JG. Galloway had. Central Intelligence Agency. But we journalists were so sure that we were immune to all we witnessed in combat. He is the only civilian awarded a medal of valor by the U.S . We did. A photo of a young widow sprawled atop the grave of her soldier husband at Arlington Cemetery leaves me choked with grief and sobbing aloud. We are in a small hamlet near Dakto late in 1967, barely two months away from the Tt Offensive. Forty-five years ago this fall, in November of 1965, a lone, understrength battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) ventured where no forcenot the French, not the South Vietnamese army, not the newly arrived American combat troopshad ever gone: Deep into an enemy sanctuary in the forested jungles of a plateau in the Central Highlands where the Drang River flowed into Cambodia and, ultimately, into the Mekong River that returned to Vietnam far to the south. In Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent an urgent message to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, who was in Europe, ordering him to come home via Saigon and find out what had happened at Ia Drang, and what it meant. Lily Rothman is the History and Archives Editor for TIME. we were soldiers once and young ia drang valley 1965. we were soldiers once and young ia drang. The sketchy American intelligence Moore was provided said the area was home base for possibly a regiment of the enemy. The other is to stick with our stated objectives and with the war, and provide what it takes in men and materiel. Jimmy D. Nakayama's casualty report no crushed ankles! A man who made sense of the Battle of Ia Drang for a generation is gone. Paul received many letters saying thank you for what you showed us.. Hal G. Moore, Bruce Crandall and Jon Mills went in to an officers bar, they were told to leave by, Hal G. Moore was wearing his web gear, grenades,ammo, M-16 rifle, Bruce Crandall and Jon, Hal G. Moore laying his M-16 on the bar, tells the manager if he did not serve them he would, Bruce Crandall and Jon mills, take their pistols out of their holsters, and place them on the, This by this act alone Bruce Crandall and Jon mills, by taking their pistols out of their holsters, (a) Any person subject to this chapter who attempts or offers with unlawful force or violence to, do bodily harm to another person, whether or not the attempt or offer is consummated, is. In 2015, Galloway talked about when he arrived in Vietnam in early 1965, "I knew nothing about war except what I had learned from watching John Wayne movies." life and a North Vietnamese officer was pointing a pistol in my face. The title is WE ARE SOLDIERS STILL: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam, and I think its a pretty good story, but he is sure working me hard. By late summer, the 1st Cavalry was stationed in Vietnam's Central Highlands. +When did it dawn on you that you yourself might be suffering from PTSD? At first, we thought it was deserted. Hal, over to you. These hard Marines suddenly became the most gentle, loving persons. Colonel, Moore as Chief, support Aircraft and Aerial delivery branch, Air Mobility Division, monitored the Armys, Research and Development program for airborne matters represented the Army General Staff in the. In 1954 a French unit on patrol during the First Indochina War is ambushed by Viet Minh forces . We also found that getting together and sharing the stories helped us all smooth things out so we could go on for another year. They knew each other and their capabilities. How those photographs made history is underscored throughout the new documentary series The Vietnam War, from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Back in Saigon, General Westmoreland and MACV G-3, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations General William DePuy, were studying the statistics of the Ia Drang battles. We dont focus so much on if, or how much, we were damaged by what we witnessed or participated in. We arent allowed to forget; we arent supposed to forget. One of Westmorelands brighter young aides later would write, a strategy of attrition is proof that you have no strategy at all. In any event, the strategy was an utter failure. Do you have an observations about why that might be so? ", Jimmy D. Nakayama's casualty report no Crushed ankles, IF YOU WANT A GOOD FIGHT Original story of Vietnam . Only jokes and funny stuff. I began having a nightmare that was always the same: I was on my knees begging for my We were glad to get it over with. If he had obeyed Knowles, more than 100 of his men would not have survived that night in the Ia Drang. . The sign had read American who read this die.. