Interesting site I just browsed into. Having read the book and seen the movie "We were soldiers once and young", I was obviously attracted. Of especially interest is the opportunity to download some actual combat camera footage.
WRT the book / film - I read the book in order to understand the film better, as Col. Hal Moore in the DVD special features claimed this was "a soldier's movie - as it was".
Well, it must have been damn confusing, because the film didn't make a whole lot of sense at times! It was a Mel Gibson effort after all, so enthusiasm sometimes gets in the way of accuracy (witness The Passion), but I still was interested enough to explore further.
The film only tells half the story - after LZ XRay the yanks went onto to LZ Albany and got slaughtered in a classic ambush, and only superior firepower saved the day. This is left out of the film (as it would make it twice as long) but is probably the better lesson.
Reminds me of the battle of the Teutoburger Wald, inspiring the famous cry by Emperor Augustus, "Varus, give me back my legions"
(by the way the traitor was a turncoat general named "Arminius". Hmmm.)
Thursday, August 26, 2004
LZXRAY
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WHEN MR. GALLOWAY IS READY TO PROVE THAT WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG CONTAINS NO FICTION IN A COURT OF LAW, AS OF NOW HE'S AFRAID TO DO ANYTHING, IF HE DOES HIS PHONEY LIFE WILL BE EXPOSED. THE GLOVE HAS BEEN CAST DOWN, MR. GALLOWAY IS A PLAGERIST,LIAR, SOME OF HIS PICTURES OF LZ X-RAY HAVE BEEN ALTERED TO MATCH THE STORY "WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG,"
Joseph L. Galloway didnt rescue Jimmy and the Bronz Star should be taken from him.
Joseph L. Galloway "Jimmy was wearing NYLON Combat Boots", these were never issued to the 1st Cavalry Division when they Deployed to Vietnam in 1965.
So Mr. Galloway anytime you ready to prove We Were Soldiers isnt Fiction, I'm ready to prove that it is.
Persons below were sent E-Mail about Joe Galloway' Plagersim and Fiction.
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Subject: RE: KnightRidder Washington Bureau, Joe Galloway, We Were Soldiers FICTION
Date: 1/7/2004 2:50:14 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: jlanday@krwashington.com
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To: LZXRAY111765@aol.com
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Please dont send me your rubbish anymore. thx
-----Original Message-----
From: LZXRAY111765@aol.com [mailto:LZXRAY111765@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 5:46 PM
To: jlanday@krwashington.com
Subject: KnightRidder Washington Bureau, Joe Galloway, We Were Soldiers FICTION
JONATHAN S. LANDAY
National Security and Intelligence
Jonathan S. Landay, national security and intelligence correspondent, has written about foreign affairs and U.S. defense, intelligence and foreign policies for 15 years. From 1985-94, he covered South Asia and the Balkans for United Press International and then the Christian Science Monitor. He moved to Washington in December 1994 to cover defense and foreign affairs for the Christian Science Monitor and joined Knight Ridder in October 1999. He speaks frequently on national security matters, particularly the Balkans.
E-mail Jonathan at jlanday@krwashington.com
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JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY never served in the military
KnightRidder's Military Consultant.
We Were Soldiers is FICTION
From: lzalbany65@aol.com
Date: 6/13/2003
Time: 3:01:52 AM
Remote Name: 205.188.208.5
Comments
Well you see I was there
in the movie the only thing true is Moore being the first one on X-Ray and the Bugle being picked up at X-Ray and no he was not the last to leave X-Ray he left on the 3rd lift out and came back. the rest is Fiction as was the story X-Ray part.
Moore didnt see Galloway save Nakayama
anytime you or Moore and Galloway want to back up their story in a court of law let me know.
Mr. JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY HAD NO MILITARY SERVICE, Training AT ALL.
Who am I? lzalbany65@aol.com Russell L. Ross 1741 Maysong ct. San Jose, Ca 95131-2727 ph 408 926-9336
Sept 1965-66 SP/4 Russell L. Ross RA17630469 D company 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry Recon Platoon ( LoneRanger call sign ) 1st Cavalry Division Airmobile An Khe Vietnam.
1964 B company 1st Battalion 511 Infantry ( Airborne ) 11 Air Assualt ( test ) FT. Benning, Georgia.
1965 B company 1/511 became B company 2nd Battalion 8th Cavalry ( Airborne ) 1st Cavalry Division Airmobile FT. Benning, Georgia.
And in July 1965 I was sent to the 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry 1st Cavalry Division Airmobile.
JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY ( Rambo The Reporter ) IS NOW SELLING HIS COMBAT PICTURES FROM LANDING ZONE X-RAY. Joseph L. Galloway The Walter Mitty of the war, Rambo the Reporter, A Plagiarist, Fiction writer, and now add fraud.
Galloway brandishes a Swedish K submachinegun at Danang in August 1965. day battle. Joe prior to Xray battle
He is the only civilian to receive a medal from the U.S. Army for valor during the Vietnam War—a Bronze Star with Combat V for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965.
( Even though Moore didnt see him do this he wrote him up for it .added by me )
A veteran of 42 years in journalism with United Press International and U.S. News & World Report, he is coauthor with retired Army Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore of We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young (New York: Random House, 1992).
Galloway—the award-winning newsman and current special consultant to Secretary of State General Colin Powell spoke recently with Fred L. Schultz at U.S. Naval Institute headquarters. STEVE NORTHUP http://www.usni.org/Proceedings/Articles02/PROgalloway02.htm
Why is Joseph L. Galloway altering his combat pictures of Landing Zone X-Ray?? is it becouse they show the truth and not the lies written by Galloway and Moore in their Book We Were Soldiers Once and Young ( The X-Ray part ).
Joseph L. Galloway is altering some of his combat pictures to match the story line in the book, as he now has the equipement to change them.
!!!!!WARNING!!!!! if you buy these pictures, be warned, some of the pictures you see at this web site isnt the orignal pictures.
he has now since changed the ural here is the new ones http://www.weweresoldiers.net/ http://www.weweresoldiers.net/plate2.htm
OLD URAL >> http://www.biggolddog.com/photos.htm
The photographs offered are from the personal collection of Joe Galloway ( Rambo the Reporter ) and were taken at LZ X-Ray during and after the action in the Ia Drang Valley, November 14-16, 1965. The images reflect the savagery of the combat, a feel for the emotions of the soldiers involved and a sense for the terrain in which the battle was fought.
The photographs have never before been published and most have been seen only by a handful of participants in the action. ( Actually some pictures have been published and seen by over 26 million people ) These images will help put a real face on the people, places and events in the upcoming movie, "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young", starring Mel Gibson. A film based on the book of the same name by Lt. Gen. Hal Mooore and Joe.
Ia Drang Scholarship Fund.... As a lasting tribute to the men of the 1st of the 7th Cavalry who gave so much in the Ia Drang, a permanent scholarship fund was established for the children and grandchildren of those who died in action in this heroic event. To honor that commitment, 10% of the purchase price of every Joe Galloway at the Ia Drang photo will be donated to the fund.
Stories Part Fiction he embelished for them. U.S. NEWS and World Report Oct 29,1990 Pg 32 Fatal Victory Pg 36 Vietnam Story.
ARTICLES Galloway Plagarized. U.S. News and World Report Oct 25, 93 Page 45 Step by Step into a Quagmire SOURCE: Stanley Karnows Vietnam a History Pages 479-485.
U.S. News and World Report Feb 4,1991 Page 49 "Who's Afraid of the truth" SOURCE: Soldier of Fortune Dec 84 Pg 104 Press Escorts by Fred Tucker. ( TUCKERS GORRILLAS ).
In the movie Gibson portray Galloway as a Reporter who pick's up a weapon only to protect the wounded. BUT!!! Galloway was the most heavely armed Reporter in Vietnam.
Page 32 Joseph L. Galloway Had wrangled a ride in to the Plie Me camp while it was under siege, and becouse of the shortages of fighters found him self assigned to a .30 cal light machine gun. With two other reporters After the battle was over Major Charles Beckwith hands Galloway an M-16 rifle, Galloway told Beckwith, Strictly speaking, under the Geneva Convention he was "A civilian noncombatant." As you see there is no logic. Galloway has just spent 3 days maning a .30 cal machine gun killing PAVN troops and after the battle is over decides he is a civilian noncombatant?
The question is why didnt Galloway join the service? He was always to busy playing Soldier instead of being a Reporter. He wanted to be at any battle he could get to, to record it, But when he get's there at the battle. He start's to play Soldier. You cant write or record History, While you busy playing soldier.
Of all the reporters in Vietnam, Galloway was the most danegerous to the Americian troops, in His Walter Mitty and Rambo persona. He had no idea what the soldier's job was, He as a reporter and could do what he wanted and go where he wanted to at any time. Joseph L. Galloway( Rambo the Reporter ) ROAMED all over VIETNAM, Killing as he pleased.
Page 35 November 13,1965 Galloway hitched a ride from Pleiku to Catecha the 3 Brigade headquaters Galloway " I dug a foxhole out on the perimeter with B company 1/7, Under one of those $50.00 tea bushes, set out some spare! magazines ( M-16 ).
Galloway playing Soldier, It would have been better if he said I set out some spare film rolls. to record events, his mind set is playing soldier.
Page 32 Galloway writes: " At first lite I pinched of a small piece of C-4 explosive from the emergency supply in my pack and used it to boil up a canteen cup of water for coffee.
Walter Mitty part: If you lit C-4 very carefully you could be drinking hot coffee in maybe 30 secounds. If you were careless it blew your arm off.
If Galloway was so eager to receive the Bronze Star, Then he should be ready to pay the price for violating the UCMJ. Conspiring to take a $500,000 Helicopter and receiving Military equipement, 1 M16 Rifle, 1 Carl Gustaf,
I had to sign for all my equipement as all soldiers did and had to turn it in when I left, Who did Galloway leave the M-16 with, Does he have papers saying he turned it in? The same with the Carl Gustaf, Where did he get it? Did he buy it, Pick it up on the Battlefield? Did he sell it when he left? If he turned it in, Does he have the paper work to show it?
Galloway conspired with a friend ( A Huey Pilot )into flying into Plei Me camp. There were orders for all aircraft to stay out of the area, The friend went AWOL, He and Galloway took the Huey and flew into Plei Me, Beckwith needed, medical, and ammo.
At Plei Me Major Charles Beckwith had put Galloway and 2 other Reporters on a machinegun. and had given Galloway an M-16 Rifle.
MYTH's: Page 156-157 Vincent Cantu and Galloway meet during fierce attack on D and C company's. Galloway was taking pictures. Vincent Cantu braved the fire and sprinted to where Galloway was.
TRUTH: Soldier of Fortune Sept 83 Page 28 Galloway writes "During a ( LULL!!)." I met Vincent Cantu this was before the(skyhawk) naplmed the Command post.
MYTH's: Page 35 Galloway The plantation billed the U.S. $50 for each tea bush and $250 for each rubber tree.
TRUTH: Soldier of Fortune Sept 83 Page 25 Galloway They billed U.S.$25 for each tea bush $125 for each rubber tree.
Galloway only left the saftey of the Command Post During " LULL's " in the Battle, As soon as the firing started up, He would headed right back to the Command post, He only took pictures of the dead and wounded. Where are his action pictures?
Fiction We Were Soldiers Once and Young X-Ray part. page references are from the hardback.
FICTION: Fabarication applies particulary to a false but carefully invented statement or a series of statements, in which some truth is sometimes interwoven, the whole usually intended to deceive.
The Greatest Hero "People everywhere are smitten- With a tale that is written. Once a hero's deeds are known- They're as good as etched in stone. Every word, folks take to heart- And think this makes them very smart. Amazing how the very wise- Never stop to realize- That what they read may not be true. Groo
Moral: Even when the words are true the may not speak the truth Groo
Can you make Col. Klink ( Moore ) and Rambo the Reporter (Galloway ) into hero's pages from the hardback
Lt. Col. Moore was the Col. Klink of the war? He knew nothing, nothing
Page 17 Moore's new concepts & techniques were written in the 1950's FM 57-35 Army Transport Avation-Combat Operations, 1963 FM 57-35 Airmobile Operations. by Officers he worked with? in 1957. Moore in 1957 "I was in on the concept of Airmobility with Gavin, Norton, Seneff Williams". With 2 1/2 years writing, 1 1/2 years training in Airmobile tatics in the 11Air Assault Division Test, for a total of 4 years and yet he retained nothing about Airmobile tatics.
