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. He and his wife, Martha, have four children. 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 . Shortly thereafter, US units began . He left the Army in 1971 with the rank of captain, returned home to Puerto Rico, and earned a law degree. "My gut told me, this is wrong, this isn't right, something's wrong here. (Skip), fifty-three, commander of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, is still on active duty. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. The location of the battle, far into the jungle from any roads, meant troops had to be airlifted in. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. It was the longest day I ever experienced in any aircraft, Crandall recalled. I couldn't grasp it.". (Black Bart), Charlie Battery aerial rocket artillery commander in the Ia Drang, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1968. 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. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. 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. 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. 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. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. The survivors of Landing Zone X-Ray have always had an aura of fame about them. It wasnt until Albany was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close. He retired a colonel in December 1981, after twenty-four years service. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. U.S. intelligence knew that North Vietnamese regulars probably a single regiment were in the area. copyright 2023 He was 92 years old. It took multiple hours for the men to load their weapons and fallen soldiers into helicopters, but by 3 P.M., all of the survivors or fallen American soldiers who were to leave the Ia Drang Valley, left. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. Savage and the 22-year-old medic, Sp5. 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 tried to crawl away and was shot again in the hip. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. "When things started it just erupted," Lawrence said. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. Three U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the battle. He moved back to his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Winkel and his wife live in Springfield, Virginia. It was his positive decision to do something that reinforced my own will to go on.". It was the first major battle between PAVN and US Army units and one of the war's bloodiest encounters. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Since August 1990, he has been the dean of students and basketball coach at St. Mary Rynken Catholic High School in Leonardtown, Maryland, his hometown. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. Im so proud to have been there and so proud of the guys who were there with me. In August 1977, at the age of forty-four, Colonel Frank Henry died when an aneurysm ruptured. In Vietnam, it never got any worse than it did in the Ia Drang, a distant valley in the Central Highlands, tangled in elephant grass and simmering in heat. GEOGHEGAN, Camille, twenty-seven, daughter of Lieutenant John Lance (Jack) Geoghegan, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, killed in action November 15, 1965, is a human resources specialist at a company in McLean, Virginia. Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran, serving in the 1st Infantry Division and is a business owner in Priest River. Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore, a no-nonsense West Pointer, was the commander of the . He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. 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.. He and Russell Adams are still best friends. He is now a financial officer with the U.S. The . Between the Army and the Interior Department, Freeman logged a total of seventeen thousand hours flying time in helicopters and eight thousand hours in fixed wing. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? I have one very vivid memory of the second morning in X-Ray. Although each survivor's story is unique, they all carry the same lessons. Cash retired from active duty as a colonel in September of 1992 and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. RACKSTRAW, Jim, forty-nine, recon-platoon leader, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as a rifle-company commander in the 25th Infantry Division. from around the world. Battle of Ia Drang American troops in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965. He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. Lessons in leadership, in the importance of training, in courage, in sacrifice and in loss. But Charlie was back in the air, flying F-4 Phantoms, less than a year later. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. Mrs. Mapson is a member of the Columbus chapter of the 1st Cavalry Division Association. Most of the planes touched down between midnight and six A.M., but George Nye was always there, rain or shine. He is married and has two children. He is an executive with a major defense-contracting firm and lives in Centreville, Virginia. PAOLONE, Ernest E., Bob Edwardss radio operator, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, died of a massive heart attack on March 30, 1992, at the age of fifty. The fighting continued all day and into the night with the enemy relentlessly making assault after assault. (U.S. Army), This strategy, as flawed as it was, had some potentiality of working, Wiest, the historian, said. There was a problem getting your location. But UPI sent him back to Vietnam in 1971, in 1973, and again in 1975 for the final chapter. 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. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. In January 1991, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf summoned the reporter to his headquarters in Saudi Arabia and said: Im sending you to the commander out here who is most like General Hal Moore, and the division which has the most challenging and dangerous mission in my battle plan. Galloway rode with then-Major General Barry McCaffrey and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on a hair-raising tank charge through the western Iraq desert to the Euphrates River valley. 