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. He is married and has two children. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. We lived in tents. After retiring from the Army, Freeman became the northwest area director of aircraft services for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He won a National Magazine Award for his October 29, 1990, cover article on the Ia Drang battles. 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. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. Charlie Company held their position, exemplifying extraordinary heroism and courage. 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. 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. A system error has occurred. Feb 25, 2017. (Photo Credit: US Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) The real life Battle of Ia Drang took place between November 14-19, 1965. Col. Bruce Crandall, Commander ofCompany A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), led the first major division operation of airmobile troops into Landing Zone X-Ray. The men were still in an administrative maneuver, so when the word to halt came they plopped down where they were. 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. 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 battle of Ia Drang was an engagement of the Vietnam War. He did not know at the time that his friend, Don Cornett, had died. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. Moore continues to fight, returning home to Julia after a year. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Roswell, New Mexico, where they run an antiques shop. They are stories that not only serve to maintain our connection with history, but also educate us and force us to confront the good and the bad and learn from it. FESMIRE, John A. 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). The North Vietnamese forces had succeeded in engaging the U.S. forces in very tight quarters. This operation responded to the NVA attack on an American . 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. You've got to be in command and as I was on the way up, with my helmet strapped on, a North Vietnamese soldier in a tree put two bullet holes right through my helmet.". Rescorla kept the battered French Army bugle he captured on the field at Albany; in 1991 he turned it over to the Ia Drang Alumni for use in memorial ceremonies. His dissertation is on the LZ Albany battle. The enemy was so close he could hear them talking and he could see them right in front of him. After three days of fighting, 240 Americans had been killed and another 300 wounded (more troops were brought in in support). 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. "I thought I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come. Galen Bungum, 72, was a soldier in the Vietnam War and fought in the first major battle of the war, the battle of Ia Drang, on November 14, 1965. The fighting continued all day and into the night. Crandall kept his helicopter on the ground in the line of enemy fire, so that four wounded soldiers could be loaded aboard. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. Florence County, The North Vietnamese Army starts with the most flags but to combat this the 7th Cavalry Regiment has superior airpower meaning that the USA can quickly insert and extract players into and out of flags. Although the fighting had ended, the Battle of Ia Drang didnt officially conclude until the next day, as it took two days to collect the bodies. The Air Mobile Division was a new concept. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. He and his wife, Deurice, live in Columbus, Georgia, where he is president of the 1st Cavalry Division Association local chapter and an occasional quail hunter. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. Merchant retired a lieutenant colonel in 1982. He went home to Salinas, California, where he lives with his wife and three sons. Moderate. Search above to list available cemeteries. On November 18, 1965, the US forces were able to gather their dead. On his next flight, three soldiers on his helicopter were killed and three were wounded. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. 2023 Stars and Stripes. But Charlie was back in the air, flying F-4 Phantoms, less than a year later. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. He remained with the medical platoon in Vietnam until July 1966. They didnt discover I was a doctor until the day I was dischargedwhen I had a long talk with them about treating their patients like pieces of meat. He was discharged in November 1966, and wound up in Boston in 1981. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. . BARKER, Robert L., fifty-five, artillery-battery commander in LZ Falcon, served a second tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1969-1970 and later served a third combat tour. JEANETTE, Robert J., fifty, Ghost 4-6, weapons-platoon leader, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, lives in Monsey, New York, a suburb of New York City. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. I ripped off his shirt and there it was: a groove to the right of his spine. We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. A Chicago native, Doc Carrara returned home, changed his specialty to pathology. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. 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. It was a small football size clearing for the first helicopters to be used in combat. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out the enemy troops who attacked one of the bases in the Ia Drang Valley. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. The fighting continued for three hours. 1965, just after the start of the U.S. campaign that led to the Ia Drang Valley. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. 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 and his wife live in Sag Harbor, New York, where they operate a summer season shop that deals in contemporary original art. At 4:00 AM this morning, Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley of the U.S. Army's 1 st Battalion, 7 th Cavalry Regiment, died. Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. 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. It wasnt until Albany was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close. 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. (67 votes) Very easy. He lives in Pleasant Valley, Connecticut, and works in real estate sales and development. "Survivor's guilt is something that most people who have seen combat, seen friends die, deal with almost daily," Lawrence said. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. For the last twenty-two years he has worked for the North Bergen, N.J., fire department. The four day battle in the Ia Drang Valley began on the morning of November 14, 1965 when the 1st battalion of the 7th Cavalry, my sister battalion, landed in a clearing at the foot of Chu Pong Mountain. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. Our town is only ten thousand people and we lost eleven young men from here killed in Vietnam, says Purp. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . He and his wife and their four Saint Bernard dogs live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Bun-gum operated a 161-acre dairy farm until 1988, when he sold his cows and took a job in town. "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. Assigned as the operations officer of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, Diduryk was killed in action on April 24, 1970, in a Huey helicopter at an abandoned fire base near the Cambodian border. How could I forget? 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 American death toll was a shock to President Lyndon Johnson, who immediately dispatched Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to Saigon to find out what was going on. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. By whatever measure, the chaotic, bloody Battle of the Ia Drang Valley set the tone for the rest of war. 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. 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. 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. When I go to the wall, I see Don Cornett's name 58,000 times.'. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh had warned the French, who were trying to restore control over their former protectorate, that you can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. The problem was it had to be applied by a country that was much more willing for it to be applied for the long haul. 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. STOCKTON, John B., seventy, commander, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, retired a colonel in 1967. 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. Nonetheless, this allows a reprieve for Moore and his men to secure the area. He retired from the Army as a staff sergeant in 1976, and now serves in the Alabama National Guard. Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment fought at the former for three days, beginning on November 14. However, theres one part of We Were Soldiers thats different from what really happened: the ending. They saved some 70 soldiers. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. USA, Fort Benning, Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran, serving in the 1st Infantry Division and is a business owner in Priest River. 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. These are survivors of an ambush against U.S. 1st Cavalry Battalion three miles north of the Ia Drang Valley the previous day, with intense firefights throughout the day and night. Today he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City. It was his first real combat; first, he got a round to the side of his neck. Since then he has taught industrial arts, electronics, and mathematics, has flown for the U.S. Forest Service, and for a time was a crop duster pilot. Please reset your password. "When things started it just erupted," Lawrence said. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. Battle of Ia Drang Valley Survivors These men survived the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam from Oct 23, 1965 to Nov 1965. You can always change this later in your Account settings. He spent eighteen months in Army hospitals, and was retired, disabled, in June 1975. They have four children and five grandchildren. He had . He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 with twenty years service, and is now a plastics-plant manager. While Beck survived the ultimately victorious 2-1/2-day fight at Ia Drang, 305 other American soldiers did not. On Nov. 14, 1965, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, loaded onto helicopters and flew to a remote patch of ground in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnams central highlands. He was evacuated, badly wounded, on January 5, 1970, after serving four years, eight months, and ten days in Vietnam. Then he somehow managed to crawl away, saying that he was going to organize the troops. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. Battle of Ia Drang, first major clash between U.S. soldiers and North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. After he flew the men back to base, he knew the soldiers on the ground were running short of ammunition, so he decided to fly back in. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. 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. . 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