Page 37 Crandall "Moore wanted Aviation present, to be part of his Staff".
Moore, Crandall or his ALO had to coordinate the flight time from Plei Me to X-Ray, flight routes, fire support, resuppy, Medevac Huey.
Moore couldnt plan the operation with out Crandall ( aviation ) present.
Page 60 As Crandall flared the huey to land at Landing Zone X-Ray Moore & his troops starts firing their weapons.
FM 57-35 There is no firing from the helicopter during flight, landing or any other time.
Pity the troop to their right a face full of hot brass, left ear drums ringing, brass on floor or getting caught in the Huey's controls
Moore who had been listening to the battle of Landing Zone Albany on the radio voluntered for the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry to go to Columbus to guard the artillary, So the 2nd Battalion 5th Cavalry could go and reinforce ALBANY.
MYTHS of The Ia Drang Valley Some Officers even Kinnard stated that Moore voluntered to go into ALBANY but he didn’t. and from Persons in the book That Moore and Galloway write good about give in return and adds to the MYTHS about the 1/7 and Moore.
One Reporter Bob Poos of Soldier of Fortune writes that Moore and the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry was the ones who relived the Plie me camp,
Soldier of Fortune March 83 page 29-30 ARVN AMBUSH 3rd column last 2 paragraphs.
Plie Me did get relief- with a vengeance- from the 1st Cavalry Division. Through a strange coincidance, the camp commander, Capt Harold Moore, Learned later that much of the relief force was commanded by a name sake, Lt. Col. Harold Moore commander of the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry.
When in fact it was my old unit the 2nd Battalion 8th Cavalry.
Capt George Forrest when he spoke to the Old Guard said Lt. Col. Moore was there in the 11AAD in 1963.
So starts the myths about Lt. Col. Moore and the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry.
Moore idea would cost time becouse the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry would have to be to Columbus 4 hours, Then the 2nd Battalion 5th Cavalry would have to be flown to Albany another 4 hours. 8 hours to renforce Albany?
So why didn’t Kinnard send the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry to reinforce ALBANY?
They were probally to drunk? they had spent the day of the 17 in the Bars of Pleiku
The most outrageous LIE Page 287 At Landing Zone Albany. There on the dying enemy soldier something shiny. A big battered old French army Bugle.
FACT: This Bugle was captured at Landing Zone X-Ray and brought into Landing Zone Albany by the reinforcements.
Leadership Principle 1 Be Technically and Tactically Proficent To know you job thoroughly, you must posses not only specific knowledge of its details but also a broad general knowledge concerning its area of intrest. you should be competent in combat operations and training as well as in the technical and admimistrative aspects of your duties. If you demonstrate deficincies in these functions,your subordinates will lose confidance in you as a leader.
Moore is under the delusion he has come up with a new Air Assault tatic for the 1st lift would doom his men. for the want of a nail, The 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry. As the Battle of Landing Zone X-Ray would grind up, The Troops, Helicopters and Artillary. Making them unavalible for other units.
Leading to the walk to Landing Zone Albany by the 2/7.
What happend. It would appear Moore would be the first one chosen by Kinnard for the 11 AIr Assault test, When it started up in 1963 but he wasnt.
He had To write a letter to Major General Kinnard ( His Old Boss ) begging for a Infantry Battalion in the 11 air Assault Division.
It wasent till 1964, 1 year after it started he got the call. He didnt get one with the 11 Air Assault but instead was given a Infantry Battalion in the 2 infantry Division. The 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry.
Moore Had never commanded a Infantry Battalion before.
But one of the hand picked officers by Kinnard in 1963 was Lt. Col McDade, He was chosen for the G-1 spot, He would be given command of the 2nd Battilion 7th Cavalry around November 7,1965 aproximately 10 days before the battle of Landing Zone Albany.
McDade Had never Commanded a Infantry Battalion before.
THERE WAS ANOTHER FACTOR, MOORE AND MCDADE WERE HAVING A POWER STRUGGLE.
Keep abreast of current military devolopements. Moore "I thought up a new technique for the inital lift." There are only two types of Air assaults.
Moore under the delusion he had come up with a new technique.
The ground Commander ( Moore ) must concider two general types of Airmobile assault when preparing the ground tatical plan. These types of assaults differ primarily in the proximity of the LZ to the assault objective
The first and preferred type is the landing of the assault ehelons immediately on, or adjacent to, the objective
The secound type of assault involves landing a distance from the objective in a secure LZ, and requires assembly, reorganization, and movement to an attack position prior to the assault on the objective.
What happend to Moore's H-hour.
Moore Get's his H-hour confused with the Attack time in the mission order.
H-hour in air assault terms is difined as the time the lead helicopter touches down on the Landing Zone.
Moore puts the H-hour at H-1030.
He then gets word the Artillary cant fire until H-1017. H-hour get delayed. 1 incremint? ( usually 15 minutes ).
So that should make H-hour, H-1045.
But Moore ( who is in the lead Huey ) dosent set foot on LZ X-Ray until H-1048,
3 minutes late.
Lt. Col. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway's part.( the enlisted mens,Officers, Junior Officers and the 2/5, Bco 2/7 and 2/7 Battalion stories cannot be disputed.)
Moore couldnt READ a MAP? Page 30 November 9, 1965 Moore "What does the RED STAR that is on the intelligence map mean?"
The Red Star is not a military symbol its explanation should have been on the lower right side ( margin ) of the map.
Moore " I had no doubt the 1/7 my Battalion would be chosen to mount the attack into the Ia Drang as the 2/7 had a new commander.
Fact!! " the 1/7 was closer to the objective then the 2/7 " and had nothing to do with the readiness of the Battalions. (Gen.John J Tolson).
Page 17 Moore's new concepts & techniques were written in the 1950's FM 57-35 Army Transport Avation-Combat Operations.1960's FM 57-35 Airmobile Operations.
By Officers he worked with?
Page 17 1957 Moore "I was in on the concept of Airmobility with Pentagon Reasearch and developement group. Moore "I was the 1st man in the Airborne Branch". 4 years writing and training in Airmobile tatics.
Yet Moore retained nothing about Airmobile tatics.
Page 41 Moore "I thought up a new technique for the inital lift".
There are only 2 types of Air assaults This is the 2 one.
Page 37 Crandall "Moore wanted Aviation to be present, to be part of his Staff"
FM 57-35>Both the Ground Commander ( Moore ) and Aviation Commander ( Crandall ) or his ALO had to coordinate>flight time from Plei Me to X-Ray, flight routes,resuppy. Moore couldnt plan the operation with out Avation present.
FM 57-35 Key personnel are distributed among the aircraft of the lift so the loss of one aircraft does not destroy the command structure.
Page 58 Moore and Crandall in the same Huey.
Page 59 The lift is flying at 110 knots.
FM 57-35 When diffrent types of aircraft fly in a single lift, cruising speed of the slower aircraft must be the controlling speed of the lift.
UH-1B's are Gunships fly at 80 knots
UH-1D's are Slicks 110 knots.
I ask Bco's 1/7 3rd Platoon Leader Dennis Deal, why didnt Moore lay on water for his men ( B co would be on the LZ for over 4 hours ) and why he said it was not the Aviations job to haul out Wounded Troops?
B co's 1/7 3rd Platoon Leader Dennis Deal "dont ask me I knew nothing about Airmobile tatics."
Page 106 Moore we needed water, medical supplies and ammo.
Page 107 Bco 1/7 3rd Platoon Leader Dennis Deal by 3pm we ran out of water, the wounded kept begging for water.
Page 145 November 15, 1965 at 6:20am Jemison shared his last drops of water.
Page 112 November 14, 1965 While all day long the Battalion Supply Officer was riding in and out of X-Ray & Galloway came. 240# of water, medical, ammo not coming in, 1 Wounded troop not going out.
Page 106 Moore "hauling Wounded was not the slick crews job" ( Aviation )
FM 7-20 the Battalion Commanders hanbook, Hauling wounded is the secoundary mission of all military aircraft.
Page 63 Moore used his command Huey to haul out a non wounded POW.
Page 167 but none his wounded troops, Lt Franklin terribly wounded was set aside to die.
FM 1-100 Army Aviation The Command and Control Huey is to be used for Command and Control ONLY it shouldnt be used for anyother purpose, like RESUPPLY. .
a Medevac Huey was suppose to fly with the assault echelon ( 1st Lift )
Page 105 a wounded troop was stumbling toward the aid station, Galloway " stay away go back" what was this 17 year old's thoughts 50 feet from the aid station and treatment and told to stay away?
FM 57-35 page 12 paragraph 24 supply 6 miscellaneous. a. probable water supply points are predesingnated. and comes in with the fowllowing echelon.
FM 7-20 page 271 paragraph 313 returning aircraft may be used for the evacuation of casualities.
Galloway had no military service.
COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY no one expects the battalion commander to act as a rifleman no matter how proficient he is.
As he does so.
who commands his battalion?
Who gives guidance to his Company Commanders, he is taking responsibility away from his men and not meeting his own.
Page 34 Moore "I went to school on the Division Commander, authority must be pushed down to the man on the spot.
Page 40 Moore "I personally to influence the action would be in the 1st Huey to land on X-Ray."
Page 60 Moore leading his command group clear a sector of X-Ray, on the way back to the LZ, meet the troops who were suppose to clear that sector.
Page 73 Moore "I was tempted to join A co or C co's company's men"
Page 108 Moore "My operations Officer`& the Avaition Liason Officer had controlled all flights into X-Ray, I then took control, every Huey coming to X-Ray must radio me for landing instructions.
Page 109 Crandall Moore was now a signalman at the far end of the LZ was standing up, directing us where to land.
Page 109 The Brigade Commander had given Moore pathfinders.
Page 195 Moore "I personally lead the final counterattack to make certian that the Company Commander of Bco 2/7 & his men did a safe, clean, job & to look for my Missing Troops.
Moore didnt bring in his execuitive Officer( 2nd in command ) to help run the battalion command post.
Page 39 Moore "we had never maneuvered in combat as a battalion"
Page 28 Moore the Battalion made 2 sweeps near An Khe.
Page 31 nov 9 Moore "We shuttled the Battalion in 16 Hueys"
Page 32 nov 9 Galloway "My first time out with Moores 1/7 Battalion"
Original story Solider of Fortune November 83 Page 25 Nov 9 Galloway "before nitefall Moore waved his battalion across a stream"
Each Huey could carry 10 Troops. 10 troops X 16 Hueys=160 Troops per lift.
Page 30 a enemy base camp
Page 55 a radio transmision intercepted, estamated a N V regiment was near X-Ray
Page 57 commo wire was seen.
Page 39 Moore puts only 80 men (5 per Huey) in the inital lift.
Page 57 riflemen extra ammo all they could carry.
Air Assault tatics emphasize maximum inital lift, to get maximum lift each huey carries minimum amount of fuel + 30 min reserve, with refueling & ammo Points near the Pickup Zone.
Troops only basic load of ammo and web gear (intrenching tool, 2 canteens, bayonet and poncho and 1st aid pack )
Page 40 Moore "later lifts could carry more men 100 as fuel burned off".
Page 198 Rear area Operation Officer Dick Merchant "the Huey could carry 10 men"
Page 111 Winkle"I had a total of 16 men in my Huey".
Fourner "it was left up to each pilot how many men he carried" on later lifts I was carring 9-12 troops.
How it should have happend according to Air Assault Tatics FM 57-35
With only 16 Hueys weight is a factor, so the inital lift ( the assault echelon ) must contain sufficant Troops to secure the Landing Zone. The Alowable Cargo Load the ( ACL ) of each UH-1D for this mission should have been 3,000 pounds as its under 50 nautical miles ( only 14.3 miles to the objective )
using the Space method a space is defined as the weight of a fully combat equiped troop ( 240 pounds ) 10 Troops = 2,400 pounds per Huey.
Page 39 B co 114 troops, A co 40 troops, Ground Commanders command group 6 for a total of 160 troops in the 1st lift.
Moore was a Pilot?
Page 58 Crandall ( The Aviation Commander ) is starting the Huey from the left seat the co-pilot seat, There is no starter on that side.
Page 58 Moore as they load the Hueys "what is the flying time from Plei Me to Landing Zone X-Ray"? 14.3 miles.