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. His son is a staff sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division and a veteran of both the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. Lt. Don Cornett, along with 154 troopers from 2/7 Cav, were killed in the Ia Drang Valley at a small clearing known as Landing Zone Albany. 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. Search above to list available cemeteries. I didn't do as I should have.". Crandall won the first Helicopter Heroism Award of the Aviation/Space Writers Association, for two daring nighttime landings under fire to rescue twelve badly wounded troopers from Captain Tony Nadals Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in Operation Masher-White Wing in January 1966. He now lives in Dublin, New Hampshire, and works for a firm that sells office supplies. 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). Together, we can make sure our heroes will get the reverence they deserve and the stories and sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. On his chest he wore the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and five Purple Hearts. 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. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. He and his wife, Kornelia, live in Columbus, Georgia, where for several years Scott taught military subjects to Junior ROTC in the high schools. Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. As the command ship touched down, other NVA soldiers opened up; Myron Diduryk was struck in the stomach in the doorway of the chopper. His lieutenants bars were pinned on by General James Van Fleet and, at Freemans request, his first assignment was as commander of Bravo Company. Alpha company along with most of the command group had setup a perimeter in the trees, but the rest of the battalion was cut off. 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. The training kicks in and can save you.". Tully retired a colonel in 1976. He retired in 1990. Very difficult. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. He married in 1981 and is the father of four daughters: an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and infant twins. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. Lawrence and Cornett were roommates at Infantry Officer Basic School, roommates in jump school and on the ship together that brought them to Vietnam. The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. 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. He was the father of four children, aged twelve through twenty. Charlie Company held their position, exemplifying extraordinary heroism and courage. 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. At approximately noon,the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment attacked. 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. The two-hour Ia Drang Valley program kicked off the reunion's final day. "Why did I deserve to live? He holds two masters degrees, is employed in the defense industry, and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Both later were awarded the Medal of Honor, our nations highest award for heroism in combat. 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. RESCORLA, Cyril R. (Rick), fifty-three, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, completed a full tour with Bravo Company in Vietnam and did another year teaching at Officer Candidate School in the States. 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. 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. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. 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. He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. HOWARD, John, fifty-four, medical-services officer, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1983, after twenty-five years service. Read More He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. Major Bruce Crandall made over 20 flights into intense enemy fire during a battle in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam, in November 1965, evacuating 70 wounded and delivering ammunition. They have a son and two daughters. That headquarters type turned up and he returned my old helmet, bullet hole and all. Temperatures reached 100 degrees, and by the afternoon there was a firestorm battle for survival. I couldnt grasp it., More from us: Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. I think McNamara knew, deep down; I think Johnson knew, Wiest said. They have four children and five grandchildren. In the prologue, Galloway wrote: "This, then, is our testament and our tribute to 234 Americans who died beside us in Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Albany in the Valley of Death, 1965." Absent was an effective plan for winning over the civilian population caught in the crossfire, said James Willbanks, a Vietnam veteran who is the director of the Department of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. Now a senior writer for U.S. News, Galloway recently had one last combat tour. 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. Alex Kolyer for MPR News On this Veterans Day,. Hes in a unique position to want to believe these optimistic reports and hes getting a lot of them.. SCOTT, James A., sixty-nine, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, served a second Vietnam tour in 1970-71 as command sergeant major, USARV Scott retired as a command sergeant major on May 1, 1973, after thirty years, ten months, and twenty days of service, wearing the Combat Infantrymans Badge with one star; six Bronze Stars; three Purple Hearts; a European Campaign ribbon with four battle stars and one invasion arrow; a Korean Service ribbon with two battle stars; a Vietnam Service ribbon with four battle stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. About 40 minutes later, North Vietnamese launched their attack, hiding in the tall elephant grass and in stands of trees. His last known address was Miami, Florida. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. STOCKTON, John B., seventy, commander, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel 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. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets SUGDINIS, Joel E., fifty-five, who had already served one tour in Vietnam as an adviser, completed his second tour with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry. A wounded soldier of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, is attended to by fellow comrades during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. When he got back to Refugio, Texas, he called on Joe Galloways parents but mercifully concealed the true circumstances of their meeting on the battlefield in X-Ray. Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and his men continued on, receiving support from artillery units and air strikes, helping the American troops hold themselves against the enemy. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. 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. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. 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. The men, women, and children of this story are Americas neighbors, living quiet lives in every corner of the nation they served. 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. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . With only 700 effective soldiers left of the original 2,200, the 33d Regiment needed help. 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. (U.S. Army). He served in both Brazil and El Salvador, was a history instructor at West Point, and served in the Center of Military History for a number of years. POLEY, Clinton, forty-eight, assistant machine gunner, 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, was discharged from Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado, early in 1966, and went home to Iowa and the family farm. 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. 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. Then after a moment I realized I was still alive and needed to do something.". MAPSON, Betty Jivens, forty-two, daughter of Sergeant Jerry Jivens, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, killed in action at X-Ray on November 15, 1965, is married, the mother of two, and works as a secretary at the Medical Center Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. 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. 3 /5. Companies C and D took the brunt of the Communist attack, and most of the men were quickly hit. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. The Ia Drang Valley is a map featured in Battlefield Vietnam. TANNER, Ray, forty-nine, radio operator, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, returned home to South Carolina in April 1966 and went to work for a utility company in Charleston. American officials declared the Battle of the la Drang Valley a victory. The following day, both battalions were informed of an incoming bomber run on LZ X-Ray, meaning they needed to go elsewhere. Word reached the battalion traveling to Columbus, who sent Bravo Company back to Albany to serve as reinforcements. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. Lt. Col. Hal Moores 1stBattalion, 7thCalvary wasordered to take on an air assaultin the Ia Drang Valley. He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. The group is devoted to bringing together the families and friends of men killed in Vietnam. LZ Albany is essentially two clearings with a large copse of trees in the middle. For the next ten years he was a football coach at Morgan State University in Baltimore, his alma mater. Winkel retired a colonel in 1986, with over thirty-one years of Army service. The Battle that changed the war in vietnam Overview A Vietnamese military maxim states: He who controls the Central Highlands controls South Vietnam. BUNGUM, Galen, forty-nine, rifleman in Lieutenant Henry Herricks Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Army in April 1966 and went home to Hayfield, Minnesota. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. He lives in Falls, Pennsylvania. 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. Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. The battle was the culmination of Operation Silver Bayonet I, a combined American-South Vietnamese offensive to relieve the . On November 14, 1965, 450 American soldiers of the 1st Air Cavalry Division were airlifted by helicopter to this valley with the intention of locating and eliminating North Vietnamese forces. I ripped off his shirt and there it was: a groove to the right of his spine. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . Carrara says, I dont dwell on Vietnam, but now and then I hear something or smell something and flash back to those days. Crandall and Freeman successfully rescued some 70 wounded men. Knowles has served in the New Mexico legislature since 1982. 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.. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. His helicopter came under intense enemy fire, but they continued to carry out the wounded, even though that wasnt their mission. 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). In 1974 he transferred from the infantry to the military police. These men survived the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam from Oct 23, 1965 to Nov 1965. He is brutally honest, even with his actions as a leader. 'Can't you see I'm dying?' 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. 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. Five years ago he attended a reunion of Alpha Company veterans of LZ Albany. It was Nov. 15, 1965, in the valley of the Ia Drang in the wild mountains of the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He owns a property-management firm in Tampa, Florida. He is senior Army adviser to the 79th Army Reserve Command in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The Ia Drang Valley is the place the U.S. really went to warfare. The first major American direct fire conflict took place in November of 1965 in the Ia Drang Valley. Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. SHUCART, William, M.D., surgeon, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, had nearly completed his tour in Vietnam in the summer of 1966, when he suffered a broken back in the crash of a Chinook helicopter. In 1965 alma mater firestorm battle for survival and infant twins and FREE guys who there. Drew to a close Pat, live in St. Charles, a combined American-South offensive. 1965 to Nov 1965 alive and needed to do something. `` Hunter... C and D took the brunt of the best Vietnam war films ever made heroism! 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