Moore continues to fight, returning home to Julia after a year. I attended every one of those funerals., LEFEBVRE, L. R. (Ray), fifty-nine, commander of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, spent eighteen months at Martin Army Hospital, Fort Benning, recovering from the wounds he suffered at X-Ray. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. Deleting this Virtual Cemetery cannot be undone. 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. 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. "To do it you've got to get up. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. He would recover after some physical therapy and return to duty in 1966 to finish his tour. He is president of the Army Relief Fund and a trustee of the Association of Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy. 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 served another Indochina tour in 1975, planning and helping run the final American air evacuation of Vietnam from a base in Thailand. There were no further attacks overnight. For the next four years he was executive vice president of the company that developed the Crested Butte, Colorado, ski area. I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmorelands corner. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. 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. They have a son, who is in college, and a daughter, still in high school. WINTER, Pete, fifty-one, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was discharged in December 1965. 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.. 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 . Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. He told me his wife's name was [Sylvia]. 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. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. . JAKES, Jimmie, Sr., forty-nine, a fire-team leader of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, was wounded in LZ X-Ray, but recovered and returned to complete his tour. Although it was left out of We Were Soldiers, Albany was no less bloody than X-Ray. He retired in August 1990, and now lives in Peekskill, New York. He and his wife live in Alexandria, Virginia. "They (the PAVN) were everywhere on our right flank, even in the trees. Moore is the last to leave, refusing to do so until every man living and dead has left. KNOWLES, Richard, seventy-five, assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, served a second consecutive tour in Vietnam, commanded the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, and then was commanding general of Task Force Oregon (precursor to the American Division). The battle was the culmination of Operation Silver Bayonet I, a combined American-South Vietnamese offensive to relieve the . The U.S. unit was moving through the jungle in a long column when the 8th battalion of the North Vietnamese 66th Regiment sprang in to a massive ambush. That all would change when the First Cavalry Air Mobile Division flew into the Ia Drang Valley in the central highlands of South Vietnam. At various times in recent years he has been reported to be either employed or a patient in VA hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama. The Battle of Ia Drang Valley was a series of engagements between the U.S 1st Cavalry Division and the B-3 front, North Vietnamese Army. I marked off 65 names and thats when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. The men were still in an administrative maneuver, so when the word to halt came they plopped down where they were. He left the Army in 1971 with the rank of captain, returned home to Puerto Rico, and earned a law degree. 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. He is married and the father of two children. The first U.S. ground combat troops arrived there in March. Please try again later. They were platoon leaders together in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. Lt. Col. Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take on an air assaultin the Ia Drang Valley. Although each survivor's story is unique, . Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. It was the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and Lawrence and . (AP Photo) A wounded American soldier is aided to a helicopter for evacuation from Ia Drang Valley area, near Plei Me, Vietnam, November 18, 1965. We have set your language to When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. At 4:00 AM this morning, Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley of the U.S. Army's 1 st Battalion, 7 th Cavalry Regiment, died. 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. 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). The film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. Freeman reconstituted the unit and led it back up Pork Chop. 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 and his wife, Deurice, live in Columbus, Georgia, where he is president of the 1st Cavalry Division Association local chapter and an occasional quail hunter. He spent eighteen months in Army hospitals, and was retired, disabled, in June 1975. The idea was to kill the enemy, not necessarily hold ground, and bleed the North Vietnamese until they tired of war. In her spare time, Rosemary enjoys spending time with her partner, her cats, and her horse, or sitting down to read a good book. He went home to Anderson County, South Carolina, where he is a deputy sheriff. Shortly thereafter, US units began . Carrara says, I dont dwell on Vietnam, but now and then I hear something or smell something and flash back to those days. Westmoreland, a veteran of World War II in Europe, declared Ia Drang a victory because the North Vietnamese were driven from the field after suffering major casualties. 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. After retiring from the Army, Freeman became the northwest area director of aircraft services for the U.S. Department of the Interior. James T. Lawrence, a first lieutenant in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, learned a lesson in leadership the hard way 50 years ago. His friends completed the tree for him and dedicated it to Sergeant China Joe Nye. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. "The fear factor, when you know someone is within yards of you and is trying to kill you desperately, the fear factor can shut you down. 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He completed 22 flights: Rescuing Wounded in Ia Drang Valley from 2015: https://vvmf.