Page 37 Moore and Crandall plan an Air Assault.
Page 40 with a time table & failed to put down the flying time from Plei Me to Landing Zone X-Ray, with out this information, How did they plan the Assault???
Page 58 Mills 13 min 15 sec. Page 59 Speed ( rate ) 110 knots this time will take them 25 miles away.
The correct time is 8 min.
Formula for Time is Distance X 60 divide by Rate ( Speed ) 14.3 X 60 = 858 divide by 110 = 7.8 min = 8 min time is rounded up to the nearest min.
Formula for Distance is rate ( Speed ) X time divided by 60 110 X 8 = 880 divide by 60 = 14.6miles = 15miles miles is rounded up to the nearest 1/2 mile.
using 7.8 min for time for the distance 110 X 7.8 = 858 divide by 60 = 14.3 miles The distance from Plei Me to Landing Zone X-Ray.
Page 188 A blazing flare under an unopened parachute hit the ammo dump, the Sgt.Major grabbed it with his bare hands, it burns at 4,000 degrees, it needs the parachute to lite the candle.
Letter from Randy Wallace, the Screenwriter and Director, about the film:
The Wheelhouse 15464 Ventura Boulevard Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-3002
Randall Wallace 7 February 2001
To all men who fought in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965, and their families.
Gentlemen,
As many of you have already heard, we are preparing to make a film version of Hal Moore and Joe Galloway's book WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG.
As you can imagine, this is an enormously ambitious undertaking.
As the prologue of Hal and Joe's landmark book states,
"Hollywood has gotten the story of the Vietnam veteran wrong every damn time, whetting the knives of twisted politics on the bones of our dead brothers."
Well this time we mean to get it right.
This is not to say that any of us making the film are unconcerned with accuracy.
The Disclamer> ( It is not meant to tell the story ) of each individual, ( or to capture the same kind of truth ) a documentary would.
I salute you.
Best regards,
Randall Wallace
1st Cavalry Division as the Division Commander Kinnard had to use the whole of the division resorces to keep Lt. Col. Moore from losing Landing Zone X-Ray.
Kinnard "I violated a lot of priniples about how hard you work your guy's and how many hour's you fly your helicopters."
"I literally flew the Blades off the choppers."
Things wrong with the trailer
Why is Moore shown stepping out of the Huey on the right side at X-Ray? When he was on the left behind Crandall, who was in the co-pilots seat. Page 58 hardback, Page 67 paperback
Moore as they land at X-Ray. as Crandall flared the Huey to land I FIRED burst into the brush to the LEFT, toward the mountian. page 60 hardback, page 69 paperback
Why are there 5 Hueys flying in the formation, when there is supposed to be only 4, in the over head shot there are 6 Hueys.
As they land at X-Ray they are in some type of formation that dosent exist. Page 59 Hardback, Page 68 paperback
The Hueys as they fly to X-Ray are suppose to be in a Heavy left formation, But they are eather in a column, trail formation
COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY No one expects the battalion commander to act as a rifleman no matter how proficient he is, as he does so, who commands his battalion? Who gives guidance to his Company Commanders, he is taking responsibility away from his men and not meeting his own.
"What the hell is the is the colonel doing up here?" Sergeant Thompson ask. page 195 hardback, page 228 paperback
Moore as the battle started " I was tempted to join Nadal's or Edwards men; But I might get pined down and simply become another rifleman." "My duty was to LEAD riflemen." page 73 hardback, page 85 paperback.
Why is Moore shown leading the troops from the 1/7 in the battle for X-Ray, when he didnt, he was in the command post during combat, and only came out during Lull's in the battle. Moore " For almost 8 hours I had been involved in the mimute-to-minute DIRECTION of the battle. Now I wanted to personally walk the perimeter. Just befor dark Sergeant Major Plumley and I broke away from the command post and set out to check the perimeter." page 131 hardback, page 155
the only troops He lead were troops from the B co 2/7 and only the last counter attack on the 16th around noon.
Moore "I personally lead the final counterattack to make certian that the Company Commander Diduryk of Bco 2/7 & his men did a safe, clean, job & to look for my Missing Troops. We killed 27 more and crushed all resistance." Page 195 hardback, page 228 paperback
Moore calles for illumination, and his mortars fire. Moore "No morter fire would be permited especially illumination rounds. I wanted the mortars to hold back their illumination rounds for our last light in the sky in case the air and artillery folk used up all of their flares". page 184 hardback, page 216 paperback
Moore didnt call in the broken arrow code Hasting the FAC did page 149 hardback, page175 paperback
What other troops did Moore gets credit for doing it
Galloway didnt save Jimmy.
Moore and Galloway had been in contact since 1965,
Galloway never told Moore he did it, Moore never ask, never mentioned it to Galloway
.
Why?
Moore didnt see him do it.
Galloway "When I got back to the Command Post Moore was talking to Hastings."
Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander, didn't learn about Galloway's actions
until the two collaborated on ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,''
a best-selling book about the history of the battle published in 1992.
Moore, who retired as a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.
THE BIG LIE
Moore
``There was grazing machine-gun fire going over our heads and he got up in that grazing fire
and ran to that soldier to save him,'' Moore said. ``One of my medics got shot, but Joe kept
going.
Two F-100 accedently dropped Napalm near the command post.
Two troops were caught in the Flames.
-->Galloway said Sniper fire, "I jumped up and ran into the still burning grass to help bring
out the terribly burned men, a Medic jumped up with me, as he ran he was shot in the head,
I'll never understand why the sniper shot him and not me." <--speach Galloway gave 2003 at the
Marines Memorial Assocation
http://www.marineclub.com/we_were_soldiers.pdf
1. Galloway acted with others to help Jimmy and Clark.
Galloway "we" all ran to help" and note "we".<-- from Orignal story
Galloway "Both troops died"<--False statement Clark is alive!
2. Galloway acted with others to tell the wounded troop to stay away, no one went to help
him neither did Galloway, Bronze Star not earned.
Joe "Jimmy was wearing Nylon Combat boots."
All the Pictures Galloway took of the Troops, Shows them wearing Leather Combat
Boots,
Why? The Jungle Boots wernt issued to the 1st Cavalry Division, When we deployed to
Vietnam in 1965.
We had Korean, WW2 combat leather boots, most of the troops went their whole tour with
the leather boots 1 year. me included.
Heros are constant, no matter the danger they still do it.
"Go into the "fire"
Galloway knows and makes a decision, if he goes to help the wounded Troop, He will get
KILLED.
Again Galloway said "everyone yelled at him to go back."
So did Galloway.
Page 105
A wounded troop was stumbling toward the aid station, Galloway " stay away go
back" what was this 17 year old's thoughts 50 feet from the aid station and treatment and
told to stay away?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion
commander,
didn't learn about Galloway's actions until the
two collaborated on
``We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,''
a best-selling book about the history of the battle
published in 1992.
Moore, who retired as a three-star general,
put Galloway in for the award.
``There was grazing machine-gun fire going
over our heads and he got up in that grazing fire
and ran to that soldier to save him,''
Moore said.
``One of my medics got shot,
but Joe kept going.
When the battle was over . . .
I never gave any thought to giving this award to
a civilian.''
Thursday, Jun. 4, 1998
Refugio native awarded Bronze Star
Former UPI reporter tried to save a wounded soldier during the Vietnam War
By STEPHANIE L. JORDAN
Staff Writer
BAYSIDE -- For Refugio native Joe Galloway, reporting the Vietnam War meant getting away from press briefings, safe base camps and clean sheets. He saw the war as the grunts saw it, down in the dirt with the heat, death, blood, fear and valor.
And on Nov. 15, 1965, during the first large-scale battle between American troops and the North Vietnamese Army, Galloway stopped being a United Press International reporter and became a hero.
On May 1, 1998, Galloway -- now a senior writer for U.S. News and World Report -- was awarded a Bronze Star with a ``V'' device for valor for his actions during the battle. Galloway, who divides his time between homes in Bayside and Boston, is the first civilian to be given the award from the Army, said Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg, who presented him with the medal at Fort Bragg, N.C.
``At that time and that place he was a soldier,'' Kellogg said. ``He was a soldier in spirit, he was a soldier in actions and he was a soldier in deeds.''
Galloway was honored for trying to save a wounded soldier during one of the pivotal battles of the Vietnam War, a battle that left 234 Americans dead.
``I know that wasn't my job, but in those days everyone did what they could to survive and help everyone else make it out of there alive,'' Galloway said.
While with troops of the 7th Cavalry's 1st Battalion -- part of the
First Cavalry Division -- fighting in the Central Highlands,
Galloway was in the battalion command post when an American
fighter mistakenly dropped napalm near the position.
Galloway, crouching down to avoid enemy fire, saw PFC Jimmy
Nakayama and Spc.5 James Clark get caught by the flames.
With the help of Sgt. George Nye, Galloway grabbed
Nakayama's feet and carried him to safety.
>>Clark died and, two days later, so did Nakayama.
( CLARK is Alive )
``When I grabbed his feet, his boots just fell off, and I remember
my hands touching raw bones,'' Galloway said. ``We carried him
away and he was screaming.
I can still hear those screams.''
Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander, didn't learn
about Galloway's actions until the two collaborated on ``We
Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,'' a best-selling book about
the history of the battle published in 1992. Moore, who retired as
a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.
``There was grazing machine-gun fire going over our heads and
he got up in that grazing fire and ran to that soldier to save him,''
Moore said. ``One of my medics got shot, but Joe kept going.
When the battle was over . . . I never gave any thought to giving
this award to a civilian.''
For the 17-year-old 1958 Refugio High graduate, just getting to the Ia Drang Valley was a battle.
Galloway, now 56, said he wasn't a great student in high school and was only interested in reading, writing and history. He attended Victoria Junior College for six weeks, but didn't like it because it was too much like high school.
``I was on my way to join the Army when my mom, God bless her, said `But what about your journalism?' '' Galloway said. ``We just so happened to be driving by the Victoria Advocate's office so I stopped in and asked if I could be a reporter.''
After 18 months at the Advocate, Galloway joined UPI. At age 19, he was named bureau chief of UPI's Topeka, Kan., bureau, the youngest bureau chief in the history of the wire service.
``I guess that's because I was a young man in a hurry,'' Galloway said.
During his three years in Topeka, from 1961 to 1964, Galloway began lobbying his bosses to send him to Tokyo, the UPI bureau that covered the growing war in Vietnam.
``I knew this was my generation's war,'' he said. ``Not to have gone would have been much harder to explain than going is.''
He was in Tokyo for six months before going to Vietnam to cover the Marines.
From his first days in-country, Galloway worked hard to get to a firsthand view of the war. Military leaders weren't always pleased to see him.
But his willingness to show up in the field, to live with the troops, won the respect of many soldiers.
One of his early converts was H. Norman Schwarzkopf, then a major, who went on to become a four-star general and command the multinational coalition force that won the Persian Gulf War in 1991. In Vietnam, Galloway hooked up with Schwarzkopf in August 1965 at the Du Co Special Forces camp. Schwarzkopf and his South Vietnamese troops had been under attack for two weeks, and Schwarzkopf had just found out the unit would have to walk out of the area.
Galloway showed up and asked to march out with the troops, Schwarzkopf said in a phone interview.
``I was hot, tired and dirty and had just found out that we had to walk out and the last person I wanted to have around was a fancy-pants reporter,'' Schwarzkopf said. ``But what's different about him is that he really knew how to be at the right place at the right time without being intrusive. He was a friend right away.''
Galloway, Schwarzkopf said, ``is absolutely the finest combat correspondent I've ever known.''
``He truly understands what ground combat is all about,'' he said. ``He wasn't like many of the other war correspondents who wrote their stories from the rear area, or in the bars in Da Nang and Saigon. He lived the life of the grunts.''
At least once, a commander put Galloway behind a weapon.
In October 1965, after hearing that the U.S. Special Forces camp at Plei Me was surrounded and under siege, Galloway finagled his way aboard a helicopter heading that way.
When Galloway arrived at the tiny Plei Me camp, its commander, Maj. Charles Beckwith -- who later founded the Army's Delta Force -- was less than pleased that a reporter had managed to fly in when his troops were in desperate need of food, ammunition and medical supplies.
``He was jumping up and down on his hat when I got there,'' Galloway said. ``He told me he needed everything in the world but a God damn reporter.''
