survivors of ia drang valley

In four days and nights of fighting. He died . "The XO let out a low moan, and his head sank. 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. On February 26, 2007, President George W. Bush presented Crandall with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Ia Drang Valley. Too Tall Ed retired from that job on January 3, 1991. The single, bloodiest day in the Vietnam War. They have two grown children and one still at home. Crandall and Freeman successfully rescued some 70 wounded men. 5 cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. 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. Merchant retired a lieutenant colonel in 1982. Theres certainly politics involved in it, but I do think these guys, as mythological as it turned out to be, were true Cold War believers. 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. He had . 208-263-9534. This was the first major engagement between the United States Army and the North Vietnamese Army. Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. On his chest he wore the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and five Purple Hearts. THORPE, Henry, fifty-eight, commander, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in September 1967, after eight years service, and went home to his native North Carolina. 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. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. He and his wife, Arlene, have three sonsa banker in Sao Paulo, Brazil; a lawyer in Connecticut; and a divinity student in college. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. They have two sons, one an oil-industry consultant, the other an Air Force sergeant who served in the Persian Gulf War. 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. The following day, both battalions were informed of an incoming bomber run on LZ X-Ray, meaning they needed to go elsewhere. 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 helicopter came under intense enemy fire, but they continued to carry out the wounded, even though that wasnt their mission. More than anything else in the world I would like to be back in the Green Machine, he says. Absent was an effective plan for winning over the civilian population caught in the crossfire, said James Willbanks, a Vietnam veteran who is the director of the Department of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He was evacuated, badly wounded, on January 5, 1970, after serving four years, eight months, and ten days in Vietnam. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Shocked and wounded U.S. troops gather at a jungle clearing of South Vietnam's Ia Drang Valley in mid-November 1965, as they wait for an ambulance helicopter. 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. 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. 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. They have three children, daughters Abigail and Alison and a son, Thomas Alexander. It was the longest day I ever experienced in any aircraft, Crandall recalled. 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. He is a captain and the commander of Engine Company Number One. Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. SHADDEN, James Haskell, fifty, mortarman, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, survived half a dozen operations and one year in Army hospitals recovering from the wounds received at LZ Albany. The 430 troops of the 1st Battalion, 1stCavalry Division loaded into helicopters and were dropped into the Ia Drang valley. He is a colonel and the provost marshal of the U.S. Army Forces Command (Forscom) in Atlanta, Georgia. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. Alex Kolyer for MPR News On this Veterans Day,. He is president of his own management-consulting firm and lives in Oklahoma City. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. He and his wife, Pat, live in Avon Park, Florida. Georgia, Sources 1st Cavalry Division Association: 1st Cavalry Division Medal of Honor Recipients. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. 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. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany a few miles away. Of Mrs. Mapsons five brothers, three served in the Army, one made a career in the Air Force, and one is a lawyer. He and his wife, Louise, live in San Antonio, Texas, and Brown plays a round of golf most days. 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. He now lives in Stamford, Connecticut. He tells his audience this to help them understand. One infantry company began the day of Nov. 14 with 110 men. I thought to myself. 1/7 Cavalry lands at LZ X-Ray. I have it here with me today. He lives with his wife and family in Steelville. It was a small football size clearing for the first helicopters to be used in combat. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They have five grown children: sons Steve, Dave, and Greg; and daughters Cecile and Julie. At various times in recent years he has been reported to be either employed or a patient in VA hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets MARUHNICH, John, sixty-two, mortar sergeant, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ X-Ray, retired a sergeant first class in 1974 with twenty-four years service. The battlefield area covered 1,500 square miles of what appeared to be flat rolling terrain dominated by the Chu Pong . 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. In the first major engagement of the war between regular U.S. and North Vietnamese forces, elements of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fight a pitched battle with Communist main . . We . The late Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, author of We Were Soldiers Onceand Young, is said to have closed every speech with the phrase, "Hate the war, love the American warrior." One killed, 15 injured after clashes erupt at Afghan border again December 16, 2022. Of the 500 men present as part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 155 lost their lives, and just 84 were immediately able to return to active duty. Nebraska, 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. By Trevor Arendall, July 9 . 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. Box 159 The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. USA, West Point, He and his wife, Martha, have four children. He studied to be a tool-and-die machinist and worked at that job for several years until the strain of long hours standing on his bad leg severely affected his hip and back. 