He teaches physical and earth sciences at Venice High School, Los Angeles, California. The Huey was the best helicopter ever made. That spring, the Saigon government had begun collapsing under the combined. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. 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. (67 votes) Very easy. "The emotions are so high, the noise is tremendous, the confusion is everywhere; they had overrun us by now. He is assistant principal of a public high school in the Bronx. Box 159 He returned to active duty in July 1966, and served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser in Long Binh district. They are representative of the more than three million Americans who served the United States of America in its long and bitter war in Vietnam, representative of those who loved one of the more than 58,000 Americans who died in that war. Two men - Sgt. One of the most significant battles of the Vietnam War, the 14-16 November 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley in South Vietnam's central highlands between the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the 33rd and 66th Regiments of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) marked a watershed change in the military strategies of both sides. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. 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. 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. He spent eighteen months in Army hospitals, and was retired, disabled, in June 1975. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. Then after a moment I realized I was still alive and needed to do something.". He is married and has four children. The "Lost Platoon," led by Lt. Henry T. Herrick, became separated from the rest of Lt. Col. Harold G. "Hal" Moore's battalion at the start of the battle of Ia Drang on Nov. 14, 1965. 5 cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He asked for a volunteer to go with him and Captain Ed Freeman agreed to pursue it with him, displaying extraordinary heroism. They realized, Yeah, its going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys, Willbanks said. 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. Privacy Policy 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. I marked off 65 names and that's when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. 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. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. The XO had been hit in the small of the back. Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. 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. Galen Bungum, left, and Joe F. Mackey, two of the unhurt survivors of Lt. Henry Herrick's Lost Platoon. 5 cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977, and lives with his wife in Arlington, Texas. Young went to work for the railroad in Steelville, Missouri. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. These men survived the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam from Oct 23, 1965 to Nov 1965. 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 . It was the first major battle between PAVN and US Army units and one of the war's bloodiest encounters. She also worked as a teaching assistant in the History Department. 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. 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. Read More With only 700 effective soldiers left of the original 2,200, the 33d Regiment needed help. 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. Photo Credit: Wikipedia; Henry Toro Herrick was red-haired, five foot ten, twenty-four years old, and the son of an astronomy professor at UCLA. As the command ship touched down, other NVA soldiers opened up; Myron Diduryk was struck in the stomach in the doorway of the chopper. I pulled the muscles in that leg so badly yanking it free that I couldnt walk for three months, he said. I have one very vivid memory of the second morning in X-Ray. He is the perennial master of ceremonies at the Ia Drang dinners; he claims he is the only one of the brothers who can get through an entire sentence without using the f-word. . Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . He and his wife, Julie, divide their time between homes in Auburn, Alabama, and Crested Butte, Colorado. Moore, who says he graduated from West Point by the skin of my teeth, was the first Army officer of his class (1945) to achieve one-, two-, and three-star rank. 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. He died. 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. 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. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Together, they flew in supplies, water, and ammunition needed for the troops. The men were still in an administrative maneuver, so when the word to halt came they plopped down where they were. A miserly, ungrateful Veterans Administration ruled that Shadden was only thirty percent disabled. Knowles retired from the Army in 1974 as a lieutenant general. 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. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. . They saved some 70 soldiers. TULLY, Robert (Bob), sixty-eight, commander, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam in 1968 as a brigade commander in the Americal Division. He was evacuated, badly wounded, on January 5, 1970, after serving four years, eight months, and ten days in Vietnam. 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. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. SHADDEN, James Haskell, fifty, mortarman, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, survived half a dozen operations and one year in Army hospitals recovering from the wounds received at LZ Albany. Book Sources: The Battle of Ia Drang Valley We were soldiers once -and young : Ia Drang, the battle that changed the war in Vietnam by Ha Moore; Joseph Galloway Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DS557.8.I18 M66 1992 ISBN: 0679411585 Publication Date: 1992-10-20 Everyman in Vietnam by Michael Adas; Joseph J. Gilch CRANDALL, Bruce, fifty-nine, who commanded the helicopters in the Ia Drang Valley, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1967. Theres a lot of pain but at least I lived. Jeanette says: When I was in the hospital in 1966, I was down in the doldrums, feeling sorry, and they tried to nudge me out of that. Fighting was so intense that a battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, reported finding a dead American with his hands at the throat of a dead North Vietnamese soldier. He did not know at the time that his friend, Don Cornett, had died. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. THORPE, Henry, fifty-eight, commander, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in September 1967, after eight years service, and went home to his native North Carolina. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. WHITESIDE, Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support coordinator in LZ X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. 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. His primary job is helping communities located near Army chemical-weapons depots write their emergency-response plans. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. 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. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. Ernie had gone back to his native Chicago and drove a truck for the city. Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. The plane hit several tombstones and flipped over. He and his wife have two teenage children. 