What he did need was someone to man a machine gun, and appointed Galloway to the task. Beckwith's instructions were simple, Galloway said.
``Don't shoot the little brown men inside the wire because they're mine, but shoot all the little brown men outside the wire,'' said Galloway, repeating Beckwith's words.
For four days and nights Galloway stayed on the line with Beckwith's troops. As Galloway was leaving after the battle, Beckwith gave the reporter an M-16 Galloway carried until the war ended in 1975.
``I told (Beckwith) that I wasn't a combatant and he said, `Son, in these mountains there's no such thing,' '' Galloway said.
A few weeks later, and 14 miles away, Galloway would face many of the same North Vietnamese troops who had attacked Plei Me.
On Nov. 14, hours after the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley had begun, Galloway hopped on a helicopter bound for the fighting. He was kicked off because there wasn't enough room. He boarded another helicopter, but Moore ordered it away because it was too dangerous to land.
Galloway was grounded at the rear command post, itching to get to the action, he said.
He hid out overnight at the base camp while other reporters retreated to beds and warm meals. Galloway asked Capt. Gregory Dillon if he could fly with him to the battle.
``He was such a young guy, but was dedicated to covering the war from the bottom end up,'' said Dillon, who retired as a colonel. ``It was pretty hairy there the first couple of days. We used to have an awful lot of reporters come in after the fact, but he was willing to take the same risks as the soldiers.''
They arrived on the morning of the second day of the battle. Galloway had just spoken with Nakayama when an Air Force F-100 Super Sabre dropped the jellied gasoline on the soldiers.
Two days later, Galloway flew out to Pleiku to file his story. For the work he did in Ia Drang, UPI gave him a raise, from $135 per week to $150.
``I had an exclusive in the biggest battle of the war,'' Galloway said. ``All I had to do was survive.''
On his first tour of Vietnam for UPI, Galloway spent 16 months in-country. He would return three times, the last in 1975 as the North Vietnamese headed to their victory.
``A mentor of mine, Dickey Chapelle, who had covered World War II, once told me you can have the best story in the world, but you have to get out and live to file it,'' Galloway said.``War is a great story. There is always room for you on the front page and in many ways it's a simple story. Afterwards, you wonder if you can cover normal life. I mean you wake up one day, when you're 30, and realize you have more friends dead than alive.''
Galloway lived in Asia for a total of 12 years before transferring to UPI's Moscow bureau. Later, he moved to UPI's Los Angeles bureau as its chief. In 1982, Galloway went to work for U.S. News & World Report, eventually going to work for the magazine in Washington, D.C.
But in 1992, Galloway would go into battle again, this time with tanks and armor roaring across the Iraqi desert. As he did in Vietnam, Galloway reported the war from the sharp end.
Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Galloway looked up his old friend H. Norman Schwarzkopf, now commanding the coalition forces. Galloway wanted to return to the First Cav, Schwarzkopf said, but the general knew where the real action would be.
``We argued about it because I wanted him to go on the 24th Mech (Infantry Division),'' Schwarzkopf said. ``I'm sure all the way there he was cursing me under his breath thinking that I wanted to give some press coverage to the 24th.''
But Galloway soon found out that the 24th was one of the armor units assigned to the charge across the desert in an end-run around heavily fortified Kuwait.
Since Galloway had been briefed on the plan, he was able to interview combat leaders before the battle, he said. The ground war started on a Monday, ended on Thursday, and Galloway's story was due on Friday.
Galloway had survived another war.
Joe Galloway still covers the military, but the men he met in Vietnam -- some of whom never returned home -- are never far from his mind. Galloway often gives talks on military bases, and reminds the men and women in uniform of the unspoken bond that unites a fighting force.
``I remind the soldiers that when they leave (the military) it will be the last day that the man on their left and the man on their right will die for them,'' Galloway said. ``Back when I started uncommon valor was a common virtue. It was during that time when I made some of the best and closest friends of my life.''
http://www.ranger25.com/honor_among_soldiers.htm
Where Galloway gets the Idea to say he saved Jimmy
Hal Moore and I began our research for the book-to-
be, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, in 1982.
It was a ten-year journey to find and ultimately to bring
back together as many of those who fought in LZ Xray
and LZ Albany, a separate battle one day after ours
only three miles away in which another 155 young
Americans died and another 130 were wounded. We
had good addresses for perhaps no more than a
dozen veterans, but we mailed out a questionnaire to
them to begin the process.
Late one night a week later my phone rang a
t home in Los Angeles.
On the other end was Sgt. George Nye, retired and
living very quietly by choice in his home state of
Maine.
George began talking and it was almost stream of
consciousness.
>>He had held it inside him for so long and now
someone wanted to know about it.
He described taking his small team of engineer
demolitions men into X-Ray to blow down some trees
and clear a safer landing zone for the helicopters.
Then he was talking about PFC Jimmy D. Nakayama,
one of those engineer soldiers, and how a misplaced
napalm strike engulfed Nakayama in the roaring
flames.
>>How he ran out into the fire and screamed at
another man to grab Jimmy’s feet and help carry him
to the aid station.
>>My blood ran cold and the hair stood up on the
back of my neck.
>>I had been that man on the other end of Nakayama.
>>I had grabbed his ankles and felt the boots
crumble, the skin peel, and those slick bones in my
hands.
Again I heard Nakayama’s screams.
Honor Among Soldiers -By Joseph L. Galloway
If you have fed from a steady diet of Hollywood movies about Vietnam you probably believe that everyone who wore a uniform in America’s long, sad involvement in war in Vietnam is some sort of a clone of Lt. William Calley---that all three million of them were drug-crazed killers and rapists who rampaged across the pastoral landscape.
Those movies got it wrong, until now. There is one more Hollywood film now playing called We Were Soldiers and it gets it right. Ask any Vietnam veteran who has gone to see the movie. In fact, ask any American who has gone to see it. It is based on a book I wrote with my lifelong friend Lt. Gen. (ret) Hal Moore; a book written precisely because we believed that a false impression of those soldiers had taken root in the country which sent them to war and, in the end, turned its back on both the war and the warriors.
I did four tours in Vietnam as a war correspondent for United Press International---1965-66, 1971, 1973 and 1975. In the first three of those tours at war I spent most of my time in the field with the troops and I came to know and respect them and even love them, though most folks might find the words “war” and “love” in the same sentence unsettling if not odd.
In fact, I am far more comfortable in the company of those once-young soldiers today than with any other group except my own family. They are my comrades-in-arms, the best friends of my life and if ever I were to shout “help!” they would stampede to my aid in a heartbeat. They come from all walks of life; they are black, white, Hispanic, native American, Asian; they are fiercely loyal, dead honest, entirely generous of their time and money. They are my brothers and they did none of the things Oliver Stone or Francis Ford Coppola would have you believe all of them did.
>>>False statement by Galloway, original story
Soldier of Fortune
Galloway during a LULL, I met Cantu>>
On the worst day of my life, in the middle of the worst
battle of the Vietnam War, in a place called Landing
Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, I was
walking around snapping some photographs when I
caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.
( Cantu deserting his post MORTAR POSITION
during an attack on the Battalion, Cantu was the
Gunner.)
It was a tall, lanky GI who jumped out of a mortar pit
and ran, zig-zagging under fire, toward me.
He dove under the little bush I was crouched behind.
“Joe! Joe Galloway!
Don’t you know me, man?
It’s Vince Cantu from Refugio, Texas!”
Vince Cantu and I had graduated together from Refugio High School, Class of ’59, 55 boys and girls. We embraced warmly. Then he shouted over the din of gunfire: “Joe, you got to get down and stay down. It’s dangerous out here. Men are dying all around.”
Vince told me that he had only ten days left on his tour of duty as a draftee soldier in the 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). “If I live through this I will be home in Refugio for Christmas.” I asked Vince to please visit my mom and dad, but not tell them too much about where we had met and under what circumstances. I still have an old photograph from that Christmas visit---Vince wearing one of those black satin Vietnam jackets, with his daughter on his knee, sitting with my mom and dad in their living room.
Vince Cantu and I are still best friends.
When I walked out and got on a Huey helicopter leaving Landing Zone X-Ray I left knowing that 80 young Americans had laid down their lives so that I and others might survive. Another 124 had been terribly wounded and were on their way to hospitals in Japan or the United States. I left with both a sense of my place, among them, and an obligation to tell their stories to any who would listen. I knew that I had been among men of honor and decency and courage, and anyone who believes otherwise needs to look in his own heart and weigh himself.
In 1982 Hal Moore and I began our research for the
book-to-be, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, in
1982.
It was a ten-year journey to find and ultimately to bring
back together as many of those who fought in LZ Xray
and LZ Albany, a separate battle one day after ours
only three miles away in which another 155 young
Americans died and another 130 were wounded.
We had good addresses for perhaps no more than a
dozen veterans, but we mailed out a questionnaire to
them to begin the process.
Late one night a week later my phone rang at home in
Los Angeles.
On the other end was Sgt. George Nye, retired and
living very quietly by choice in his home state of
Maine.
George began talking and it was almost stream of
consciousness.
He had held it inside him for so long and now
someone wanted to know about it.
He described taking his small team of engineer
demolitions men into XRay to blow down some trees
and clear a safer landing zone for the helicopters.
Then he was talking about PFC Jimmy D. Nakayama,
one of those engineer soldiers, and how a misplaced
napalm strike engulfed Nakayama in the roaring
flames.
How he ran out into the fire and screamed at another
man to grab Jimmy’s feet and help carry him to the
aid station.
My blood ran cold and the hair stood up on the back
of my neck.
I had been that man on the other end of Nakayama.
I had grabbed his ankles and felt the boots crumble,
the skin peel, and those slick bones in my hands.
Again I heard Nakayama’s screams.
By then we were both weeping.
I knew Nakayama had died a day or two later in an
Army hospital.
Nye told me that Jimmy’s wife had given birth to a baby girl the day he died---and that when Nye returned to base camp at An Khe he found a letter on his desk. He had encouraged Nakayama to apply for a slot at Officer Candidate School. The letter approved that application and contained orders for Nakayama to return immediately to Ft. Benning, Ga., to enter that course.
George Nye is gone now. But I want you to know what he did with the last months of his life. He lived in Bangor, Maine, The year was 1991 and in the fall plane after plane loaded with American soldiers headed home from the Persian Gulf War stopped there to refuel. It was their first sight of home. George and some other local volunteers organized a welcome at that desolate airport. They provided coffee, snacks and the warm “Welcome home, soldier” that no one ever offered George and the millions of other Vietnam veterans. George had gone out to the airport to decorate a Christmas tree for those soldiers on the day he died.
When we think of ourselves we think Shakespeare, Henry IV, Act IV, Scene 3:
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.”
Honor and decency and uncommon courage were common among these soldiers and all the soldiers who served in Vietnam. I think of how they were, on patrol, moving through jungle or rice paddies. Nervous, on edge, trying to watch right, left, ahead, behind, all at once. A friend once described it as something like looking at a tree full of owls. They were alert for sign, sound or smell of the enemy. But they also watched each other closely. At the first sign of the oppressive heat and exhaustion getting to someone the two or three guys around would relieve him of some or all of the heavy burden that the Infantryman bears: 60 or 70 pounds of stuff. Rifle and magazines. A claymore mine or two. A couple of radio batteries. Cans of C-Rations. Spare socks. Maybe a book. All that rides in the soldier’s pack. They would make it easier for him to keep going. They took care of each other, because in this situation each other was all they had.
When I would pitch up to spend a day or two or three with such an outfit I was, at first, an object of some curiosity. Sooner or later a break would be called and everyone would flop down in the shade, drink some water, break out a C-Ration or a cigarette. The GI next to me would ask: What you doing out here? I would explain that I was a reporter. “You mean you are a civilian? You don’t HAVE to be here?” Yes. “Man, they must pay you loads of money to do this.” And I would explain that, no, unfortunately I worked for UPI, the cheapest news agency in the world. “Then you are just plain crazy, man.” Once I was pigeonholed, all was all right. The grunts understood “crazy” like no one else I ever met. The welcome was warm, friendly and open. I was probably the only civilian they would ever see in the field; I was a sign that someone, anyone, outside the Big Green Machine cared how they lived and how they died.
