Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. 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. He underwent four operations on his shattered hip and then was shipped home for discharge on December 21, 1965, ten days overdue on his two-year hitch and judged fifty percent disabled. Alex Kolyer for MPR News On this Veterans Day,. A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Kennedy was thirty-one years old at the time of his death. He and his wife, Kathie, live on a seventy-acre ranch near Aspen, Colorado, where he owns and operates an outfitting company for fishing and boating trips. The survivors of Landing Zone X-Ray have always had an aura of fame about them. 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. We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. 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. 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. Nebraska, Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. President Johnson Jeanie Hunter in Oskaloosa, Ia on November 24, 1984 and she survives bikinis. There was a problem getting your location. After the Ia Drang, Nye finished his tour with the 8th Engineers and the 1st Cav and volunteered for three more tours in combat with the 5th Special Forces Group. On his next flight, three soldiers on his helicopter were killed and three were wounded. 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. He and his wife live in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the signal for all available American aircraft to converge and provide aid to the American unit. They realized, Yeah, its going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys, Willbanks said. 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. 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. 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.". The film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. A total of 305 soldiers died. Today he is a city bus driver in Houston, Texas. He retired from the Army as a master sergeant and, in 1988, became the pastor of a church in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. Jeanette spent the better part of a year in a military hospital while his shattered leg was repaired. His dissertation is on the LZ Albany battle. It was much bigger than what we had seen before against a much more tenacious enemy, Wiest said of the battle. MCDONALD, George J., fifty-two, mortarman, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left the Army in 1966 and went home to Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he is a commercial fisherman. (67 votes) Very easy. Memoirs and histories written after the event capture it . His last known address was Miami, Florida. The Huey was the best helicopter ever made. PAYNE, D. P. (Pat), fifty, recon-platoon leader, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, served two tours in Vietnam and left the Army as a captain in June 1969. After leaving the Army, Braveboy worked as a roofer. (Joe), fifty, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry and the only man to receive the Medal of Honor, Americas highest decoration for valor, in the Ia Drang campaign, is a colonel and still on active duty after twenty-eight years. 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. 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. 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. 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. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. 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. "To do it you've got to get up. 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. Our town is only ten thousand people and we lost eleven young men from here killed in Vietnam, says Purp. He and his wife, Nell, now are retired and living in Shoal Creek, Alabama. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. 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. By the end of the first day, the 1st BN, 7th Cavalry was reduced to approximately 340 men. MEYER, Edward C. (Shy), sixty-three, 3rd Brigade executive officer in the Ia Drang, retired as Army Chief of Staff, a four-star general, in 1983 after thirty-two years service. LUND, Bill, fifty, who was Myron Diduryks artillery forward observer in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, left Vietnam in March 1966, upon completion of his two-year reserve officer obligation. KOMICH, Leland C., fifty-two, Huey pilot with Bravo Company 229th in X-Ray and Albany, retired a chief warrant officer-4 with more than twenty years service. He retired from the Army as a staff sergeant in 1976, and now serves in the Alabama National Guard. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. Florence County, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Ia Drang Valley Incident. He and his wife live in Sag Harbor, New York, where they operate a summer season shop that deals in contemporary original art. He was medically evacuated the next morning. USA. He was the father of four children, aged twelve through twenty. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. Jim also talks about the failure of leadership. The group is devoted to bringing together the families and friends of men killed in Vietnam. About 80 U.S. soldiers were killed, 124 wounded, in the first two days of the fight. 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. Recalling the aftermath of the fight, he said, Back then Stars and Stripes would carry the casualty reports and I had a red pen and started checking off the names of guys I knew who were listed as KIA. I ask that question every day. . 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. 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. He knew he had to get out of the clearing, so he started pulling himself along the ground using only his arms, when someone grabbed him and dragged him the rest of the way into the trees. Moderate. On the second day, North Vietnamese forces launched a heavy attack including hand-to-hand combat. Her daughter, Camille, was soon joined by a brother, Robert, and a sister, Barbara. He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. Married and the father of three children, Winter works for the Long Island Railroad and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, New York. I didn't do as I should have.". Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. To use this feature, use a newer browser. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. The bulk of the fighting lasted about 6 hours and in that time 2/7 Cav lost 155 killed and 124 wounded. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. PUJALS, Enrique, fifty, platoon leader, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, woke up on an X-ray table first, then on a C-141 ambulance plane, and finally in Ward One at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. Returning home, he single-handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees. Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. 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). The other 58,000 names on that wall are men and women who also had a spouse, or children, they had mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. He and his wife have two college-age children. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. Charlie Hastings moved back home to Tucson after retiring, and he lives there with his wife and children. They were platoon leaders together in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. 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. (Black Bart), Charlie Battery aerial rocket artillery commander in the Ia Drang, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1968. The Battle that changed the war in vietnam Overview A Vietnamese military maxim states: He who controls the Central Highlands controls South Vietnam. We have set your language to He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. ), provided the authors with a copy of Diduryks journal and maps for this book. Diduryk is buried at the Fort Benning cemetery; his widow, Delores, lives in Jacksonville, Florida. He works at Fort Benning, Georgia, evaluating Army Reserve training. Freeman and his wife, Barbara, live in Boise, Idaho. "When things started it just erupted," Lawrence said. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, and is a serious collector of firearms and active in a local shooting club. The largely [North Vietnamese Army] units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.. But the battle's true toll would prove to be the hubris it bred in U.S. commanders. BEAN, Roger, fifty-two, Huey pilot who was wounded in LZ X-Ray, was wounded again in early 1966 in the Bong Son campaign. 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.
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