He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. 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. "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. 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. . I was standing back there in the column and the column was stopped. He single-handedly raised five young children and earned a doctorate, retiring a lieutenant colonel after twenty years service. Crandall and Freeman successfully rescued some 70 wounded men. 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. You can always change this later in your Account settings. However, Americans killed an estimated 1,800 North Vietnamese, through rifles, artillery, helicopters, and jets. 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. I believe it is so I can share our story.". Surprisingly, Adams, Beck's buddy who was shot in the head, was among the. With the arrival on foot of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry commanded by Lt. Col. Robert McDade, on the morning of November 16, there were now three Cavalry battalions crammed into the clearing, including Lt. Col. Walter Tullys 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry. 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 now manages the quartermaster laundry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. (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. Moore commanded the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, was commanding general at Fort Ord, California, and then was the Armys deputy Chief of Staff for personnel. USA, West Point, GWIN, S. Lawrence (Larry), fifty-one, executive officer, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, stayed with his company through July 4, 1966. He died. A North Vietnamese map, captured in 1966, accurately depicts enemy maneuvers and attacks during the Ia Drang campaign. 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. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. He personally shook the hands of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers. I thought to myself. In 2016, he joined a panel of Ia Drang survivors at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga., to share their experiences with both young and seasoned officers and noncommissioned officers. The ending of We Were Soldiers comes once Hal Moore makes the decision to call in Broken Arrow, a request for all available combat aircraft to attack enemy positions. The single, bloodiest day in the Vietnam War. 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. On the morning of November 14th, the 1st Cavalry landed at Landing Zone X-Ray at the base of the Chu Pong mountain and by noon they were already under attack from the North Vietnamese. Box 159 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. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. 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. 2,000 survivors of ia drang valley Vietnamese with the help of artillery Steelton, I never even owned BB! His friend, James Lawrence, speaks with organizations and Soldiers about the lessons learned from the Army engineer recognized for exemplary work in obsolescence management, Norway adds top-tier military experience to State Partnership Program, Army's Environmental Restoration Program revitalizes contaminated lands, Army Lt. Col. Adams: A pioneer worthy of commemoration, US and UAE soldiers train together at Joint Readiness Training Center, Unified network operations underpins Army's digital transformation, SMA plans to reward Soldiers who meet rising standards. WINTER, Pete, fifty-one, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was discharged in December 1965. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. 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. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, and is a serious collector of firearms and active in a local shooting club. Payne and his wife, Patty, live in Hinsdale, Illinois, and have three children. He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. When I was down, men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking Vietnamese and executing the wounded. 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. They have a son and two daughters. The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. While Beck survived the ultimately victorious 2-1/2-day fight at Ia Drang, 305 other American soldiers did not. In his spare time Wal-lenius draws, paints, and does etchings and prints, sometimes of Vietnam War scenes. (U.S. Army). He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. He was paralyzed. He now lives in Dublin, New Hampshire, and works for a firm that sells office supplies. LARSEN, Stanley R. (Swede), seventy-seven, commanding general, II Field Force Vietnam, retired a lieutenant general in 1972 and for seven years was president of a large company in San Francisco. James Lawrence, one of the men who fought at LZ Albany, later recounted his experiences. 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. ROBINSON, Edward Charles, fifty-five, Huey pilot at LZ X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. Shortly after landing, a U.S. patrol captured an unarmed North Vietnamese deserter who told them that three regiments, roughly an entire division, were hiding in the nearby mountain. He is a civilian specialist on NATO affairs for the Defense Department; he and his wife, Sally, live in Bethesda, Maryland. Its not so much what we went through as it is knowing what the other guys went through. We lived in tents. 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. 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. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. He is working on a book on Alpha Companys year in Vietnam. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. "I can't even begin to explain it," he said. He would recover after some physical therapy and return to duty in 1966 to finish his tour. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. Lawrence, even in his paralyzed state, was able to give some direction to his company. WALLENIUS, Jon, forty-nine, mortar observer, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, got out of the Army in August 1966. 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 is a consultant to industries seeking defense business. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. The central highlands had few roads and challenging terrain, making air mobility the only viable mode of transportation. South Carolina, Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. He told me his wife's name was [Sylvia]. At a surprise fiftieth-birthday party for Ernie, he was presented a plaque engraved with sergeants stripes and inscribed with a message from Colonel (ret.) Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, on the radio during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. He holds two masters degrees, is employed in the defense industry, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition, they were exhausted from the fight at X-Ray, so it was easy for hundreds of NVA troops to sneak up and launch an attack. One infantry company began the day of Nov. 14 with 110 men. 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. Muscogee County, He spent thirty-two months in the hospital recovering from the wounds he suffered in LZ X-Ray. 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. Don Cornett had a wife and a son, a mother and a father and two sisters. More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. On November 27, 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Bartholomew was killed in action. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. "My gut told me, this is wrong, this isn't right, something's wrong here. After three days of fighting, 240 Americans had been killed and another 300 wounded (more troops were brought in in support). But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. Moore and his battalion were evacuated the next day, Nov. 17. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. He accepted, I won, but he only recently began paying offone bottle at a time. Plumley says, Scott is so tight with a dollar youd think he came out of West Point.. 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. She received both her bachelor of arts degree in history, and her master of arts degree in history from Western University. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. He did not know at the time that his friend, Don Cornett, had died. His personalized license plate proclaims: LZ X-Ray. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. We . Later, after he was evacuated the doctors thought his spine was severed, but discovered later that he had a severely bruised spine from the force of the bullets whipping his head back. Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. 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. Towles received a masters degree in history from Kent State in 1989, and is currently working on his doctorate. Returning home, he single-handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees. James Lawrence, a 77 year-old Vietnam veteran from Alabama, tells people about his best friend and the battle he died in whenever he gets the chance. There were no further attacks overnight. I think McNamara knew, deep down; I think Johnson knew, Wiest said. He served another Indochina tour in 1975, planning and helping run the final American air evacuation of Vietnam from a base in Thailand. 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. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. From the lack of training and understanding of the situation to the haphazard way they conducted their movement and their halt. Alpha Company arrived in Vietnam with 146 officers and men. 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. 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. 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. Winkel and his wife live in Springfield, Virginia. He is a freelance commercial artist in Harrisburg and occasionally turns his hand to fine-art drawings of his war experiences. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. (Photo Credit: US Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. The survivors of the Ia Drang on November 14, 1965 to Nov 1965 on Nov. 14 with men. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. Still on active duty, he is a major general, and is deputy to the Army inspector-general. The Battle of Ia Drang Still Matters - War Is Boring. Galen Bungum, left, and Joe F. Mackey, two of the unhurt survivors of Lt. Henry Herrick's Lost Platoon. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. Word reached the battalion traveling to Columbus, who sent Bravo Company back to Albany to serve as reinforcements. He is married and has two children. On his chest he wore the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and five Purple Hearts. 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. Spc. Why I wasn't killed, I couldn't say.". Within an hour, they came under attack for the first time by North Vietnamese regulars, launching a four-day battle that killed hundreds of Americans and perhaps more than 1,000 Vietnamese and changed the course of the Vietnam War. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Forces, was Time magazines Man of the Year. 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. 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. 1965, just after the start of the U.S. campaign that led to the Ia Drang Valley. The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. These are survivors of an ambush against U.S. 1st Cavalry Battalion three miles north of the Ia Drang Valley the previous day, with intense firefights throughout the day and night. The fighting continued for three hours. His injured right hip deteriorated, and on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, 1986, he found himself back on an operating tablethe same place he had been on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, 1965. They died thinking that their loved ones would never know how they died. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. 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. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977, and lives with his wife in Arlington, Texas. 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. copyright 2023 Winkel retired a colonel in 1986, with over thirty-one years of Army service. In 1982, he joined U.S. News & World Report magazine. Knowles has served in the New Mexico legislature since 1982. He retired from the battlefield only after all possible service had been rendered to the infantry battalion. Russian missile barrage knocks out power and water to Ukrainian cities December 16, 2022. 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. 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. He retired in 1990. Im not supposed to chop wood or do anything that might cause a lick on that side of my head, but it healed up pretty well so I dont worry much about it, he says. He had just turned thirty-six years old. 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