It didn’t take very long before I truly did come to care. They were, in my view, the best of their entire generation. When their number came up in the draft they didn’t run and hide in Canada. They didn’t turn up for their physical wearing pantyhose or full of this chemical or that drug which they hoped would fail them. Like their fathers before them they raised their right hand and took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is not their fault that the war they were sent to fight was not one that the political leadership in Washington had any intention of winning. It is not their fault that 58,200 of them died, their lives squandered because Lyndon Johnson and, later, Richard Nixon could not figure out some decent way to cut our losses and leave the Vietnamese to sort the matter out among themselves.
As I have grown older, and so have they, and first the book and now the movie have come to pass I am often asked: Doesn’t this close the loop for you? Doesn’t this mean you can rest easier? The answer is no, I can’t. To my dying day I WILL remember and honor those who died, some in my arms. I WILL remember and honor those who lived and came home carrying memories and scars that only their brothers can share and understand.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/special_packages/they_were_soldiers/2765842.htm
LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM
Posted on Sun, Mar. 03, 2002
Specialist 5th Class Paul Clark, demolitions specialist, 8th Engineer Battalion
Paul Clark, the son of a coal miner from Boomer, N.C., was a newlywed when he received orders to go to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1965.
His main job in 'Nam would be to clear away trees, brush and anything else that would prove to be an obstacle to the landing of helicopters.
As for combat, Clark, then 24 years old, knew when to fire his rifle and when to keep his head down. Which he did during the first day of fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray.
But on the second day...
"We could hear the plane (an F-100); I could see the canister being released from the wing. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there."
Clark, an Army veteran of six years at the time, and his pal, PFC Jimmy Nakayama, tried to outrun the spreading napalm.
They weren't fast enough.
The "friendly fire" killed Nakayama two days shy of his 23rd birthday.
The napalm engulfed Clark, leaving him with severe burns over much of his body.
It took skilled surgeons 10 years to rebuild his face.
His wife didn't even recognize him when she saw him at the burn unit at the San Antonio hospital.
I had one uncle in the Army and two in the Navy and I don't know why, but I always liked the Army better.
I went to basic at Fort Knox, Ky. After a battery of tests decided what specialty I was suited for. I got into engineering. I spent six months there with the 54th Engineers. After that I went to Germany for five years, all at the same base. Then got orders to Fort Benning, 11th Air Assault.
I'd heard stories about the South. When I first got here, I didn't even go out downtown. I would catch a flight on weekends and go home, to New York, where my family is. Then one weekend, some guys, since I had a car, asked me to carry them downtown. They stayed and stayed and stayed. So I went in to find out what they were doing. That's when I fell in love with Columbus. There's a lot of women. I'm young, single... that made me fall in love with Columbus.
Columbus was out in front when it came to integration in the '60s. It was because of the military post.
'We're the ones who went in first'
In Germany, for instance, we were taught how to blow up bridges, certain bridges should be blown if something happens.
A few of the explosives we dealt with were C-4, Flex X, land mines and, of course, dynamite. The land mines, you have to be real familiar with them.
With the 11th Air Assault, our job was to blow bridges and clear helipads. Sometimes we'd use explosives to clear out the trees; other times, chain saws. It all depended on how much time we had. Our job was to clear.
We're the ones who went in first. We had to be there to clear things out before they bring the infantry in. Our secondary mission is to reorganize as infantry.
At the time, I wasn't supposed to be going to Vietnam because I had been out of the country for five years. I'd been told I'd be shipped to Fort Campbell (Ky.), to the 101st, since I was Airborne. I got married, and found out then I was going to Vietnam anyway.
I got married with the idea I would be going to Kentucky. There was nothing my wife could say.
We went by bus to Hunter Air Force Base (in Savannah) and flew out of there on C-130s with stops in California, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and then, Vietnam.
It was blistering hot. Of course, it had been hot here; it may have been worse here than there because of the humidity. After a while, you get used to the heat.
The 8th went to An Khe. We were part of the division (1st Cav). We had people from all the units in the 1st Cav as advance party. To lay out they had their areas picked out. Each unit would come in and all of us would go in and clean it out so they could bring the helicopters in.
My job was clearing, cutting trees, moving dirt and bushes and things, getting them out of the way. It was 30 days before the main body got there.
Most of us had C rations. We liked it better than the regular food.
We weren't allowed to go into the town until the VC were cleared out of there. You never went into town without your weapon.
'Go to pieces or do your job'
One or two Viet Cong regulars were captured when we landed (at LZ X-Ray on Nov. 14). I'm not sure what was said when they were interrogated. But we moved on. Then all hell broke loose. That's the only way to describe it.
We knew it was a "hot" LZ. We were among the first to arrive at the landing zone. If they needed an LZ cleared, then Col. Moore would direct us to do it. We went right along with the rest of them -- we all had weapons, we were just like an infantry platoon. I also had C-4 on me.
The first shots came about 15-20 minutes after we landed. That was the first time I'd ever been shot at.
You've been trained to react when you're fired upon. I think that's the first thing that happens. Then it finally sets in that somebody is trying to kill you. You can go either way -- go to pieces or do your job. I chose to do my job. That will keep you alive.
We followed Colonel Moore's group after landing. We went through bamboo, into the wood line. That's when we got hit. We knew we'd run into some pretty good fighting. But nobody knew right then that we'd run into one of the largest, best-equipped North Vietnamese units there.
I think our guys were ready for a fight. We were more alert.
People were getting killed and wounded. Col. Moore's group was using a large ant hill as cover. There was a dry stream bed that a lot of us used as cover. It ran a long way.
If we could get to them, we would try to pull the wounded back into this dry stream bed where they wouldn't get any further harm. This went on and on and on... air strikes, artillery barrages...
'We could hear the plane'
The next morning is when I got hit. With napalm.
Napalm burns, liquid fire. As long as it can get oxygen, it burns. I was familiar with napalm. Only the U.S. had napalm. The enemy didn't even have airplanes.
It's designed to clear out areas and kill people.
I was in the dry stream bed that morning. We had just pulled some soldiers back who had been wounded. We were on our way back when it hit us.
We could hear the plane... I could see the canister being released from the wing. I knew what it was. It was silver. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running, trying to get away from it. It took just a matter of seconds to explode. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there.
A lot of us began running in different directions. Nakayama and I were running together. It gets on your body and just sticks. It's like a jelly, hot.
I knew what had happened right away. One of the other soldiers took his fatigue jacket off and put it over me to smother the fire. You had to cut the oxygen off to stop the burning.
The fire really got me from the waist up, but the main portion got me in the head and shoulders.
Arms? Just spots. My hands were completely burned. My head, shoulders, that's what took the brunt of the attack.
My whole scalp. My eyes, nose, mouths, ears... have all been rebuilt. It was all burned off.
'Your mind takes over'
I think once something this bad happens to you, your mind takes over. The mind is a wonder mechanism. It blocks out part of the pain. So a lot of things you don't know that you did.
My eyelids were rebuilt. My whole face was rebuilt.
But I did not lose my sight. That was a miracle.
I was pretty alert during that time. One of the people told me not to go to sleep, not to close my eyes. This stayed with me until I got to Brook (Army Medical Center in San Antonio). The doctor there said if I'd ever gone to sleep I would never have woke up.
I didn't see my face until... they don't have mirrors in the ward... I got to where I could walk around and I went down to another ward, went into the bathroom and I saw my face then. I was shocked.
I don't know if I cried.
I was somewhat bitter at first. But that wore off after a while. My mother and all my family... as long as it didn't bother them, I didn't care about it.
I think I got the best of care after I got back to the U.S. I was in a hospital eight months. I was a newlywed. My wife was able to visit with me almost immediately. My mother and her traveled together. My wife was 24 at the time. We're still married.
Some of the guys, after I was out of the hospital, from the engineers I used to run with at Fort Benning, came to visit. About four of them came through and spent about 10 days with me.
'I know he felt bad'
Plastic surgery went on for about 10 years, off and on. Rebuilding my face took the longest. They'd do a little bit and have to wait until it took hold, or start back growing or get life in it. My ears, this was cut, it started down here on my neck. They made a tube. To get blood circulating in it, they would move it and walk it up beside my head, then attach my ear. It took a while. My ears probably took the longest.
Every once in a while I look at some of the old pictures of myself and say "they didn't do a bad job at all." I never saw any of the pictures of myself before they put me in the hospital.
I probably would like to see exactly what they looked like.
It doesn't really bother me that I was the victim of "friendly fire."
They had a big investigation here at Fort Benning after I started work. Some Air Force people here. They asked me if I thought it was deliberate. I think they were going to hang the officer who dropped it. They knew who it was.
"No, I don't think it was deliberate. Maybe he saw something on the ground we didn't see."
I think it was an accident. They didn't prosecute the pilot. The general who headed the investigation told me I probably saved one of his better officers. I never met the pilot, never talked to him. I know he felt bad.
'In my own time, I'll tell him'
I have one son, 26 years old. He works in Atlanta, in telecommunications.
He never wanted to be in the Army. I asked him when he was very small if he wanted to go into the service.
He said: "No, daddy." I never approached him about it again.
He never asked me about my time in Vietnam, or the accident.
In my own time, I'll tell him about it.
My wife knew it was my job. I was doing what I was paid to do.
When I went back on active duty, I taught in the Infantry School. Taught demolition, how to stop tanks with different things when you don't have any weapons.
I hadn't talked to anyone about Vietnam in 30-something years until I talked to you the last time. I had a drinking problem. I thought it would help. But after you wake up, you have the same problem. The problem never goes away. But finally I went to talk to a psychiatrist. And I prayed. And I haven't had a drink for over a year. The problem had lasted a long time.
I drank to forget the nightmares. That day and other things I saw during my tour.
I'm 61, and I feel a lot better about myself.
hey were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.
Copyright Joe Galloway
Posted on Sun, Mar. 03, 2002
Specialist 5th Class Paul Clark, demolitions specialist, 8th Engineer Battalion
Paul Clark, the son of a coal miner from Boomer, N.C., was a newlywed when he received orders to go to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1965.
His main job in 'Nam would be to clear away trees, brush and anything else that would prove to be an obstacle to the landing of helicopters.
As for combat, Clark, then 24 years old, knew when to fire his rifle and when to keep his head down. Which he did during the first day of fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray.
But on the second day...
"We could hear the plane (an F-100); I could see the canister being released from the wing. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there."
Clark, an Army veteran of six years at the time, and his pal, PFC Jimmy Nakayama, tried to outrun the spreading napalm.
They weren't fast enough.
The "friendly fire" killed Nakayama two days shy of his 23rd birthday.
The napalm engulfed Clark, leaving him with severe burns over much of his body.
It took skilled surgeons 10 years to rebuild his face.
His wife didn't even recognize him when she saw him at the burn unit at the San Antonio hospital.
I had one uncle in the Army and two in the Navy and I don't know why, but I always liked the Army better.
I went to basic at Fort Knox, Ky. After a battery of tests decided what specialty I was suited for. I got into engineering. I spent six months there with the 54th Engineers. After that I went to Germany for five years, all at the same base. Then got orders to Fort Benning, 11th Air Assault.
I'd heard stories about the South. When I first got here, I didn't even go out downtown. I would catch a flight on weekends and go home, to New York, where my family is. Then one weekend, some guys, since I had a car, asked me to carry them downtown. They stayed and stayed and stayed. So I went in to find out what they were doing. That's when I fell in love with Columbus. There's a lot of women. I'm young, single... that made me fall in love with Columbus.
Columbus was out in front when it came to integration in the '60s. It was because of the military post.
'We're the ones who went in first'
In Germany, for instance, we were taught how to blow up bridges, certain bridges should be blown if something happens.
A few of the explosives we dealt with were C-4, Flex X, land mines and, of course, dynamite. The land mines, you have to be real familiar with them.
With the 11th Air Assault, our job was to blow bridges and clear helipads. Sometimes we'd use explosives to clear out the trees; other times, chain saws. It all depended on how much time we had. Our job was to clear.
We're the ones who went in first. We had to be there to clear things out before they bring the infantry in. Our secondary mission is to reorganize as infantry.
At the time, I wasn't supposed to be going to Vietnam because I had been out of the country for five years. I'd been told I'd be shipped to Fort Campbell (Ky.), to the 101st, since I was Airborne. I got married, and found out then I was going to Vietnam anyway.
I got married with the idea I would be going to Kentucky. There was nothing my wife could say.