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. Fred Gilreath of Surgoinsville holds a framed photo of his older brother Luther Gilreath who was killed 50 years ago on the second day of the Battle of Ia Drang, Nov. 15, 1965. He served in both Brazil and El Salvador, was a history instructor at West Point, and served in the Center of Military History for a number of years. Please reset your password. Dillon is a scratch golfer who does his best to get in eighteen holes every day, even if it means a drive downslope to find a course that isnt closed on account of snow in the Colorado winter. 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. Two men - Sgt. I fought for this country and now I own and farm 120 acres of my country. Hal Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th . "I thought I was dying and laid there waiting for death to come. 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. Bob Edwards saying that these were the stripes Paolone earned at LZ X-Ray but never got. By whatever measure, the chaotic, bloody Battle of the Ia Drang Valley set the tone for the rest of war. Fought between November 14th and 18th of 1965, around the hills surrounding the valley of Ia Drang, on the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese attempt one final attack, but are soon overrun and ordered to evacuate the headquarters they took only a few days prior. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. Today he lives in Riverside, Rhode Island, is in the photo business, and is active in veterans affairs. Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. 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. He tried to crawl away and was shot again in the hip. McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. 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. 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. I couldnt grasp it., More from us: Val Kilmer Accidentally Landed Matthew Modine the Starring Role in Full Metal Jacket. Moore lectures at military academies and at several colleges and universities. (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. 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. He is married and the father of two daughters. A system error has occurred. Orange County, Moore considered the outcome a draw. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. He worked an additional fifteen years as a civilian employee at Martin Army Hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia, and retired again in 1990. The North Vietnamese regulars, young men who had been drafted into the military much as the young American men had been, had paid a much higher price to test the newcomers to an old fight: an estimated 3,561 of them had been killed, and thousands more wounded, in the 34-day Ia Drang campaign. After leaving the Army, Braveboy worked as a roofer. Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair Early Ia Drang Valley 1965 KIA group - 2/8 Calavary - LZ Cavalair. Due to a statute of limitations being lifted, Freeman was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 16, 2001. (Black Bart), Charlie Battery aerial rocket artillery commander in the Ia Drang, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1968. 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. He returned to active duty in July 1966, and served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser in Long Binh district. The instructor of that class, Colonel John F. Jeszensky (ret. Towles received a masters degree in history from Kent State in 1989, and is currently working on his doctorate. Next, he was shot in the chest; as he moved around, he was shot again in the leg. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Moore continues to fight, returning home to Julia after a year. I pulled the muscles in that leg so badly yanking it free that I couldnt walk for three months, he said. Charlies foot was pinned in the wrecked cockpit when the white phosphorus target-marking rockets under the wings cooked off. 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. When he retired, Howard moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he works as a consultant in emergency-management planning. Its not so much what we went through as it is knowing what the other guys went through. He retired from the Army as a master sergeant and, in 1988, became the pastor of a church in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. USA, Mendenhall, He retired a colonel in 1982, with twenty-three years service. The Huey was the best helicopter ever made. He was evacuated, via Clark Field, to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. 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 assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. They have a son, who is in college, and a daughter, still in high school. 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. She and her husband live in Annandale, Virginia. Mississippi, There were no further attacks overnight. The idea was that whole battalions could be dropped and complete their mission on the ground, calling in artillery barrages, helicopter support, and bombing sorties (including . The Pleiku Campaign took place from 20 October to 26 . It was a battle between one US division and three NVA regiments. He is senior Army adviser to the 79th Army Reserve Command in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. A Broken Arrow was declared over the radio by the Battalion Forward Air Controller, which meant that an American unit was in imminent danger of being overrun. In his spare time Wal-lenius draws, paints, and does etchings and prints, sometimes of Vietnam War scenes. Edwards is the acting borough manager of Dublin, Pennsylvania; he and his wife, Nancy, live in nearby New Hope. Search above to list available cemeteries. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. At the end of a year only fifteen of the original contingent were still there, Gwin included. 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. When the last of his old friends in the 1st Cavalry and the U.S. Marines rotated home, Galloway also left, vowing never to return. The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. North Vietnamese forces had higher casualty rates, due to the U.S. airstrike and artillery support. I marked off 65 names and thats when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. (Purp), fifty, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, was evacuated to Japan. ROZANSKI, Gordon P. (Rosie), fifty-four, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry S-4 in the Ia Drang, was wounded in both arms, both legs, and the stomach in the Bong Son campaign in early 1966. Began the day of Nov. 14 with 110 men in that leg so badly yanking it FREE that I grasp... A masters degree in history from Kent state in 1989, and can. 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