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Moore lectures at military academies and at several colleges and universities. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. 1/7 Cavalry lands at LZ X-Ray. Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. When I was down, men were running past me, swishing the elephant grass and speaking Vietnamese and executing the wounded. It wasn't until about two weeks later, as he read Stars and Stripes, that it hit him what he had survived. While Beck survived the ultimately victorious 2-1/2-day fight at Ia Drang, 305 other American soldiers did not. They were promoted to first lieutenants at the same time and both became executive officers on the same day, Lawrence with Delta Company and Cornett with Charlie. In 1974 he transferred from the infantry to the military police. 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. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. He says he did a lot of praying during the Persian Gulf War, when his son, his brother, and his old friend Galloway were all on the battlefield. WALLENIUS, Jon, forty-nine, mortar observer, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, got out of the Army in August 1966. Things were quiet, but in the morning, the North Vietnamese attacked. He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. Hear Bruces story. Some of the survivors broke into tears of relief. He died . 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. After leaving the Army, Braveboy worked as a roofer. 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. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. In the fall of 1965 the Vietnam War was an event most Americans saw as a series of smaller battles leaving little to remember. Ernie had gone back to his native Chicago and drove a truck for the city. 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. It was the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and Lawrence and . After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. His awards include the Combat Infantrymans Badge with two stars; two Silver Stars; two Bronze Stars; four Purple Hearts; a Master Parachutist Badge with five combat-jump stars; a European Theater Service ribbon with eight campaign stars and four invasion arrows; a Korean Service ribbon with three campaign stars and one invasion arrow; a Vietnam Service ribbon with one silver and three bronze campaign stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. He told me that if he didn't make it, I was to write her and tell her that he loved her. He was chief of security at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, until his death on April 18, 1992. Please reset your password. He and his wife live in Sag Harbor, New York, where they operate a summer season shop that deals in contemporary original art. It was his first real combat; first, he got a round to the side of his neck. 2023 Stars and Stripes. (U.S. Army), This strategy, as flawed as it was, had some potentiality of working, Wiest, the historian, said. The battle was later dramatized in the film We Were Soldiers. based on information from your browser. Despite their efforts, the North Vietnamese retake the position soon after. 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. MCDADE, Robert, seventy, who commanded the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel in 1975. In 1982, he joined U.S. News & World Report magazine. It occurred in the Ia Drang valley, near Vietnam's border with Cambodia, on November 14-18, 1965. Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. 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. It is laced with hard facts, observations, anger, sadness and even some humor. 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. Westmorelands recommendation for more troops carried the day even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. Please try again later. Two men - Sgt. 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.. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. During his two tours in Vietnam, Crandall flew lead ship on 756 separate missions. KELLING, George, fifty-four, who ran Charlie Med, the rear-area casualty receiving station during LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1978. Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair. ROZANSKI, Gordon P. (Rosie), fifty-four, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry S-4 in the Ia Drang, was wounded in both arms, both legs, and the stomach in the Bong Son campaign in early 1966. The British-born Rescorla earned a masters degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. 1965, just after the start of the U.S. campaign that led to the Ia Drang Valley. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Baker, who was less than a foot away from me, was screaming that I was in charge and that I had to do something," he said. Jeanette spent the better part of a year in a military hospital while his shattered leg was repaired. At various times in recent years he has been reported to be either employed or a patient in VA hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama. 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. A North Vietnamese map, captured in 1966, accurately depicts enemy maneuvers and attacks during the Ia Drang campaign. BY DAVID A. MAURER. MICELI, Carmen, forty-eight, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray, completed a full tour in Vietnam and left the Army in September 1966. 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. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. James T. Lawrence, a first lieutenant in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, learned a lesson in leadership the hard way 50 years ago. Facebook Twitter He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. On November 18, 1965, the US forces were able to gather their dead. 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. The first major American direct fire conflict took place in November of 1965 in the Ia Drang Valley. By Staff. All Rights Reserved. In Hanoi, the North Vietnamese leadership was prepared for huge losses. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. KLUGE, Fred J., fifty-nine, platoon sergeant, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry in Albany, retired in 1973, as a first sergeant, after a total of twenty-two years service. 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. His last project on active duty was researching and writing a history of the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment during the Korean War. 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. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. I ask that question every day. That all would change when the First Cavalry Air Mobile Division flew into the Ia Drang Valley in the central highlands of South Vietnam. 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. He is working on a book on Alpha Companys year in Vietnam. It was the first major battle between PAVN and US Army units and one of the war's bloodiest encounters. When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. He was made famous by the account of his actions during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965, the Americans' first major battle of the Vietnam War. 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. 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. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. He was director of training development at Fort Benning when he retired as a colonel in 1983. The battle was the culmination of Operation Silver Bayonet I, a combined American-South Vietnamese offensive to relieve the . He and his wife, Arlene, have three sonsa banker in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a lawyer in Connecticut; and a divinity student in college. 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. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. 1st Lt. Donald Cornett at his base camp in Vietnam, shortly before the battle of Landing Zone Albany where he was killed in action, Nov. 17, 1965. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. 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. We have set your language to 5 cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. 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. Temperatures reached 100 degrees, and by the afternoon there was a firestorm battle for survival. The following is a partial accounting, prepared in 1992, of where some of them are and what they have done with their lives: ADAMS, Russell, fifty-one, machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, helps run the family dairy farm on five hundred acres outside Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. I thought to myself. One of the survivors recalls how it was - the blood, the agony, and the fear. 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. He served as city manager of Dunsmuir, California, from 1977 to 1980, when he moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he is the citys manager of public works. The battle was part of a campaign for control of the strategic central highlands, which divided South Vietnam north to south. The group is devoted to bringing together the families and friends of men killed in Vietnam. 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. Crandalls back was broken; he spent five months in an Army hospital recovering. McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. He retired a first sergeant in June 1973, with twenty years service. They died hot, hungry and exhausted. Elements of the Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) entered the first major land battle of the war at landing zones X-Ray and Albany, which would turn out to be proving grounds for a whole new kind of warfare. 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. Before the Battle of la Drang was over, 305 Americans had been killed along with an estimated 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. The men, women, and children of this story are Americas neighbors, living quiet lives in every corner of the nation they served. I've also included soldiers who survived and died later and the wife of the commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Julia Moore for her role in supporting the grieving widows of the men slain. In a 1967 article for the Saturday Evening Post, former ABC reporter Jack Smith, who was a private first class in Charlie Company during the battle, wrote about Cornett's last moments. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. The living, wounded and dead of the first and second battalions of the US 7th Cavalry were flown back to their bases, given fresh food and clothes, and reformed for another day of fighting.