We went by bus to Hunter Air Force Base (in Savannah) and flew out of there on C-130s with stops in California, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and then, Vietnam.
It was blistering hot. Of course, it had been hot here; it may have been worse here than there because of the humidity. After a while, you get used to the heat.
The 8th went to An Khe. We were part of the division (1st Cav). We had people from all the units in the 1st Cav as advance party. To lay out they had their areas picked out. Each unit would come in and all of us would go in and clean it out so they could bring the helicopters in.
My job was clearing, cutting trees, moving dirt and bushes and things, getting them out of the way. It was 30 days before the main body got there.
Most of us had C rations. We liked it better than the regular food.
We weren't allowed to go into the town until the VC were cleared out of there. You never went into town without your weapon.
'Go to pieces or do your job'
One or two Viet Cong regulars were captured when we landed (at LZ X-Ray on Nov. 14). I'm not sure what was said when they were interrogated. But we moved on. Then all hell broke loose. That's the only way to describe it.
We knew it was a "hot" LZ. We were among the first to arrive at the landing zone. If they needed an LZ cleared, then Col. Moore would direct us to do it. We went right along with the rest of them -- we all had weapons, we were just like an infantry platoon. I also had C-4 on me.
The first shots came about 15-20 minutes after we landed. That was the first time I'd ever been shot at.
You've been trained to react when you're fired upon. I think that's the first thing that happens. Then it finally sets in that somebody is trying to kill you. You can go either way -- go to pieces or do your job. I chose to do my job. That will keep you alive.
We followed Colonel Moore's group after landing. We went through bamboo, into the wood line. That's when we got hit. We knew we'd run into some pretty good fighting. But nobody knew right then that we'd run into one of the largest, best-equipped North Vietnamese units there.
I think our guys were ready for a fight. We were more alert.
People were getting killed and wounded. Col. Moore's group was using a large ant hill as cover. There was a dry stream bed that a lot of us used as cover. It ran a long way.
If we could get to them, we would try to pull the wounded back into this dry stream bed where they wouldn't get any further harm. This went on and on and on... air strikes, artillery barrages...
'We could hear the plane'
The next morning is when I got hit. With napalm.
Napalm burns, liquid fire. As long as it can get oxygen, it burns. I was familiar with napalm. Only the U.S. had napalm. The enemy didn't even have airplanes.
It's designed to clear out areas and kill people.
I was in the dry stream bed that morning. We had just pulled some soldiers back who had been wounded. We were on our way back when it hit us.
We could hear the plane... I could see the canister being released from the wing. I knew what it was. It was silver. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running, trying to get away from it. It took just a matter of seconds to explode. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there.
A lot of us began running in different directions. Nakayama and I were running together. It gets on your body and just sticks. It's like a jelly, hot.
I knew what had happened right away. One of the other soldiers took his fatigue jacket off and put it over me to smother the fire. You had to cut the oxygen off to stop the burning.
The fire really got me from the waist up, but the main portion got me in the head and shoulders.
Arms? Just spots. My hands were completely burned. My head, shoulders, that's what took the brunt of the attack.
My whole scalp. My eyes, nose, mouths, ears... have all been rebuilt. It was all burned off.
'Your mind takes over'
I think once something this bad happens to you, your mind takes over. The mind is a wonder mechanism. It blocks out part of the pain. So a lot of things you don't know that you did.
My eyelids were rebuilt. My whole face was rebuilt.
But I did not lose my sight. That was a miracle.
I was pretty alert during that time. One of the people told me not to go to sleep, not to close my eyes. This stayed with me until I got to Brook (Army Medical Center in San Antonio). The doctor there said if I'd ever gone to sleep I would never have woke up.
I didn't see my face until... they don't have mirrors in the ward... I got to where I could walk around and I went down to another ward, went into the bathroom and I saw my face then. I was shocked.
I don't know if I cried.
I was somewhat bitter at first. But that wore off after a while. My mother and all my family... as long as it didn't bother them, I didn't care about it.
I think I got the best of care after I got back to the U.S. I was in a hospital eight months. I was a newlywed. My wife was able to visit with me almost immediately. My mother and her traveled together. My wife was 24 at the time. We're still married.
Some of the guys, after I was out of the hospital, from the engineers I used to run with at Fort Benning, came to visit. About four of them came through and spent about 10 days with me.
'I know he felt bad'
Plastic surgery went on for about 10 years, off and on. Rebuilding my face took the longest. They'd do a little bit and have to wait until it took hold, or start back growing or get life in it. My ears, this was cut, it started down here on my neck. They made a tube. To get blood circulating in it, they would move it and walk it up beside my head, then attach my ear. It took a while. My ears probably took the longest.
Every once in a while I look at some of the old pictures of myself and say "they didn't do a bad job at all." I never saw any of the pictures of myself before they put me in the hospital.
I probably would like to see exactly what they looked like.
It doesn't really bother me that I was the victim of "friendly fire."
They had a big investigation here at Fort Benning after I started work. Some Air Force people here. They asked me if I thought it was deliberate. I think they were going to hang the officer who dropped it. They knew who it was.
"No, I don't think it was deliberate. Maybe he saw something on the ground we didn't see."
I think it was an accident. They didn't prosecute the pilot. The general who headed the investigation told me I probably saved one of his better officers. I never met the pilot, never talked to him. I know he felt bad.
'In my own time, I'll tell him'
I have one son, 26 years old. He works in Atlanta, in telecommunications.
He never wanted to be in the Army. I asked him when he was very small if he wanted to go into the service.
He said: "No, daddy." I never approached him about it again.
He never asked me about my time in Vietnam, or the accident.
In my own time, I'll tell him about it.
My wife knew it was my job. I was doing what I was paid to do.
When I went back on active duty, I taught in the Infantry School. Taught demolition, how to stop tanks with different things when you don't have any weapons.
I hadn't talked to anyone about Vietnam in 30-something years until I talked to you the last time. I had a drinking problem. I thought it would help. But after you wake up, you have the same problem. The problem never goes away. But finally I went to talk to a psychiatrist. And I prayed. And I haven't had a drink for over a year. The problem had lasted a long time.
I drank to forget the nightmares. That day and other things I saw during my tour.
I'm 61, and I feel a lot better about myself.
Please lay off such cross-postings on this blog. Take your issues elsewhere.
I fell happy enough with what has been out to leave it.
But any mmore and it will just have to go!
(and put in your name and website so I can see what you're really on about, apart from the equivalent of letter-box stuffing" on this site)
Strange that you a church going educator isnt interested in learning the truth. it your blog
your blog on Xray has been receving quite a few hits since I posted.
Who am I? lzalbany65@aol.com Russell L. Ross 1741 Maysong ct. San Jose, Ca 95131-2727 ph 408 926-9336
please deleat this post as you write some thing about lzxray how can this be a crosspost? it is about lzxray.
Stephen said...
Please lay off such cross-postings on this blog. Take your issues elsewhere.
I fell happy enough with what has been out to leave it.
But any mmore and it will just have to go!
(and put in your name and website so I can see what you're really on about, apart from the equivalent of letter-box stuffing" on this site)
12:29 PM
Stephen
Gender: male
Industry: Education
Occupation: Educator
Location: Brisbane : Queensland : Australia
About Me
Work: Queensland Government
Church: Uniting Church of Australia
Hobbies: Australian Army Reserve
Father McKenzie
Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
FatherMcKenzie is the name of the blog,
not the people who write it!
We like talking about religion,
We like talking about politics,
We like talking about law,
We like talking about government,
We like talking about the military, <--------?
We like talking popular culture,
We like talking science fiction and
anything else that comes to mind! <-----?
BUT Stephen said...
>>Please lay off such cross-postings on this blog.<<
>>Take your issues elsewhere.<<
I fell happy enough with what has been out to leave it.
But any mmore and it will just have to go!
( and put in your name and website so I can see what you're really on about, apart from the
equivalent of letter-box stuffing" on this site )
12:29 PM
Stephen
Gender: male
Industry: Education
Occupation: Educator
Location: Brisbane : Queensland : Australia
About Me
Work: Queensland Government
Church: Uniting Church of Australia
Hobbies: Australian Army Reserve
Thursday, August 26, 2004
LZXRAY << The topic by stephen
Interesting site I just browsed into.
Having read the book and seen the movie
"We were soldiers once and young",
I was obviously attracted.
Of especially interest is the opportunity to download some actual combat camera footage.
WRT the book / film - I read the book in order to understand the film better,
as Col. Hal Moore in the DVD special features claimed this was "a soldier's movie - as it
was".
Well,
it must have been damn confusing,
because the film didn't make a whole lot of sense at times!
It was a Mel Gibson effort after all,
so enthusiasm sometimes gets in the way of accuracy (witness The Passion),
but I still was interested enough to explore further.
The film only tells half the story - after LZ XRay the yanks went onto to LZ Albany and got
slaughtered in a classic ambush,
and only superior firepower saved the day.
This is left out of the film (as it would make it twice as long) but is probably the better lesson.
Reminds me of the battle of the Teutoburger Wald, inspiring the famous cry by Emperor
Augustus, "Varus, give me back my legions"
(by the way the traitor was a turncoat general named "Arminius". Hmmm.)
At 4:51 PM, Anonymous said...
The comment
WHEN MR. GALLOWAY IS READY TO PROVE THAT
WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG
CONTAINS NO FICTION IN A COURT OF LAW,
AS OF NOW HE'S AFRAID TO DO ANYTHING,
IF HE DOES HIS PHONEY LIFE WILL BE EXPOSED.
THE GLOVE HAS BEEN CAST DOWN,
MR. GALLOWAY IS A PLAGERIST,
LIAR,
SOME OF HIS PICTURES OF LZ X-RAY HAVE BEEN ALTERED TO MATCH THE
STORY "WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE AND YOUNG,"
Joseph L. Galloway didnt rescue Jimmy and the Bronz Star should be taken from
him.
Joseph L. Galloway "Jimmy was wearing NYLON Combat Boots",
these were never issued to the 1st Cavalry Division when they Deployed to Vietnam
in 1965.
So Mr. Galloway anytime you ready to prove We Were Soldiers isnt Fiction, I'm ready to
prove that it is.
Persons below were sent E-Mail about Joe Galloway' Plagersim and Fiction.
The Book by Hal G. Moore and Joe Galloway is Fiction.
The Book is X-Ray part is 50%.
The Movie is 95% Fiction.
No Albany wasent an Ambush.
sorry that you belive a christan, Moore would lie in
the Book and movie
.as you dowloaded some of the combat footage
Moore lied and said that the 292 was tied in a tree page 171-172
http://www.lzxray.com/combat_camera_cp.htm
if you look at the footage below you will notice that the 292 is in the normal
position on the ground NOT tied in a tree. another lie by Moore a christian, the pole is
is the object in the lower left of the picture near the white object, at the end of th clip
you will notice the troop on the right lifting his left hand palm up shoulder height, it is
to lift the guyer of the 292.
Posted April 5, 1999
Wounded being brought to the Aid Station at the CP right after the C Company fight on the morning of November 15. (711KB)
Posted May 9, 1999
Wounded being brought to the Aid Station at the CP right after the C Company fight on the morning of November 15. (723KB)
Fire power didnt save us. remember the Artillary was down as was the Hueys.
McDade While he is reorganizing his unit for a perimeter defence at the new
location, Landing Zone Albany
They have a meeting engagement with the enemy who were on the way to attack
another unit.
The ability of an infantry soldier to fight is directly related to the load he is required to
carry.
Excessive loads cost soldiers their energy and agility.
Soldiers carrying excessive loads are at a disadvantage when they must react to
enemy contact.
Physical training does not compensate for overloading.
But the 2/7 over came this, the troops reacted to this contact, The training they had
recived payed off, the enemy payed the price.
At Landing Zone Albany 75% of the enemy killed was by rifle and machine gun fire
only 25% were killed by Artillary and Tac Air.
268 weapons were taken
At Landing Zone X-Ray these figures were reversed
25% were killed by Rifle and machinegun fire and 75% were by Artillary and Tac Air
241 weapons were taken
From Delta Forces by Col. Charlie A Beckwith,USA (Ret) and Donald Knox
Strange Beckwith of Delta Forces lead's two company's in "A SINGLE FILE" to get
to the Plei Me camp, when it was surrounded by the PAVN. in October.
Page 65
Beckwith "We continued to move through the jungle in a single file.