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. According to a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, nearly one-third of war journalists will suffer from PTSD during their careers. The North Vietnamese swiftly deployed along the left side of the column and prepared to attack. I could feel those bones in the palms of my hands. Find Joseph Galloway stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Katherine Holden, daughter of photographer Philip Jones Griffiths: This picture was taken by my father, Philip Jones Griffiths, in Vietnam in 1968 during the battle for Saigon. 153 new photos; 616 job history records for people in our database; 192 education records for people in our database; 915 contact addresses, emails and URLs (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) The Americans trapped in the kill zone were on their own. Bruce Crandall recounted tales of one escapade after another: of moonlight requisitions raids, against the U.S. Air Force for needed or merely desired goodies unavailable from the Army, supply chain;[ of the time Bruce Crandall was caught trying to sling load a 10 kilowatt, generator off it pad on an airbase.] Screw it. Your browser is out of date. And at least one psychiatrist treating war veterans has used it in his practice. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Even in the eyes of the wars chief architect. All of this was merely prelude, setting the stage for the savage mid-November battles at LZs X-ray and Albany. Nor will the originally contemplated Phase II addition of 28 more U.S. battalions (112,000 men) be enough.Indeed, it is estimated that, with the contemplated Phase II addition of 28 U.S. battalions, we would be able only to hold our present geographical positions. My father, Larry Burrows, selected that frame himself, but it wasnt until more than four years later, after he was shot down and killed, that it was published for the first time. Just as he pulled it I came up fighting for my life, and threw my wife out of bed and against the wall of our apartment. Joe Galloway was recognized with the Bronze Star with Valor when during November 1965, Battle of Ia Drang, he repeatedly disregarded his own safety to rescue wounded soldiers . 2023 TIME USA, LLC. The dramatic recent changes in the situation are on the military side. discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission. This photo was only one of several Huet made of Cole that were published on the cover and inside pages of LIFE magazine. Christopher Calvert, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Dao called in a helicopter to evacuate us, but suddenly, the ARVN troops who had been seated alongside the road broke and ran for the incoming helos. He worked more than 20 years as a foreign and war correspondent. only a couple bottles of blue pills which you need to use more regularly. The luck was with Moore. quizlet. An Associated Press photographer, Rick Merron, and a Vietnamese TV network cameraman, Vo Nguyen, had finagled a ride on a helicopter going into Albany on the morning of November 18. It was an old guerrilla ploy that usually worked, but not here, not now. If you havent seen war up close and personal you really cant know what it is and what it does to those on the field of battle. They arrived in the nick of time as the next PAVN assault began. He took along a platoon of mortars that belonged to Captain Ted Danielsens Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, which had been sent with Stockton as possible reinforcements if needed. "He loved the boys and girls of the U.S. military. General Knowles wanted to bring in the first-ever B-52 strike in tactical support of ground troops, and X-ray was inside the 35 kilometer box that was danger close to the rain of bombs that would fall on the near slopes of Chu Pong. The child was found wandering the previous night between the North Vietnamese and the American firing lines. hasta la vista foe another decade or so The man was a brave SOB, having made a name for himself at the Battle of Ia Drang, November 14-18, 1965 (I wrote about the battle here). Joe Galloway is presented a branding iron by Maj. Gen. Michael Bills, commanding general, 1st Cavalry Division, during a screening of We Were Soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, June 11, 2015. contribution that his branch made to the accomplishment of the Air Mobility Division mission. It recognizes his heroism on Nov. 15, 1965, during the Battle of. but you dont. This photograph has come to be known as Reaching Out.. Some ate; some smoked; some fell asleep right there. to: lzalbany65 Article written by Joe Lee Galloway, the time Bruce Crandall was caught trying to sling load a. Thus, the enemy will be caught in a dilemma: He has to drag out the war in order to win it and does not possess, on the other