Other donors to the fund are readers of the book from across America, Veterans, and supporters of the fund. But the battle's true toll would prove to be the hubris it bred in U.S. commanders. The losses at Ia Drang prompted the North Vietnamese to rethink their plan to confront U.S. forces with large, conventional formations, reverting to hit-and-run attacks where U.S. air and artillery power was less effective. The vision of VVMF is to ensure a society in which all who have served and sacrificed in our nation's Armed Forces are properly honored and receive the recognition they justly deserve. He added a masters degree in Latin American studies to his M.A. He is married and has two children. 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. They died dirty. The Battle of Ia Drang was fought November 14-18, 1965, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975) and was the first major engagement between the US Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. 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. Cash retired from active duty as a colonel in September of 1992 and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, and is a serious collector of firearms and active in a local shooting club. Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. Charlies foot was pinned in the wrecked cockpit when the white phosphorus target-marking rockets under the wings cooked off. He tells his audience this to help them understand. 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. NADAL, Ramon A. 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. No one pulled security. The 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment went toward LZ Columbus, while the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment traveled to LZ Albany, capturing two NVA soldiers on the way. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. The secondary plot follows Julia, who volunteers to deliver telegrams informing families of their loved ones deaths in Vietnam. He is the perennial master of ceremonies at the Ia Drang dinners; he claims he is the only one of the brothers who can get through an entire sentence without using the f-word. He accepted, I won, but he only recently began paying offone bottle at a time. Plumley says, Scott is so tight with a dollar youd think he came out of West Point.. For the last twenty-one years he has been in the tire business. We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. (U.S. Army). RACKSTRAW, Jim, forty-nine, recon-platoon leader, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as a rifle-company commander in the 25th Infantry Division. Lawrence and Cornett were roommates at Infantry Officer Basic School, roommates in jump school and on the ship together that brought them to Vietnam. And it all began early one fall day. ADAMS, Warren, sixty-two, first sergeant, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired in 1968 as the best-educated command sergeant major in the Army. Lessons in leadership, in the importance of training, in courage, in sacrifice and in loss. We were taking an administrative break, guys were taking off their packs and lighting cigarettes and the enemy was less than 100 yards on our right flank and deploying and we couldn't see 'em or hear 'em," he said. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. The plane hit several tombstones and flipped over. (Purp), fifty, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, was evacuated to Japan. His last known address was Miami, Florida. I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmorelands corner. The central highlands had few roads and challenging terrain, making air mobility the only viable mode of transportation. 1965 was the year America took the gloves off in Vietnam, moving from advising and assisting the South Vietnamese military to an active combat role. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. MOORE, H. G. (Hal), now seventy, commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang and served six more months in Vietnam, commanding the 3rd Brigade. I think it also speaks to the depths these guys were into the Cold War reality at the time. Today, Doc Shucart of Landing Zone Albany is the chief of neurosurgery at Tufts University Medical School. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. His friends completed the tree for him and dedicated it to Sergeant China Joe Nye. "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. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . Im not supposed to chop wood or do anything that might cause a lick on that side of my head, but it healed up pretty well so I dont worry much about it, he says. 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. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and owns and operates a real estate brokerage firm. George Nye was a sparkplug of Operation Welcome Home, which brought veterans groups, brass bands, and Bangor townsfolk to the airport by the hundreds to hug and shake hands with the Desert Storm veterans. A native of Mendenhall, Mississippi, Kennedy was thirty-one years old at the time of his death. Army Specialist Four (SP4) Bill Beck was an assistant machine gunner assigned to the 1 st Battalion, 7 th Cavalry Regiment (1/7 Cav), 1 st Cavalry Division on November 14, 1965, when the unit airlifted into Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. In four days and nights of fighting. "I can't even begin to explain it," he said. USA, Scranton, It featured a question-and-answer session with some of the battle's key players, including retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore. Mrs. Mapson is a member of the Columbus chapter of the 1st Cavalry Division Association. He retired in August 1990, and now lives in Peekskill, New York. For information, the 1st Air Cavalry arrived in the fall of 1965, about the same time I did as a member of the 1stInfantry Division. He and his wife and their four Saint Bernard dogs live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He would recover after some physical therapy and return to duty in 1966 to finish his tour. This operation responded to the NVA attack on an American . 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. Throughout the day, he changed helicopters after some were so badly damaged to stay in the air. 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. Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. He returned for a second Vietnam tour as an adviser in IV Corps in August 1968; in the 1970s he earned bachelors and masters degrees. Lefebvre earned graduate degrees in secondary school administration and public administration. The survivors of the Ia Drang on November 14, 1965 to Nov 1965 on Nov. 14 with men. 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. 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. Carrara says, I dont dwell on Vietnam, but now and then I hear something or smell something and flash back to those days. Please reset your password. DUNCAN, Ken, fifty-three, executive officer of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Army in August 1966, and returned to his hometown of Thomaston, Georgia, where he works with a textile-manufacturing company. This resulted in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, a forested area just east of the Chu Pong massif, from 23 October to 20 November. 