The column streched out.
Lt. Col. McDade then gets crucified for having his Battalion in a column formation.
Which was appropriate formation for the terrain the Battalion was moving through.
Moore gives the enemy get credit for stopping the column when the column has all ready
stopped?
1. Cross-postings = have been posted originally somewhere else and are not original to this blog, whether they appear as webpages or comments elsewhere they are still "cross posts"
2. I am interested in the person responsible for the crossposts. The posts themseleves are very detailed. How a about a summary or precis like the one you found and re-posted about me (again, that counts as a cross post but I'll let that go through to the keeper)?
3. No need to keep sending the same message again and again. Just because I do not write immediately does not mean I did not see it the first time.
4. Better to paste in URL's - then I can look it up at my leisure and see the article in context.
5. I am not saying I disagree with your content - only your way of presenting it to me. Give me a chance to soak it up. I hardly expected Mel Gibson to make a movie whih shows him in a bad light. Or anyone who writes a book to show they are not absolute legends. For a good comparison of differing (MILITARY) points of view, read Any McNab's "Bravo two Zero" followed closely by Chris Ryan's "The One That Got away".
6. Recall Alex Haley's famous quote, "History is written by the winners."
pounding a keyboard in silent fury at Father McKenzie will not change a thing. I'm not saying I don't care, only I do not have any power and influnece over public perception on LZ X-Ray. If you think it is erroneous, just say so, give me a 100 word summary of the facts, and a nice URL to link to. The essence of good blogging, is in my opinion, its brevity.
sorry, I see the mistake I made was to tell you didnt know what you were talking about, being you are an educator and in you teacher mode, if you had posted your requriments for posting on your blog at the start, I woundnt have posted
Fiction in We Were Soldiers The Movie
What book of We were Soldiers Once and you do you have?
I would like to use the Paperback Harper Tourch with Mel Gibson on the cover, But I have
most all of the other books, Hardback and paper< I dont have the one that is all white and
has red black title. Tell me what book you have ok? and we can use that as a reference.
1. The French Mobile 100 was never in the Ia Drang Valley.
road 14 was the closest they came <<--. Ref. map Bernard Fall’s Street Without Joy
page187, The campains of Mobile Group 100.
>>The North's commander, Gen. Chu Huy Man, withdrew
toward the Ia Drang, a sanctuary so far from any road that no
enemy had ever dared penetrate it. Galloway U.S. News and World Report 10-29-90
Vietnam Story. << This is the story I told Galloway was Fiction.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/soldiers/vietnam_901029.htm
Page 10 We Were Soldiers Once and young bottom paragraph, Moore" Mans Base camp,
a historic sanctuary so far from any road that neither the French nor the South Vietnamese
risk penetrating it in the proceding 20 years."
Off to the right of Route 19, on a barren hill, stood a monument and a small,
empty cemetery full of markers bearing the names and ranks of an entire
regiment of France’s finest, Groupe Mobile 100, proud veterans of the war in
Korea.
As their column drove across the Man Yang Pass between An Khe and Pleiku
in 1954, they were ambushed by Viet Minh guerrillas.
They all died on that lonely highway, and with them died the last hope of
French victory in Indochina.
Galloway wrote the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young, with Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, who commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry during the battle of Ia Drang in November, 1965. In the book, Moore describes a visit to the French cemetery:
Shortly after we arrived in Vietnam, Sergeant Major Plumley and
I took a jeep and a shotgun guard and drove ten miles west of
An Khe on Route 19, into no-man’s-land, to the PK 15 marker
post.
There, the Viet Minh had destroyed most of the French Group
Mobile 100 in a deadly ambush eleven years earlier.
We walked the battleground, where a bullet-pocked six-foot-high
stone obelisk declares in French and Vietnamese: “Here on
June 24, 1954, soldiers of France and Vietnam died for their
countries.”
In my hand was Bernard Fall’s Street Without Joy, which
describes the battle.
Plumley and I walked the battleground for two hours.
Bone fragments, parts of weapons and vehicles, web gear and
shell fragments and casings still littered the ground.
From that visit I took away one lesson:
Death is the price you pay for underestimating this tenacious
enemy.
2. Start of the movie the Ambush of French Mobile 100.
The French were out gunned, Wallach has given the Viet-Minh the latest in
Russian weapons, AK-47s and SKS's, They execute the Frenchman with an
SKS, a weapon they didnt have in 1945, Wallace should have given the Viet-
Minh the same weapons as the French, WW2 American, French, Japanese
weapons.
Fiction> Kinnard at the pentagon 1963," I know a well liked light Col. for the job".
Fact>> Moore didnt get there till June 1964.
Kinnard had been given the opportunity to handpick a few men he knew personally or by
reputation, and he called in a dozen. Ref-> Air Assault by John R. Galvin page 281
one of the hand picked officers by Kinnard in 1963 was Lt. Col McDade, He wears the
11Air Assault patch on his left sleve, means he was assigned.
http://www.lzxray.com/mcdade.htm <--picture of McDade note 11AAD patch left sleeve
He was chosen for the G-1 spot, He would be given command of the 2nd Battilion 7th
Cavalry around November 7,1965 aproximately 10 days before the battle of Landing Zone
Albany.
McDade Had never Commanded a Infantry Battalion before.
THERE WAS ANOTHER FACTOR, MOORE AND MCDADE WERE HAVING A POWER
STRUGGLE.
Becouse McDade was one of the chosenones,not Moore.
It would appear Moore would be the first one chosen by Kinnard for the 11 Air Assault test,
When it started up in 1963 but he wasnt.
Moore had To write a letter to Major General Kinnard ( His Old Boss ) page 27 We were
soldiers >>begging for a Infantry Battalion in the 11 Air Assault Division.
It wasent till 1964, 1 year after it started Moore got the call.
Most likley he wouldnt have been called at all, but they needed another Battalion to test
Division tatics,as there was no 3 Brigade in the 11 Air Assault.
He didnt get one with the 11 Air Assault, but instead was given a Infantry Battalion in the
2 Infantry Division.
The 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry.
They were then attached to the 11AirAssault test.< Fiction Moore "we were assigned to the
11Air Assault". page 27 We were Soldiers.
Moore and his unit wore their 11AirAssault patches on their right shirt pockets, not on their
left sleeve of their uniform.
Moore Had never commanded a Infantry Battalion before. and Moore didnt go to Battalion
Commander school. page 27 We were Soldiers
Fiction moore and his Family are going to Ft. Benning in a car ( like the movie Blue Sky )
Fact they the family stayed at nearby Auburn, Alabama 200 miles away. We were Soldiers page 27
Moore is unloading his brand new History books.
Edwards is talking to Tom Metsker.
Moore and Edwards didn meet Tom Metsker till 1965 in Vietnam.
We were Soldiers page 40.
Moore looks up to see Crandall, Flying at tree top level over dependent housing.
The Military dosent allow training over dependent housing, what would happen if one of them crashed into military housing?
not to say anything about the noise.
Moore is telling Crandall he is his solution and is going to be in his new unit The Air Cav,
as if Moore had the authority to do so. Like Kinnard did.
Crandall I Have no choic?
Moore No.
Edwards and Metsker looking at the mini gun.
Metsker was in Vietnam. page 40
the Mini Gun wasnt used as armement at that time.
Moore is talking to his officers,
Shows him,Plumely and most of his Officers wearing the 11AirAssault Badge,
on their right shirt pocket " befor"! they even start training in Airmobile tatics.
Did you get you High School diploma befor you started High school?
some are wearing the 11AirAssault patch.
Implying that the 1/7 was a Unit that had Hueys organic to that unit. like the 1/9th.
the 2/23 was only attached to the 11 Air Assault.
Moore would have to ask for huey support.
Moore didnt know Crandall was his supporting him till the 13th. page 51
Crandall "In November we got the call to go up to Pleiku and support the Infantry battalions
in the Plei Me area.
We flew a few missions of little consequence on the first couple of days.
Then I was called to an operation briefing with Col. Brown, LTC Moore and their staffs.
http://xav8er.promotionarts.com/pilotkeynote.html
Joe Galloway in 2 diffrent places at the same time 1700hrs Nov.14,1965 40k apart
Joe Galloway KNIGHTRIDDERS military consultants FICTION EXPOSED
From Soldiers the Offical U.S. Army Magazine
An Author's Quest Story By Helke Hasenauer about Joe Galloway.page 33
ph 1-703-806-4486 soldiers Magazine
march 2002 vol 57 no3
Joe Galloway stated that Clark DIED soon after the incident.
as he gave that interview he wrote in March 03. 2002 for LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM
(Cloumbus Ga.)newspaper a KNIGHTRIDDER newspaper,
ABOUT CLARK sirvived the Naplam attack and his road to healing. date MARCH 03 2002
1. Corpus Christ Caller Times thur. June 4 1998
By STEPHANIE L. JORDAN Staff Writer Joe Galloway "CLARK DIED"
2. LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM Posted on >Sun, Mar. 03, 2002< BY Joe Galloway
3. From Soldiers the Offical U.S. Army Magazine
An Author's Quest Story By Helke Hasenauer about Joe Galloway.page 33
note the Irony Soldiers issue is -March 2002- Galloway "Clark DIED".
FICTION: Fabarication applies particulary to a false but carefully invented statement or a
series of statements, in which some truth is sometimes interwoven, the whole usually
intended to deceive.
The Greatest Hero
"People everywhere are smitten- With a tale that is written.
Once a hero's deeds are known- They're as good as etched in
stone. Every word, folks take to heart- And think this makes
them very smart. Amazing how the very wise- Never stop to
realize- That what they read may not be true.
Groo Moral:
Even when the words are true the may not speak the truth. Groo
LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM
Posted on Sun, March. 03, 2002 Joe Galloway writes how Clark survived the napalm attack
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/special_packages/they_were_soldiers/2765842.htm after I pointed theis out that Clark was alive they took it down
LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM
Posted on Sun, Mar. 03, 2002 BY Joe Galloway
Specialist 5th Class Paul Clark, demolitions specialist, 8th Engineer BattalionPaul Clark, the son of a coal miner from Boomer, N.C., was a newlywed when he received orders to go to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1965.
His main job in 'Nam would be to clear away trees, brush and anything else that would prove to be an obstacle to the landing of helicopters.
As for combat, Clark, then 24 years old, knew when to fire his rifle and when to keep his head down. Which he did during the first day of fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray.
But on the second day...
"We could hear the plane (an F-100); I could see the canister being released from the wing.
I had a pretty good idea where it would hit.
That's why we started running.
It wasn't supposed to be dropped there."
Clark, an Army veteran of six years at the time, and his pal, PFC Jimmy Nakayama, tried to
outrun the spreading napalm.
They weren't fast enough.
The "friendly fire" killed Nakayama two days shy of his 23rd birthday.
The napalm engulfed Clark, leaving him with severe burns over much of his body.
It took skilled surgeons 10 years to rebuild his face.
His wife didn't even recognize him when she saw him at the burn unit at the San Antonio
hospital.
I had one uncle in the Army and two in the Navy and I don't know why, but I always liked the Army better.
I went to basic at Fort Knox, Ky. After a battery of tests decided what specialty I was suited for. I got into engineering. I spent six months there with the 54th Engineers. After that I went to Germany for five years, all at the same base. Then got orders to Fort Benning, 11th Air Assault.
I'd heard stories about the South. When I first got here, I didn't even go out downtown. I would catch a flight on weekends and go home, to New York, where my family is. Then one weekend, some guys, since I had a car, asked me to carry them downtown. They stayed and stayed and stayed. So I went in to find out what they were doing. That's when I fell in love with Columbus. There's a lot of women. I'm young, single... that made me fall in love with Columbus.
Columbus was out in front when it came to integration in the '60s. It was because of the military post.
'We're the ones who went in first'
In Germany, for instance, we were taught how to blow up bridges, certain bridges should be blown if something happens.
A few of the explosives we dealt with were C-4, Flex X, land mines and, of course, dynamite. The land mines, you have to be real familiar with them.
With the 11th Air Assault, our job was to blow bridges and clear helipads. Sometimes we'd use explosives to clear out the trees; other times, chain saws. It all depended on how much time we had. Our job was to clear.
We're the ones who went in first. We had to be there to clear things out before they bring the infantry in. Our secondary mission is to reorganize as infantry.
