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. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. They resupplied ammunition, water, and supplies, while evacuating the wounded. By the next morning, only eight were left standing . No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. 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.. He still grows soybeans and corn on the farm in his spare time. He is now an attorney in San Diego, California. "Why did I deserve to live? 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. KENNEDY, Glenn F., first sergeant, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was killed in action on May 6, 1966, during Operation Davy Crockett in the Bong Son plain. KNOWLES, Richard, seventy-five, assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, served a second consecutive tour in Vietnam, commanded the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, and then was commanding general of Task Force Oregon (precursor to the American Division). He wanted to ensure the memories of those who died live on, in particular that of his best friend, Lt. Don Cornett. The XO was going fast. AINSWORTH, Hank, fifty-four, who flew the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav command helicopter in the Ia Drang, retired a chief warrant officer 4 on May 30, 1977, after twenty-two years service. They have a son and two daughters. For a number of years he was a country-and-western band leader and disc jockey. 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. Meyer and his wife, Carol, live in Arlington, Virginia. Married and the father of three children, Winter works for the Long Island Railroad and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, New York. 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. Although it was left out of We Were Soldiers, Albany was no less bloody than X-Ray. 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. Every night I rub a towel over all my scars and see them in the mirror. The two-hour Ia Drang Valley program kicked off the reunion's final day. They died dirty. In the spring of 1992, Frank Henry was posthumously inducted into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame. 208-263-9534. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. They realized, Yeah, its going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys, Willbanks said. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. After two days of intense North Vietnamese attacks and mounting casualties, Moore radioed the code word Broken Arrow, calling for all available aircraft to rescue an American unit about to be overrun. Successful in their mission, the Americans travel back to their landing zone to be taken back to base. 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). By whatever measure, the chaotic, bloody Battle of the Ia Drang Valley set the tone for the rest of war. I think of all those guys killed in action, wounded in action, and their friends, their relatives and all those altered lives. 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. The assault at LZ X-Ray began before noon on 14 November. He spent that night among the dead and wounded. 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. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. Of Mrs. Mapsons five brothers, three served in the Army, one made a career in the Air Force, and one is a lawyer. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. The group is devoted to bringing together the families and friends of men killed in Vietnam. 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. His dissertation is on the LZ Albany battle. He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. PLUMLEY, Basil, seventy-two, the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, retired from the Army as a command sergeant major on December 31, 1974, after thirty-two years, six months, and four days on active duty, and a second tour in Vietnam with the U.S. Cash retired from active duty as a colonel in September of 1992 and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. Johns retired a brigadier general and is now dean of faculty at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Johns, whose two youngest children are in college, does volunteer work and writes for her own pleasure in her spare time. He works for a consulting firm in McLean, Virginia. 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. Fought between November 14th and 18th of 1965, around the hills surrounding the valley of Ia Drang, on the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. Moderate. He spent seven months there while his shattered thigh and legs were repaired. It would remain the U.S. militarys single bloodiest day in Vietnam through the entire war. He was forty-five. Lefebvre earned graduate degrees in secondary school administration and public administration. Being the firstbig units there, we had to make our own camp, no showers for months, World War II C rations to eat, no toilets, just a hole dug in the ground, etc. He is assistant principal of a public high school in the Bronx. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. He retired a colonel in 1982, with twenty-three years service. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major engagement during the Vietnam War, between members of the U.S. Army and the Peoples Army of North Vietnam. He was presented with the Medal of Honor on December 19, 1966, and three years later volunteered for a second tour of duty in Vietnam. FESMIRE, John A. 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. He and his wife have two college-age children. If you yield to it, it will absolutely paralyze you. He was 92 years old. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. That is the theme of Lawrence's book and of his talks. 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. 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. He retired in 1990. He spent more than 14 hours in the air andcompleted a total of 22 flights, most under intense enemy fire. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. We have set your language to He left the Army in 1971 with the rank of captain, returned home to Puerto Rico, and earned a law degree. Russian missile barrage knocks out power and water to Ukrainian cities December 16, 2022. . They have a son, who is in college, and a daughter, still in high school. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. Winkel retired a colonel in 1986, with over thirty-one years of Army service. He and his wife, Theresa, live on a farm in northern Virginia with their sons Lee, fifteen, and Joshua, twelve. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. 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. He earned his masters degree in public administration in 1976 and retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. 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. USA, West Point, BY DAVID A. MAURER. 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. He was in a great deal of pain, so a rifleman named Wilson and I removed his gear as best we could, and I bandaged his wound. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. To use this feature, use a newer browser. She is an active member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, an organization sponsored by the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Together, they flew in supplies, water, and ammunition needed for the troops. "Survivor's guilt is something that most people who have seen combat, seen friends die, deal with almost daily," Lawrence said. After a second career as a consultant to defense industries on the West Coast, he retired again and lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Libby. In addition, they were exhausted from the fight at X-Ray, so it was easy for hundreds of NVA troops to sneak up and launch an attack. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. "The way it was presented, at least from my perspective, was we were making an administrative move to be airlifted out so we wouldn't be in the way of the bombers.". We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. 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. (AP Photo) A wounded American soldier is aided to a helicopter for evacuation from Ia Drang Valley area, near Plei Me, Vietnam, November 18, 1965. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. KINNARD, Harry W. O., seventy-seven, former commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, retired from the Army as a lieutenant general in 1969. USA, Mendenhall, He is a captain and the commander of Engine Company Number One. I fought for this country and now I own and farm 120 acres of my country. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. 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. Lessons in leadership, in the importance of training, in courage, in sacrifice and in loss. 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