He retired a colonel in 1982, with twenty-three years service. 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. Shucart says, It was interesting; they just figured I was another grunt and I didnt tell them different. He and his wife live in St. Charles, a suburb of Chicago. They have four children and three grandchildren. Please try again later. The remainder of the 2nd was left waiting in a communication blackout. I attended every one of those funerals., LEFEBVRE, L. R. (Ray), fifty-nine, commander of Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, spent eighteen months at Martin Army Hospital, Fort Benning, recovering from the wounds he suffered at X-Ray. A North Vietnamese map, captured in 1966, accurately depicts enemy maneuvers and attacks during the Ia Drang campaign. Alex Kolyer for MPR News On this Veterans Day,. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. A high school dropout, he went back to college, earned a B.A., and was working on an M.A. 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. NADAL, Ramon A. The Ia Drang Valley is a map featured in Battlefield Vietnam. Contrary to popular belief, the Battle of Ia Drang started and ended after the famous landings at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran, serving in the 1st Infantry Division and is a business owner in Priest River. It was the most successful ambush against U.S. forces during the course of the entire war. The fighting continued all day and into the night. 5 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. MILLS, Jon, fifty-four, Bruce Crandalls copilot in the Ia Drang, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980. His hands were burned in the escape from the wreckage, and it was doubted that he would ever fly again. "Why did I deserve to live? In the fall of 1965 the Vietnam War was an event most Americans saw as a series of smaller battles leaving little to remember. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large. 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. 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. In 1982, he joined U.S. News & World Report magazine. (67 votes) Very easy. KELLING, George, fifty-four, who ran Charlie Med, the rear-area casualty receiving station during LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1978. It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. 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. DEAL, Dennis, fifty, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in 1968 and returned to his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. How could I forget? He was forty-five. He and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. New York, The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. 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. 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. North Vietnamese forces had higher casualty rates, due to the U.S. airstrike and artillery support. He served another Indochina tour in 1975, planning and helping run the final American air evacuation of Vietnam from a base in Thailand. Easy. 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. BROWN, Thomas W. (Tim), seventy-three, the 3rd Brigade commander in the Ia Drang, retired a brigadier general in 1973, after thirty-plus years of service and a second tour in Vietnam, with two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars from his three wars. Savage and the 22-year-old medic, Sp5. NYE, George (China Joe), demolition-team leader, 8th Engineers, attached to the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in Landing Zone X-Ray, died of an apparent heart attack at age fifty-one on December 8, 1991, at his home in Bangor, Maine. They are representative of the more than three million Americans who served the United States of America in its long and bitter war in Vietnam, representative of those who loved one of the more than 58,000 Americans who died in that war. He earned his masters degree in public administration in 1976 and retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel. In his spare time he camps, climbs, skis, and fishes for trout in the Rockies. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. He is assistant principal of a public high school in the Bronx. Hear Bruces story. The majority of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Lt. Col. Robert McDade, didnt enter the fight until X-Ray had already been relieved by Moore. Some of them had blood on their faces from scratches and from other guys' wounds. "They (the PAVN) were everywhere on our right flank, even in the trees. 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. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. They were unaware that two battalions of fresh PAVN soldiers had been camped out along the Ia Drang River on the other side of the landing zone. It was a small football size clearing for the first helicopters to be used in combat. As the command ship touched down, other NVA soldiers opened up; Myron Diduryk was struck in the stomach in the doorway of the chopper. LZ Albany is essentially two clearings with a large copse of trees in the middle. 2 Ia Drang also served as a test for the U.S. military of its new air mobility tactics. 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. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. Douglas County, He retired from the Army as a master sergeant and, in 1988, became the pastor of a church in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. Photo extracted from U.S. Army motion picture footage from November 1965. 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. The first major American direct fire conflict took place in November of 1965 in the Ia Drang Valley. Linda Carole Mustion has not added any memorials to this virtual cemetery. He teaches physical and earth sciences at Venice High School, Los Angeles, California. He and his wife, Ann, live in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. Crandall continued to fly into and out of the landing zone throughout the day and into the evening. 5 memorials LTC Roger Jay Bartholomew 2 Nov 1932 - 27 Nov 1968 Westlawn-Hillcrest Memorial Park 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. OUELLETTE, Robert, fifty, battalion commanders radio operator in LZ X-Ray, left the Army in August 1966. It was the signal for all available American aircraft to converge and provide aid to the American unit. But I remember thinking that I'm just a lieutenant. Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. Now a senior writer for U.S. News, Galloway recently had one last combat tour. 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. Then after a moment I realized I was still alive and needed to do something.". Advisory Group, Pleiku. Shortly after landing, a U.S. patrol captured an unarmed North Vietnamese deserter who told them that three regiments, roughly an entire division, were hiding in the nearby mountain. He and his wife live in Phoenix, Arizona. Karen works part-time as a freelance designer and helps with her husbands construction and contracting business. 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. His widow, Emma Lee, lives in Austin, Texas. Although survivors had been trickling in during the morning they thought the 2/7th had been annihilated in the fighting at Albany. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. He retired from the Army as a staff sergeant in 1976, and now serves in the Alabama National Guard. By the next morning, only eight were left standing . This was the first and last battle between NVA forces and U.S forces of similar size. Scott and Basil Plumley meet most Fridays over breakfast at a local cafe for spirited discussions of the relative merits of their service, their two 7th Cavalry battalions, and other weighty issues. To replenish his battered forces, the North Vietnamese commander ordered the 2,000 soldiers of his reserve regiment, the 66th, forward from its staging area in Cambodia into the Ia Drang valley. He retired in August 1977, with thirty-two years service. After a North Vietnamese strike against the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, American forces deployed in an effort to destroy the attackers. After Vietnam, Hazen maintained a correspondence with the mother of the young lieutenant who died in his arms. 311 memorials After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. Controlling the central highlands would enable the North Vietnamese to cut the south in two and separate South Vietnams northern cities of Hue and Da Nang from the capital, Saigon, to the south. 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. They had this Learning to be a Teacher program; I tried it and loved it. He wanted the Gulf veterans to have the welcome-home that none of the Vietnam veterans got. I had been assuming that he would get us out of this. MARTIN, John C., fifty-one, rifleman in Lieutenant Sissons platoon detached from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry for duty in X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. from around the world. He is a civilian specialist on NATO affairs for the Defense Department; he and his wife, Sally, live in Bethesda, Maryland. In the end, 79 Americans had been killed, and 121 men were wounded. No one pulled security. With only 700 effective soldiers left of the original 2,200, the 33d Regiment needed help. Search above to list available cemeteries. USA, Scranton, The Troopers of 2/7 Cav relieved their sister unit, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, on Nov. 16, following 1/7 Cav's three day battle with the People's Army of Vietnam near the base of the Chu Pong Massif. 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. 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