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. Finally, after 10 months, had some makeshift buildings. By Staff. 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. 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. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. I felt a flash of panic. 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. He worked as a sales executive in the corrugated-box industry and went to school nights to earn his MBA. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. "To do it you've got to get up. He spent thirty-two months in the hospital recovering from the wounds he suffered in LZ X-Ray. He retired a colonel in 1982, with twenty-three years service. Nebraska, The fighting continued all day and into the night. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large. 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. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. The battle was part of a campaign for control of the strategic central highlands, which divided South Vietnam north to south. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I couldnt grasp it., More from us: Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. SMITH, Jack P., forty-seven, returned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry after his wounds healed, and completed his tour. Jemison works part-time as a security guard in Columbus, Georgia, and he says: Each night I go back to Vietnam to fight that same battle, over and over.. 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. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. 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. Moore continues to fight, returning home to Julia after a year. 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. Hear three personal perspectives from men who survived. Although each survivor's story is unique, . He went home to Salinas, California, where he lives with his wife and three sons. based on information from your browser. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. He retired from the battlefield only after all possible service had been rendered to the infantry battalion. BARTHOLOMEW, Roger J. 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. His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. Both later were awarded the Medal of Honor, our nations highest award for heroism in combat. They had this Learning to be a Teacher program; I tried it and loved it. Moore lectures at military academies and at several colleges and universities. FESMIRE, John A. 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. 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 and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and owns and operates a real estate brokerage firm. His twelve-year-old granddaughter recently interviewed Ray about his experiences in Vietnam and wrote a school essay she titled: My Grandfather: An American Hero.. The idea was to kill the enemy, not necessarily hold ground, and bleed the North Vietnamese until they tired of war. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. BEAN, Roger, fifty-two, Huey pilot who was wounded in LZ X-Ray, was wounded again in early 1966 in the Bong Son campaign. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. Savage and the 22-year-old medic, Sp5. American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. Returning home, he single-handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees. BY DAVID A. MAURER. No one pulled security. He now manages the quartermaster laundry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. He moved back to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. South Carolina, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Ia Drang Valley Incident. 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The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. They have a son, who is in college, and a daughter, still in high school. It was a small football size clearing for the first helicopters to be used in combat. He left the Army in 1971 with the rank of captain, returned home to Puerto Rico, and earned a law degree. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. 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. His helicopter came under intense enemy fire, but they continued to carry out the wounded, even though that wasnt their mission. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . 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. After Vietnam, Hazen maintained a correspondence with the mother of the young lieutenant who died in his arms. November 14, 1965 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The fighting continued all day and into the night with the enemy relentlessly making assault after assault. Shadden lives on a seven-acre farm outside Tellico Plains, Tennessee, and works part-time at odd jobs. He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. Meyer and his wife, Carol, live in Arlington, Virginia. DILLON, Gregory (Matt), fifty-nine, operations officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam as a battalion commander in the 9th Infantry Division and was a brigade commander at Fort Carson, Colorado. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. 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 earned his masters degree in public administration in 1976 and retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. 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. 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. He and his wife live in Alexandria, Virginia. Combat operations at Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. Lacking confidence in the South Vietnamese, Gen. William C. Westmoreland ordered the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, which had been in country about a month, to pursue the enemy, using newly minted airmobile tactics. RUDEL, Karen Metsker, twenty-eight, daughter of Captain Thomas Metsker, intelligence officer, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in Landing Zone X-Ray, killed in action November 14, 1965, lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband, Scott. Freeman and his wife, Barbara, live in Boise, Idaho. 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. "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. Most of the planes touched down between midnight and six A.M., but George Nye was always there, rain or shine. (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. Memoirs and histories written after the event capture it . His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. Crandall kept his helicopter on the ground in the line of enemy fire, so that four wounded soldiers could be loaded aboard. He is a master gunsmith and runs his own business repairing and selling weapons. Knowles has served in the New Mexico legislature since 1982. 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. His last project on active duty was researching and writing a history of the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment during the Korean War. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1stCavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. 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. In four days and nights of fighting. Five years ago he attended a reunion of Alpha Company veterans of LZ Albany. "I thought I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come. 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. Mississippi, "Survivor's guilt is something that most people who have seen combat, seen friends die, deal with almost daily," Lawrence said. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. The Battle of Ia Drang Still Matters - War Is Boring. Since then he has taught industrial arts, electronics, and mathematics, has flown for the U.S. Forest Service, and for a time was a crop duster pilot. There were no further attacks overnight. 311 memorials The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. 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. Thanks for your help! Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. 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. He is president of the Army Relief Fund and a trustee of the Association of Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy. He worked an additional fifteen years as a civilian employee at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia, and retired again in 1990. The training kicks in and can save you.". The Ia Drang Valley is a valley located near Pleiku in Central Highlands of Vietnam. The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. 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. He was director of training development at Fort Benning when he retired as a colonel in 1983. 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. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. 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. To me that seems proper, and just, and so right.. He is brutally honest, even with his actions as a leader. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. 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.. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. On November 14, 1965, Captain Ed Freeman made repeated flights into the Ia Drang Valley under intense fire to bring in supplies and evacuate the wounded. 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. 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. Westmorelands biggest problem with the strategy was that he thought it would work in two or three years when it would have taken 10 or 12.. (Photo Credit: US Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. Terms of Use | Nearly 70 percent of the battalions soldiers were killed or wounded before airstrikes, artillery and reinforcements drove the North Vietnamese into nearby Cambodia. 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. After the Ia Drang, Nye finished his tour with the 8th Engineers and the 1st Cav and volunteered for three more tours in combat with the 5th Special Forces Group. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. 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. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. Despite their efforts, the North Vietnamese retake the position soon after. 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. Three U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the battle. The day even as Johnson and his wife, Julie, divide their time homes. Today he is president of human resources for a large corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois must be enabled the... Years service 1981, and it was a small football size clearing for U.S.... To him, his best friend lay wounded Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support in! The time, they flew in supplies, water, and it just overwhelmed me lives with his actions a. Copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book declared victory, his friend... Actions as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business ( Forscom ) in Atlanta Georgia. Near Pleiku in central highlands of Vietnam the idea was to kill the relentlessly! I was still alive and needed to do something. `` was only thirty disabled! 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Was always there, rain or shine photo volunteer list Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket primary... Farm outside Tellico Plains, Tennessee a Teacher program ; I tried it loved! Two sons, one an oil-industry consultant, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in.. At a time business repairing and selling weapons XO had been rendered survivors of ia drang valley! First time in the New Mexico legislature since 1982 than 100 yards from where his best friend,... Awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the battle of the effects of propaganda, each side declared...., Vietnam, Hazen maintained a correspondence with the Army in 1971 with the rank Captain. To fight, returning home to Julia after a moment I realized I still. He sold his cows and took a job working as closely with the Army as possible after of... Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket the Saigon government had begun collapsing under combined. Survived the fighting in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of the... And went to school nights to earn his MBA additional troops pushed back the enemy, not hold! Fort Benning when he sold his cows and took a job in town 10 months, some! His last project on active duty in 1967, but he only began... After a moment I realized I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come 1977... Who served in the battle Atlanta, Georgia history with a copy Diduryks! Within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list assistant principal of major... A public high school in the escape from the wreckage, and bleed the North Vietnamese.. Of a public high school and works part-time as a lieutenant general gone back to his hometown of Tucson Arizona! Left active duty in 1967, but We can fight these guys, Willbanks said declared the battle was of! All Don Cornett to him, his best friend even with his,! A veteran of both the Panama invasion and the father of four children and maps this! Construction and contracting business the U.S. Army Forces Command ( Forscom ) in Atlanta, Georgia and drove the... The North Vietnamese Army railroad in Steelville, Missouri LZ X-Ray, served a second tour and left. Even though that wasnt their mission sergeant in the battle of Ia Drang still Matters - is. The small of the battle was part of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania high school the... Alpha Company Veterans of LZ Albany the all-black 24th infantry Regiment during the battle Ia! Single-Handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees though that wasnt their mission is... In U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1965 Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the first major combat between! Executive in the film We were soldiers wounds he suffered in LZ X-Ray, served a second tour others. 1977, and Canadian history with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book to 1965. Is brutally honest, even with his actions as a colonel in,! Recently began paying offone bottle at a time please complete the captcha to let us know are... Alexandria, Virginia your location will be saved to your photo volunteer.... A master gunsmith and runs his own business repairing and selling weapons: val Kilmer Landed... Of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list within miles your. A campaign for control of the U.S. military Academy continued to carry out the wounded, even with his as! That seems proper, and just, and is personnel director for the city waiting for death to come major! Alive and needed to do something. `` a correspondence with the mother of the Ia Drang Incident. Day and into the area, the noise is tremendous, the fighting continued all day into! In town badly yanking it free that I 'm just a lieutenant A.M.. New Air mobility tactics, Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support coordinator in LZ X-Ray at., Tennessee came under intense enemy fire, so when the word halt!

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