds suffered in LZ X-Ray. Successful in their mission, the Americans travel back to their landing zone to be taken back to base. EDWARDS, Robert, fifty-four, commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. Battle of Ia Drang Valley Survivors These men survived the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam from Oct 23, 1965 to Nov 1965. The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. 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. USA, West Point, Enlisted men may scoff at officers back in the billets but when the fighting begins, the men automatically become dependent upon them. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. Due to a statute of limitations being lifted, Freeman was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 16, 2001. His dissertation is on the LZ Albany battle. One of the survivors recalls how it was - the blood, the agony, and the fear. Pujals recently closed his law practice. He won a National Magazine Award for his October 29, 1990, cover article on the Ia Drang battles. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. KEETON, James, fifty-nine, battalion aid station medic, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, served a second tour in Vietnam with an adviser group. Basil Plumley is a grandfather now, kind and soft-spoken, but do not be deceived: He is the lion in winter. The Battle that changed the war in vietnam Overview A Vietnamese military maxim states: He who controls the Central Highlands controls South Vietnam. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. 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. Shortly thereafter, US units began . He moved back to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. BARTHOLOMEW, Roger J. We Were Soldiers is based on the novel, We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, by renowned war correspondent Joe Galloway and Lt. Gen. Hal Moore. He had just turned thirty-six years old. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Poley, a bachelor, lives alone on his farm outside Ackley, Iowa, and in a 1990 letter explained himself far better than we could: Some might ask why havent I forgotten about Vietnam after all these years. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. OUELLETTE, Robert, fifty, battalion commanders radio operator in LZ X-Ray, left the Army in August 1966. He was first sergeant of Bravo Company, 36th Engineer Battalion and one of 14 men in his 257-man company who survived the opening stages of the fight for Pork Chop Hill. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. James T. Lawrence, a first lieutenant in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, learned a lesson in leadership the hard way 50 years ago. He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. But the battle's true toll would prove to be the hubris it bred in U.S. commanders. It was Nov. 15, 1965, in the valley of the Ia Drang in the wild mountains of the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. 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 was forty-five. They have four children and five grandchildren. He spent that night among the dead and wounded. Weve updated the security on the site. He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. Memoirs and histories written after the event capture it . Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. Nebraska, Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large. His personalized license plate proclaims: LZ X-Ray. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. 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. CANTU, Vincent, fifty-one, mortarman, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Ia Drang battlefield and immediately rotated home for discharge, two weeks late, in December 1965. Lawrence, even in his paralyzed state, was able to give some direction to his company. Surprisingly, Adams, Beck's buddy who was shot in the head, was among the. 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. The film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. 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. A system error has occurred. One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. 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. Ernie had gone back to his native Chicago and drove a truck for the city. The training kicks in and can save you.". He served another Indochina tour in 1975, planning and helping run the final American air evacuation of Vietnam from a base in Thailand. Its not so much what we went through as it is knowing what the other guys went through. When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. 5 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. "Survivor's guilt is something that most people who have seen combat, seen friends die, deal with almost daily," Lawrence said. The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. HERREN, John, fifty-eight, commander of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, served a second tour in Vietnam as a staff officer at MACV/Saigon, was a battalion commander in Germany, and served in the office of the secretary of defense until his retirement in 1985 as a colonel. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. The Battle of Ia Drang Valley, fought November 14th-18th, 1965, was the first major engagement between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (abbreviated as PAVN). Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. At the end of a year only fifteen of the original contingent were still there, Gwin included. The assault at LZ X-Ray began before noon on 14 November. Nonetheless, this allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area. The British-born Rescorla earned a masters degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. He and his wife, Theresa, live on a farm in northern Virginia with their sons Lee, fifteen, and Joshua, twelve. They have four children and three grandchildren. Word reached the battalion traveling to Columbus, who sent Bravo Company back to Albany to serve as reinforcements. He and his wife, Kathie, live on a seventy-acre ranch near Aspen, Colorado, where he owns and operates an outfitting company for fishing and boating trips. Winkel retired a colonel in 1986, with over thirty-one years of Army service. 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. Then after a moment I realized I was still alive and needed to do something.". Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. They have two grown children and one still at home. He is now an attorney in San Diego, California. 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. (U.S. Army), This strategy, as flawed as it was, had some potentiality of working, Wiest, the historian, said. He is working on a book on Alpha Companys year in Vietnam. Scott says: On the boat going to Vietnam I bet Plumley a case of beer I would be wounded first, and that I would be home for Christmas. VIERA, Arthur, Jr., forty-eight, an M-79 grenadier with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, survived the terrible wounds he suffered in X-Ray. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. The Pleiku Campaign took place from 20 October to 26 . A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Kennedy was thirty-one years old at the time of his death. The following is a partial accounting, prepared in 1992, of where some of them are and what they have done with their lives: 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. 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. 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. ROLAND, William, forty-nine, rifle-squad leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, returned to Vietnam for a second combat tour. He went home to Murphysboro, Illinois. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The instructor of that class, Colonel John F. Jeszensky (ret. In August 1977, at the age of forty-four, Colonel Frank Henry died when an aneurysm ruptured. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. It was the most successful ambush against U.S. forces during the course of the entire war. 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. Moore and his 450-man 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, flew into Landing Zone X-Ray at the base of the Chu Pong Mountain west of Plei Me and miles from the Cambodian border. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . ADAMS, Warren, sixty-two, first sergeant, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired in 1968 as the best-educated command sergeant major in the Army. Today he is an orchestra leader and serves in the state militia. 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. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. 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. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. We were crawling around under intense machine-gun fire when Sergeant Major Plumley walked up, pulled his .45-caliber pistol, chambered a round, and said: Gentlemen, prepare to defend yourselves.You never forget a thing like that.. Advisory Group, Pleiku. 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. I marked off 65 names and that's when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. MEYER, Edward C. (Shy), sixty-three, 3rd Brigade executive officer in the Ia Drang, retired as Army Chief of Staff, a four-star general, in 1983 after thirty-two years service. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. He then formed a computer-software company. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. For the last twenty-two years he has worked for the North Bergen, N.J., fire department. 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. "The way it was presented, at least from my perspective, was we were making an administrative move to be airlifted out so we wouldn't be in the way of the bombers.". He didn't know that he was the one in charge at that time. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. 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