hand, the psychological and political means to fight a long-drawn-out war.. The Fog of War: The Vietnamese View o When American GIs landed on British shores they exuded generosity to their allies, giving away candy, nylons and cigarettes. We had a strategy of peoples war. As tens of thousands of anti-war protestors rioted in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, President Johnson and his family watched from the bedroom at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas. He and five of his brothers, four of my Moms brothers were all in uniform in WWII. I have got to get all this in one picture, I thought. The big battles began when thenLt. Joe Galloway, a young reporter from United Press International, was with the American troops during the battle and found himself covering the fighting and also participating in it. He had just turned 30. Bernice Schutzer Galef, widow of photographer Paul Schutzer: Paul got carried away with all the emotions that happen in war, and he was right in there with the soldiers in battles. Word spread quickly that a battalion of Americans had been massacred in the Ia Drang Valley, but reporters were told there was no ambush. The first units arriving in Vietnam in 1965 had trained together for many months before they were ordered to war. We Were Soldiers Once.and Young: Ia Drang - the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway. A year later Huet was seriously wounded and was treated by medics until evacuated. "He was the kindest, most gentle and loving man," Grace Galloway said. We should be aware that deployments of the kind I have recommended will not guarantee success. The PAVN commander directing the fight at X-ray, Lt. Col. Nguyen Hu An, revealed to us in Hanoi in 1991 that they had figured out one other way to neutralize the American artillery and air power. 5. General Giap knew all along that his country and his army would prevail against the Americans just as they had outlasted and worn down their French enemy. The caption provides pertinent information about the circumstance: the who, what and where. At the head of the column, McDade had no idea where most of his men were and was near-incoherent on the radio. The book was later adapted. we were soldiers once and young ia drang the battle. I was born three weeks before Pearl Harbor. Lt. colonel Moores service in the office, Chief of Research and Development reflect great credit upon him, FICTION from NEIL SHEEHANs A BRIGHT AND SHINNING LIE., PAGE 573 U.S. killed-in-action can be expected to reach 1,000 a month, and the odds are even that we will be faced in early 1967 with a no-decision at an even higher level. 10 things you never knew about we were soldiers task. The scene is as wretched as the other. We Were Soldiers Once.And Young: Ia Drang The Battle That Changed the W - GOOD. Joe Lee Galloway, a civilian Reporter, When I first went to war., By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Stockton, an Army brat who had grown up in horse cavalry posts all across the West, had resurrected black cavalry Stetson hats for his men and smuggled the 9th Cavs mascot Maggie the mule aboard ship and 8,000 miles to Vietnam in defiance of another of Dick Knowles orders. He didnt know that before Purdies persistence finally earned him a transfer to the infantry, he had taken courses at the Marine Corps Institute, confident that the transfer would come and he would be ready. Lt. General Hal Moore: Thank you Joe. - DVD Copied by IASL Scanner Jeremy Baron. Over the years, Howard would often tell this story and recall sadly that Capa had died covering his assignment. The photo didnt win any prizes, might not even been published, but as a flash forward it represents every soldier who returns from any war after the battles were history, guns silenced and the odds of getting killed beaten. One morning near the end of the unsuccessful Laos invasion of early 1971 (an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail), I wandered into a group of young soldiers who were tasked with fixing tanks and track vehicles which were regularly being rocketed by North Vietnamese troops just down the road. Joe Lee Galloway never served in any branch of the Military. But Im fascinated by the photograph because of the man behind the camera: Yoichi Okamoto. I notice that as the years dwindle down to a precious few I weep a lot more often as the memories cross my mind. Fort Benning during battles in the Ia Drang (Guest blog). In the next six hours, McDades battalion would lose 155 men killed and 120 wounded. In November 1965, journalist Joseph L. Galloway hitched a ride on an Army helicopter flying to the Ia Drang Valley, a rugged landscape of red dirt, brown elephant grass and truck-size termite mounds