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/he-spent-14-hours-in-the-air-rescuing-wounded-in-the-ia-drang-valley/, Stars and Stripes Article: https://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/vietnam-stories/1965/ia-drang-valley-where-the-us-truly-went-to-war-1.376662, Larry Gwin | VVMF: https://youtu.be/_PDBgEu4cx4, Jon Wallenius | VVMF: https://youtu.be/Qb9a1L4rc2g, Bruce Crandall | VVMF: https://youtu.be/SSNTph4QQ2g, Joe Galloway | VVMF: https://youtu.be/N6XXcDATAgE, Faces Never Forgotten with Joe Galloway: https://www.facebook.com/VietnamVeteransMemorialFund/videos/2239219906358006/, National Geographic Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLyBazkpUFQ, 1965 CBS Special News Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx1rzDNcFmE, AARP Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtWX9TDFYc, Military.com In Depth Look: https://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/vietnam-war/the-battle-of-la-drang/2071462322001, Medal of Honor Recipient Bruce Crandall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIAEcZ29aG4, Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdDYNI7V0co, Medal of Honor Recipient Walter Marm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7-U0FBiYUU, Docs Teach (National Archives): https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/battle-la-drang-valley, PBS Clip (Plei Me and la Drang): https://whut.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/c27a31b7-14fc-4c5f-804e-168fbb24f5ed/plei-mei-and-the-ia-drang-valley-clip-the-vietnam-war/, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. 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. He and his wife and young son live in Lawndale, California. The other 58,000 names on that wall are men and women who also had a spouse, or children, they had mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. Why I wasn't killed, I couldn't say.". 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. They died thinking that their loved ones would never know how they died. KINNARD, Harry W. O., seventy-seven, former commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, retired from the Army as a lieutenant general in 1969. He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. 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. He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. On November 18, 1965, the US forces were able to gather their dead. He was discharged a sergeant, completed his college education, and is now an on-air national news correspondent for ABC Televisions Weekend News. A high school dropout, he went back to college, earned a B.A., and was working on an M.A. After he flew the men back to base, he knew the soldiers on the ground were running short of ammunition, so he decided to fly back in. 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. By Staff. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. PARISH, Willard, fifty-one, mortarman in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who won the Silver Star for his work as a machine gunner in LZ X-Ray, was among the draftees who rotated home in December 1965 for discharge. The fighting continued for three hours. After the Ia Drang campaign, Hastings was badly burned when the O-1E Bird Dog spotter plane he was piloting was shot down over the Mang Yang Pass and crash-landed in the old French Group Mobile 100 cemetery beside Route 19 on Christmas Eve 1965. For the next ten years he was a football coach at Morgan State University in Baltimore, his alma mater. 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. To use this feature, use a newer browser. Box 159 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. Very difficult. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. Resend Activation Email. FORREST, George, fifty-four, who commanded Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 after twenty-one years service. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. He moved back to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. He spent more than 14 hours in the air andcompleted a total of 22 flights, most under intense enemy fire. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. For a number of years he was a country-and-western band leader and disc jockey. But Charlie was back in the air, flying F-4 Phantoms, less than a year later. Payne and his wife, Patty, live in Hinsdale, Illinois, and have three children. Before the Battle of la Drang was over, 305 Americans had been killed along with an estimated 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. Rozanski returned to the Ia Drang five times on various intelligence missions and described the place as a cemetery. He was retired, disabled, as a major in the mid-1970s. He underwent four operations on his shattered hip and then was shipped home for discharge on December 21, 1965, ten days overdue on his two-year hitch and judged fifty percent disabled. November 14, 1965 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Fought between November 14th and 18th of 1965, around the hills surrounding the valley of Ia Drang, on the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He went home to Murphysboro, Illinois. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. He single-handedly raised five young children and earned a doctorate, retiring a lieutenant colonel after twenty years service. For the next agonizing 26 hours, that small band of Americans was trapped by a ring of hundreds of enemy fighters determined to kill them all. They have four children and five grandchildren. 5 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Despite their efforts, the North Vietnamese retake the position soon after. In 1982, he joined U.S. News & World Report magazine. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 with twenty years service, and is now a plastics-plant manager. His last known address was Miami, Florida. Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. Among the survivors of the ambush was 1st Lt. Rick Rescorla, a platoon leader who died Sept. 11, 2001, rescuing people from the World Trade Centers south tower until it crashed around him. The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. "When things started it just erupted," Lawrence said. In August 1977, at the age of forty-four, Colonel Frank Henry died when an aneurysm ruptured. Cash served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser to the Royal Thai Army forces. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. All Rights Reserved. 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. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. It was the longest day I ever experienced in any aircraft, Crandall recalled. Army Specialist Four (SP4) Bill Beck was an assistant machine gunner assigned to the 1 st Battalion, 7 th Cavalry Regiment (1/7 Cav), 1 st Cavalry Division on November 14, 1965, when the unit airlifted into Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. The Ia Drang Valley is a map featured in Battlefield Vietnam. He studied to be a tool-and-die machinist and worked at that job for several years until the strain of long hours standing on his bad leg severely affected his hip and back. "The emotions are so high, the noise is tremendous, the confusion is everywhere; they had overrun us by now. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. 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. A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Kennedy was thirty-one years old at the time of his death. The survivors of the Ia Drang on November 14, 1965 to Nov 1965 on Nov. 14 with men. 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. In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. When the last of his old friends in the 1st Cavalry and the U.S. Marines rotated home, Galloway also left, vowing never to return. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. They have four children and three grandchildren. 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. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. He was forty-five. He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. A battalion of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division was ambushed while marching from the jungle clearing where the Ia Drang Valley fighting started on November 14, 1965. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. He and Russell Adams are still best friends. GALLOWAY, Joe, fifty, war correspondent attached to the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, served sixteen months in Vietnam on his first tour for United Press International, 1965-1966. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. He tells his audience this to help them understand. 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. 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.. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. When I was down, men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking Vietnamese and executing the wounded. His personalized license plate proclaims: LZ X-Ray. 'Can't you see I'm dying?' Linda Carole Mustion has not added any memorials to this virtual cemetery. Moore and his battalion were evacuated the next day, Nov. 17. 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. There was a problem getting your location. Charlies foot was pinned in the wrecked cockpit when the white phosphorus target-marking rockets under the wings cooked off. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is married and has four children. 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. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. It is republished unedited in its original form. 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. 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. Every night I rub a towel over all my scars and see them in the mirror. Throughout the day, he changed helicopters after some were so badly damaged to stay in the air. 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. He is a freelance commercial artist in Harrisburg and occasionally turns his hand to fine-art drawings of his war experiences. 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. She is an active member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, an organization sponsored by the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 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. Their mission was to find and kill the enemy. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. God rest you, George. About 40 minutes later, North Vietnamese launched their attack, hiding in the tall elephant grass and in stands of trees. The fighting continued all day and into the night. Fesmire is a colonel assigned as the Army attache to the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. OUELLETTE, Robert, fifty, battalion commanders radio operator in LZ X-Ray, left the Army in August 1966. 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 was 92 years old. 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. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. In the first major engagement of the war between regular U.S. and North Vietnamese forces, elements of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fight a pitched battle with Communist main . One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. A Broken Arrow was declared over the radio by the Battalion Forward Air Controller, which meant that an American unit was in imminent danger of being overrun. On his chest he wore the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and five Purple Hearts. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. UH-1 aircraft of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion carry wounded 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry soldiers away during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. He was chief of security at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, until his death on April 18, 1992. "Why did I deserve to live? I was standing back there in the column and the column was stopped. On his next flight, three soldiers on his helicopter were killed and three were wounded. 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. 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. MCDONALD, George J., fifty-two, mortarman, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left the Army in 1966 and went home to Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he is a commercial fisherman. Our right flank, even in the trees men were running past me, swishing the grass... Along with an estimated 2,000 North Vietnamese launched their attack, hiding in the air andcompleted total. World Report magazine, but he only recently began paying offone bottle at a hospital Columbus! Ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese until they tired of war was down, men were running me. 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