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. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. SAVAGE, Ernie, forty-eight, the fourth man to inherit command of Lieutenant Henry Herricks 2nd Platoon, the Lost Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray, retired a sergeant first class in 1982 after twenty years active duty. "I thought I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come. . 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. Galen Bungum, left, and Joe F. Mackey, two of the unhurt survivors of Lt. Henry Herrick's Lost Platoon. Rozanski returned to the Ia Drang five times on various intelligence missions and described the place as a cemetery. He was retired, disabled, as a major in the mid-1970s. Nebraska, He spent that night among the dead and wounded. 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. That all would change when the First Cavalry Air Mobile Division flew into the Ia Drang Valley in the central highlands of South Vietnam. They have four children and five grandchildren. Charlie Company took the brunt of the assault. This was the first major engagement between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1stCavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. He died. He and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965. In 1974 he transferred from the infantry to the military police. In January 1991, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf summoned the reporter to his headquarters in Saudi Arabia and said: Im sending you to the commander out here who is most like General Hal Moore, and the division which has the most challenging and dangerous mission in my battle plan. Galloway rode with then-Major General Barry McCaffrey and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on a hair-raising tank charge through the western Iraq desert to the Euphrates River valley. It was fifty-five years ago on November 14, 1965, the First Cavalry Division commanded by Lt. Col. Hal Moore landed in the Ia (pronounced Eye) Drang Valley, South Vietnam. 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. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets Box 159 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. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. The machine gunner was mowing them down. As a student, she worked in a variety of research positions, including as an archivist. He was director of training development at Fort Benning when he retired as a colonel in 1983. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. LOMBARDO, Riccardo, sixty-one, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany and Pop Jekels good buddy, was retired on one hundred percent disability after a serious back injury in 1967, when he was thirty-six. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. I fought for this country and now I own and farm 120 acres of my country. 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. They died hot, hungry and exhausted. 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 Ia Drang Valley is a valley located near Pleiku in Central Highlands of Vietnam. WINKEL, Paul Patton, Jr., sixty, Orange 1 flight leader, Bravo Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion in the Ia Drang, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. PARISH, Willard, fifty-one, mortarman in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who won the Silver Star for his work as a machine gunner in LZ X-Ray, was among the draftees who rotated home in December 1965 for discharge. I couldn't grasp it.". We have set your language to Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. As the fighting around Landing Zone X-Ray subsided, McDades 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to move cross-country to Landing Zone Albany, where it was to be picked up by helicopter and moved to a new location. 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. The outcome convinced the North Vietnamese that they could reduce the threat of U.S. firepower by engaging the Americans at close quarters where U.S. airstrikes would prove risky and then melt away into the jungle or across the border into sanctuaries in Cambodia. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. The Air Mobile Division was a new concept. Purp is married, the father of three daughters, and cuts hair at Gibbs Barber Shop, where he has worked for the last nineteen years. He died less than 100 yards from where his best friend lay wounded. He returned to serve two more tours in Vietnamone with the Special Forces, one with an intelligence agency. Second Lieutenant Walter Joe Marm, Jr., led an attack against a heavily fortified enemy force on November 14, 1965, personally knocking out several positions in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam. 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. Although each survivor's story is unique, . JOHNS, Barbara Geoghegan, fifty, widow of Lieutenant John Lance (Jack) Geoghegan of the 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, killed in action in X-Ray, married Lieutenant Colonel John Johns in 1969. Lawrence, even in his paralyzed state, was able to give some direction to his company. JAKES, Jimmie, Sr., forty-nine, a fire-team leader of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, was wounded in LZ X-Ray, but recovered and returned to complete his tour. LADNER, Theron, fifty, machine gunner with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in X-Ray, lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he owns a nightclub and a stable of Thoroughbred racehorses. When I go to the wall, I see Don Cornett's name 58,000 times.'. It was a small football size clearing for the first helicopters to be used in combat. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. He and Russell Adams are still best friends. LAVENDER, David A. He is married and the father of two children. He then formed a computer-software company. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . Then he somehow managed to crawl away, saying that he was going to organize the troops. Battle of Ia Drang, first major clash between U.S. soldiers and North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. He personally shook the hands of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. He is senior Army adviser to the 79th Army Reserve Command in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. During a 14-hour period, Major Bruce Crandall and Captain Ed Freeman, repeatedly landed their helicopter under intense enemy fire at Landing Zone X-Ray. The Pleiku Campaign took place from 20 October to 26 . 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. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. In Columbus, Georgia, and supporters of the Ia Drang five times on various intelligence missions and the. 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