in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Do you think Gold Star family members can suffer from PTSD even though they have never been in a combat zone? Subj: RE: Galloway never wore a uniform either russell: Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, it dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. So I just moved on with my life and career. It was almost a religious experience for me to record this extraordinary event. Soldiers and journalists alike are reluctant to seek treatment, and for the same reason: A fear that it is a confession of fear, and may damage your career. It was called Hug Them by the Belt Buckleor get in so close to the U.S. troops that the firepower could not be used, for fear of killing and wounding their own. We have come to a decision point and it seems we have only two choices: Either we arrange whatever diplomatic cover we can find and get out of Vietnam, or we give General William C. Westmoreland the 200,000 additional U.S. troops he is asking for, in which case by early 1967 we will have 500,000 Americans on the ground and they will be dying at the rate of 1,000 a month (the top Pentagon bean counter was wrong about that; American combat deaths would top out at over 3,000 a month in 1968). A photo of Rescorla as a grizzled lieutenant in Vietnam, moving forward with bayonet fixed during the horrific 1965 battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, became one of the iconic images of the war. Where you aware at the time that person was suffering from PTSD or was that something that only came to you in hindsight? Although he seemed unwounded he was being medevacd out of the battle. In this interview, Zacharias spoke with Galloway about his war reporting days and his own PTSD. The picture is there and it comes back up again. (AP Photo) They want very much to kill Americans but have not been able to find any.. The enemy columnmen of the newly arriving 8th Battalion of the 66th Regimentstopped 120 yards short of the ambush and took a break. I knew what was in the camera, but when I went to wind back the film, I couldnt. Absolutely. It was a great moment for Americans! After I photographed the Democratic Convention in Chicago, which was very turbulent and contested, I wanted to photograph the future President. What happened there, in the Ia Drang Valley, 17 miles from the nearest red-dirt road at Plei Me and 37 miles from the provincial capital of Pleiku, sounded alarm bells in the Johnson White House and the Pentagon as they tallied the American lossesa stunning butchers bill of 234 men killed and more than 250 wounded in just four days and nights, November 14-17, in two adjacent clearings dubbed Landing Zones X-ray and Albany. But nearly until the end of the U.S. war, if a helicopter or truck had a seat available, they would take you along. Do you all ever talk about those times and the effect of all that upon you? The ARVN II Corps commander knew if he lost the relief force, Pleiku would be left defenseless. In mid-April of 1975, a small group of American journalists were invited to fly into the small provincial capital of Xuan Loc, South Vietnam, 35 miles north of Saigon, by commander Le Minh Dao. It was windy. I thought. Knowlen radioed Stockton at his temporary base at Duc Co Special Forces Camp and begged for reinforcements as fast as possible. However, the American GIs often showed compassion toward the Viet Cong. To honor that commitment, "10%" of the purchase price of every Joe. ART. The worst cases of PTSD are usually confined for treatment in a VA facility. We arent allowed to forget; we arent supposed to forget. Later I realized that I had shot a photo, in the heat of battle, of my childhood friend from the little town of Refugio, Texas. There are submarines, there are mini-submarines, and then there are human torpedoes. you were, are and will remain the looniest twit to ever grace a shrinks office, if you had anything worth taking, I would sue you. ============== I wrapped my cameras in a damp towel and put them in my pack. And. All through that endless night, the PAVN troops combed through the elephant grass searching for their own wounded, and finishing off any wounded Americans they came across. Stockton sent one of his companies of Blues, or infantry, under command of Captain Charles S. Knowlen, to a clearing near that site. Paul SchutzerThe Life Picture Collection/Getty Images. Both enemy regiments withdrew toward the Ia Drang with a brigade of Air Cav troopers dogging their footsteps. Joe GallowayUPI/Getty Images I snapped this photo at [the Battle of la Drang], LZ X-Ray, on Nov. 15, 1965. Raymond DepardonMagnum. He came running towards my foxhole with, his clothes on fire. 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