He is a master gunsmith and runs his own business repairing and selling weapons. 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. After they were airlifted out of the combat zone, McDades men were joined by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. WALLACE, Bruce M. Jr., sixty-one, Air Force A-IE Skyraider pilot over the Ia Drang, served two more tours in Vietnam and retired a colonel in 1976. 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. He and his wife have two teenage children. Returning home, he single-handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. It was his first real combat; first, he got a round to the side of his neck. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. He is married and has four children. As the fighting around Landing Zone X-Ray subsided, McDades 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to move cross-country to Landing Zone Albany, where it was to be picked up by helicopter and moved to a new location. The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. The North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas absorbed even higher casualties from better-equipped American troops on the ground as well as helicopter gunships and B-52s raining bombs, bullets and napalm. He plays volleyball two nights a week to keep trim and has devoted much of his spare time over the past two years to a detailed study of the part played in the Ia Drang battles by his fellow aviators of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, our beloved Huey slick drivers. (Photo Credit: US Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. TADEMY, Dudley, 3rd Brigade fire-support coordinator in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry and retired a colonel in January 1987, after thirty years service. On November 27, 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Bartholomew was killed in action. MARTIN, John C., fifty-one, rifleman in Lieutenant Sissons platoon detached from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry for duty in X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. Army vet Jimi Hendrix had the 'most electrifying moment' at Woodstock, Hamburger Hill: For war-weary Americans, 10-day battle defined futility of Vietnam War, Nixon struggles to achieve peace with honor and end unpopular Vietnam War, Marines shut down elite scout sniper platoons in favor of all-weather, info-gathering units, Navy gives leaders mental health playbook to help troubled sailors, Cadets at the service academies can now have children while attending school, Military, VA provide troops, vets more gun safety options to help reduce suicides, Pentagon tells service members to stop displaying giant US flags at major events, K-Town Now features the latest news from the Kaiserslautern Military Community. MOORE, H. G. (Hal), now seventy, commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang and served six more months in Vietnam, commanding the 3rd Brigade. 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. More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. At the end of a year only fifteen of the original contingent were still there, Gwin included. 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. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. 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. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. 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. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. 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. 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. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. He was 92 years old. I couldn't grasp it.". She and her husband live in Annandale, Virginia. Purp is married, the father of three daughters, and cuts hair at Gibbs Barber Shop, where he has worked for the last nineteen years. 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. 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. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. He worked an additional fifteen years as a civilian employee at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia, and retired again in 1990. Orange County, BY DAVID A. MAURER. WHITESIDE, Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support coordinator in LZ X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large formation of American troops faced well-trained, well-equipped regulars of the Peoples Army of Vietnam. 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. Today, Doc Shucart of Landing Zone Albany is the chief of neurosurgery at Tufts University Medical School. I have one very vivid memory of the second morning in X-Ray. Initially, Lawrence's thoughts and feelings after he was safe were just moments captured in his mind. Moore and his battalion were evacuated the next day, Nov. 17. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. I think it also speaks to the depths these guys were into the Cold War reality at the time. While Beck survived the ultimately victorious 2-1/2-day fight at Ia Drang, 305 other American soldiers did not. Somebody grabbed him under his arms and dragged him toward the trees, but dropped him in the clearing where air support was dropping napalm. I ripped off his shirt and there it was: a groove to the right of his spine. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. She is an active member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, an organization sponsored by the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 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. "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. ROBINSON, Edward Charles, fifty-five, Huey pilot at LZ X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. WASHBURN, Richard B., fifty-seven, platoon leader, 2/20th Aerial Rocket Artillery in the Ia Drang, returned to Vietnam for a second combat tour. The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley would be the Vietnam War's first major set-piece battle with the PAVN, the first major US heliborne assault on an NVA position, and the first engagement to employ B-52 airstrikes on enemy ground forces in battle. Vince Cantu never went back to his music. On March 2, 1969, thirty-two-year-old Buse Tully was killed in action. NADAL, Ramon A. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. 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. 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. 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.. Shocked and wounded U.S. troops gather at a jungle clearing of South Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley in mid-November 1965, as they wait for an ambulance helicopter. They have two grown children. 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. 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. He lives in Falls, Pennsylvania. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. 4 Oscar E . Alpha Company arrived in Vietnam with 146 officers and men. Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th . Surprisingly, Adams, Beck's buddy who was shot in the head, was among the. Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Kennedy was thirty-one years old at the time of his death. 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 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. 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. Major Bruce P. Crandall's UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission. . when I said to hell with it. He and his wife own and manage a trailer park, and Kluges night job is corrections officer for the Arizona State Department of Corrections. Postal Service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. Little did Beck and his companions know they were about to make history in America's first large scale battle of the Vietnam War. 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.) He earned his masters degree in public administration in 1976 and retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. 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. Read More Landing Zone Xray Lead elements of the under strength 450 man 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry air assault into a small clearing in scrub jungle below the 2300 foot Chu Pong Massif. "I can't even begin to explain it," he said. GILREATH, Larry M., platoon sergeant, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, did two more tours in Southeast Asia and retired a master sergeant in April 1972. He now manages the quartermaster laundry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. The battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. HENRY, Frank, executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ Albany, served a second tour in Vietnam as a battalion commander in the 1st Cavalry Division, later commanded a brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, and was promoted to chief of staff of the 101st Airborne in the summer of 1977. 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. Cash served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser to the Royal Thai Army forces. In January 1968, over the Bong Son plain, Crandalls Huey was blown out of the sky by an air strike while flying a nap-of-the-earth search for a downed helicopter. Ia Drang Valley, Battle of the (1965). Other donors to the fund are readers of the book from across America, Veterans, and supporters of the fund. During his two tours in Vietnam, Crandall flew lead ship on 756 separate missions. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. from around the world. They have two sons, one an oil-industry consultant, the other an Air Force sergeant who served in the Persian Gulf War. It was the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and Lawrence and . 5 cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. He retired from the Army as a master sergeant and, in 1988, became the pastor of a church in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. 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. He tells his audience this to help them understand. 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. 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. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. In the spring of 1992, Frank Henry was posthumously inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame. He went home to Salinas, California, where he lives with his wife and three sons. About 40 minutes later, North Vietnamese launched their attack, hiding in the tall elephant grass and in stands of trees. "I realized it when Sgt. There were no further attacks overnight. Russian missile barrage knocks out power and water to Ukrainian cities December 16, 2022. In his spare time Wal-lenius draws, paints, and does etchings and prints, sometimes of Vietnam War scenes. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. Difficult. LOMBARDO, Riccardo, sixty-one, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany and Pop Jekels good buddy, was retired on one hundred percent disability after a serious back injury in 1967, when he was thirty-six. "The main point that I try to get across when I speak to Soldiers, and this is what saved me, is the training," he said. Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. The Battle of the la Drang Valley would come to be remembered as one of the most iconic battles of the Vietnam War, and later would set the scene for the film We Were Soldiers based on the novel We Were Soldiers OnceAnd Young. Survivors described savage, close-range combat, sometimes hand-to-hand, over several hours. 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. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1stCavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. The . He wanted to ensure the memories of those who died live on, in particular that of his best friend, Lt. Don Cornett. During a 14-hour period, Major Bruce Crandall and Captain Ed Freeman, repeatedly landed their helicopter under intense enemy fire at Landing Zone X-Ray. Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. 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