At the time, I wasn't supposed to be going to Vietnam because I had been out of the country for five years. I'd been told I'd be shipped to Fort Campbell (Ky.), to the 101st, since I was Airborne. I got married, and found out then I was going to Vietnam anyway.
I got married with the idea I would be going to Kentucky. There was nothing my wife could say.
We went by bus to Hunter Air Force Base (in Savannah) and flew out of there on C-130s with stops in California, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and then, Vietnam.
It was blistering hot. Of course, it had been hot here; it may have been worse here than there because of the humidity. After a while, you get used to the heat.
The 8th went to An Khe. We were part of the division (1st Cav). We had people from all the units in the 1st Cav as advance party. To lay out they had their areas picked out. Each unit would come in and all of us would go in and clean it out so they could bring the helicopters in.
My job was clearing, cutting trees, moving dirt and bushes and things, getting them out of the way. It was 30 days before the main body got there.
Most of us had C rations. We liked it better than the regular food.
We weren't allowed to go into the town until the VC were cleared out of there. You never went into town without your weapon.
'Go to pieces or do your job'
One or two Viet Cong regulars were captured when we landed (at LZ X-Ray on Nov. 14). I'm not sure what was said when they were interrogated. But we moved on. Then all hell broke loose. That's the only way to describe it.
We knew it was a "hot" LZ. We were among the first to arrive at the landing zone. If they needed an LZ cleared, then Col. Moore would direct us to do it. We went right along with the rest of them -- we all had weapons, we were just like an infantry platoon. I also had C-4 on me.
The first shots came about 15-20 minutes after we landed. That was the first time I'd ever been shot at.
You've been trained to react when you're fired upon. I think that's the first thing that happens. Then it finally sets in that somebody is trying to kill you. You can go either way -- go to pieces or do your job. I chose to do my job. That will keep you alive.
We followed Colonel Moore's group after landing. We went through bamboo, into the wood line. That's when we got hit. We knew we'd run into some pretty good fighting. But nobody knew right then that we'd run into one of the largest, best-equipped North Vietnamese units there.
I think our guys were ready for a fight. We were more alert.
People were getting killed and wounded. Col. Moore's group was using a large ant hill as cover. There was a dry stream bed that a lot of us used as cover. It ran a long way.
If we could get to them, we would try to pull the wounded back into this dry stream bed where they wouldn't get any further harm. This went on and on and on... air strikes, artillery barrages...
'We could hear the plane'
The next morning is when I got hit. With napalm.
Napalm burns, liquid fire. As long as it can get oxygen, it burns. I was familiar with napalm. Only the U.S. had napalm. The enemy didn't even have airplanes.
It's designed to clear out areas and kill people.
I was in the dry stream bed that morning. We had just pulled some soldiers back who had been wounded. We were on our way back when it hit us.
We could hear the plane... I could see the canister being released from the wing. I knew what it was. It was silver. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running, trying to get away from it. It took just a matter of seconds to explode. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there.
A lot of us began running in different directions. Nakayama and I were running together. It gets on your body and just sticks. It's like a jelly, hot.
I knew what had happened right away. One of the other soldiers took his fatigue jacket off and put it over me to smother the fire. You had to cut the oxygen off to stop the burning.
The fire really got me from the waist up, but the main portion got me in the head and shoulders.
Arms? Just spots. My hands were completely burned. My head, shoulders, that's what took the brunt of the attack.
My whole scalp. My eyes, nose, mouths, ears... have all been rebuilt. It was all burned off.
'Your mind takes over'
I think once something this bad happens to you, your mind takes over. The mind is a wonder mechanism. It blocks out part of the pain. So a lot of things you don't know that you did.
My eyelids were rebuilt. My whole face was rebuilt.
But I did not lose my sight. That was a miracle.
I was pretty alert during that time. One of the people told me not to go to sleep, not to close my eyes. This stayed with me until I got to Brook (Army Medical Center in San Antonio). The doctor there said if I'd ever gone to sleep I would never have woke up.
I didn't see my face until... they don't have mirrors in the ward... I got to where I could walk around and I went down to another ward, went into the bathroom and I saw my face then. I was shocked.
I don't know if I cried.
I was somewhat bitter at first. But that wore off after a while. My mother and all my family... as long as it didn't bother them, I didn't care about it.
I think I got the best of care after I got back to the U.S. I was in a hospital eight months. I was a newlywed. My wife was able to visit with me almost immediately. My mother and her traveled together. My wife was 24 at the time. We're still married.
Some of the guys, after I was out of the hospital, from the engineers I used to run with at Fort Benning, came to visit. About four of them came through and spent about 10 days with me.
'I know he felt bad'
Plastic surgery went on for about 10 years, off and on. Rebuilding my face took the longest. They'd do a little bit and have to wait until it took hold, or start back growing or get life in it. My ears, this was cut, it started down here on my neck. They made a tube. To get blood circulating in it, they would move it and walk it up beside my head, then attach my ear. It took a while. My ears probably took the longest.
Every once in a while I look at some of the old pictures of myself and say "they didn't do a bad job at all." I never saw any of the pictures of myself before they put me in the hospital.
I probably would like to see exactly what they looked like.
It doesn't really bother me that I was the victim of "friendly fire."
They had a big investigation here at Fort Benning after I started work. Some Air Force people here. They asked me if I thought it was deliberate. I think they were going to hang the officer who dropped it. They knew who it was.
"No, I don't think it was deliberate. Maybe he saw something on the ground we didn't see."
I think it was an accident. They didn't prosecute the pilot. The general who headed the investigation told me I probably saved one of his better officers. I never met the pilot, never talked to him. I know he felt bad.
'In my own time, I'll tell him'
I have one son, 26 years old. He works in Atlanta, in telecommunications.
He never wanted to be in the Army. I asked him when he was very small if he wanted to go into the service.
He said: "No, daddy." I never approached him about it again.
He never asked me about my time in Vietnam, or the accident.
In my own time, I'll tell him about it.
My wife knew it was my job. I was doing what I was paid to do.
When I went back on active duty, I taught in the Infantry School. Taught demolition, how to stop tanks with different things when you don't have any weapons.
I hadn't talked to anyone about Vietnam in 30-something years until I talked to you the last time. I had a drinking problem. I thought it would help. But after you wake up, you have the same problem. The problem never goes away. But finally I went to talk to a psychiatrist. And I prayed. And I haven't had a drink for over a year. The problem had lasted a long time.
I drank to forget the nightmares. That day and other things I saw during my tour.
I'm 61, and I feel a lot better about myself.
hey were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.
Copyright Joe Galloway
http://www.caller2.com/newsarch/news11571.html
FALSE Joe Galloway"'Clark died and, two days later".
Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander,
didn't learn about Galloway's actions until the two collaborated
on ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,''
a best-selling book about the history of the battle published in 1992.
Moore, who retired as a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.
Moore's big LIE
``There was grazing machine-gun fire going over our heads and he got up in that grazing fire
and ran to that soldier to save him,'' Moore said.
Galloway, crouching down to avoid enemy fire, saw PFC Jimmy Nakayama and Spc.5
James Clark get caught by the flames.
With the help of Sgt. George Nye, Galloway grabbed Nakayama's feet and carried him to
safety.
-Clark died-
Thursday, Jun. 4, 1998
Refugio native awarded Bronze Star
Former UPI reporter tried to save a wounded soldier during the Vietnam War
By STEPHANIE L. JORDAN
Staff Writer
BAYSIDE -- For Refugio native Joe Galloway, reporting the Vietnam War meant getting away from press briefings, safe base camps and clean sheets. He saw the war as the grunts saw it, down in the dirt with the heat, death, blood, fear and valor.
And on Nov. 15, 1965, during the first large-scale battle between American troops and the North Vietnamese Army, Galloway stopped being a United Press International reporter and became a hero.
On May 1, 1998, Galloway -- now a senior writer for U.S. News and World Report -- was awarded a Bronze Star with a ``V'' device for valor for his actions during the battle. Galloway, who divides his time between homes in Bayside and Boston, is the first civilian to be given the award from the Army, said Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg, who presented him with the medal at Fort Bragg, N.C.
``At that time and that place he was a soldier,'' Kellogg said. ``He was a soldier in spirit, he was a soldier in actions and he was a soldier in deeds.''
Galloway was honored for trying to save a wounded soldier during one of the pivotal battles of the Vietnam War, a battle that left 234 Americans dead.
``I know that wasn't my job, but in those days everyone did what they could to survive and help everyone else make it out of there alive,'' Galloway said.
While with troops of the 7th Cavalry's 1st Battalion -- part of the First Cavalry Division -- fighting in the Central Highlands, Galloway was in the battalion command post when an
American fighter mistakenly dropped napalm near the position.
Galloway, crouching down to avoid
enemy fire, saw PFC Jimmy Nakayama
and Spc.5 James Clark get caught
by the flames.
With the help of Sgt. George Nye, Galloway grabbed Nakayama's feet and carried him to
safety.
-Joe Galloway
-"Clark died-
and,two days later, so did Nakayama."
``When I grabbed his feet, his boots just fell off, and I remember my hands touching raw bones,'' Galloway said. ``We carried him away and he was screaming. I can still hear those screams.''
Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander, didn't learn about Galloway's actions until the two collaborated on ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young,'' a best-selling book about the history of the battle published in 1992. Moore, who retired as a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.
``There was grazing machine-gun fire going over our heads and he got up in that grazing fire and ran to that soldier to save him,'' Moore said. ``One of my medics got shot, but Joe kept going. When the battle was over . . . I never gave any thought to giving this award to a civilian.''
For the 17-year-old 1958 Refugio High graduate, just getting to the Ia Drang Valley was a battle.
Galloway, now 56, said he wasn't a great student in high school and was only interested in reading, writing and history. He attended Victoria Junior College for six weeks, but didn't like it because it was too much like high school.
``I was on my way to join the Army when my mom, God bless her, said `But what about your journalism?' '' Galloway said. ``We just so happened to be driving by the Victoria Advocate's office so I stopped in and asked if I could be a reporter.''
After 18 months at the Advocate, Galloway joined UPI. At age 19, he was named bureau chief of UPI's Topeka, Kan., bureau, the youngest bureau chief in the history of the wire service.
``I guess that's because I was a young man in a hurry,'' Galloway said.
During his three years in Topeka, from 1961 to 1964, Galloway began lobbying his bosses to send him to Tokyo, the UPI bureau that covered the growing war in Vietnam.
``I knew this was my generation's war,'' he said. ``Not to have gone would have been much harder to explain than going is.''
He was in Tokyo for six months before going to Vietnam to cover the Marines.
From his first days in-country, Galloway worked hard to get to a firsthand view of the war. Military leaders weren't always pleased to see him.
But his willingness to show up in the field, to live with the troops, won the respect of many soldiers.
One of his early converts was H. Norman Schwarzkopf, then a major, who went on to become a four-star general and command the multinational coalition force that won the Persian Gulf War in 1991. In Vietnam, Galloway hooked up with Schwarzkopf in August 1965 at the Du Co Special Forces camp. Schwarzkopf and his South Vietnamese troops had been under attack for two weeks, and Schwarzkopf had just found out the unit would have to walk out of the area.
Galloway showed up and asked to march out with the troops, Schwarzkopf said in a phone interview.
``I was hot, tired and dirty and had just found out that we had to walk out and the last person I wanted to have around was a fancy-pants reporter,'' Schwarzkopf said. ``But what's different about him is that he really knew how to be at the right place at the right time without being intrusive. He was a friend right away.''
Galloway, Schwarzkopf said, ``is absolutely the finest combat correspondent I've ever known.''
``He truly understands what ground combat is all about,'' he said. ``He wasn't like many of the other war correspondents who wrote their stories from the rear area, or in the bars in Da Nang and Saigon. He lived the life of the grunts.''
At least once, a commander put Galloway behind a weapon.
In October 1965, after hearing that the U.S. Special Forces camp at Plei Me was surrounded and under siege, Galloway finagled his way aboard a helicopter heading that way.
When Galloway arrived at the tiny Plei Me camp, its commander, Maj. Charles Beckwith -- who later founded the Army's Delta Force -- was less than pleased that a reporter had managed to fly in when his troops were in desperate need of food, ammunition and medical supplies.
``He was jumping up and down on his hat when I got there,'' Galloway said. ``He told me he needed everything in the world but a God damn reporter.''
What he did need was someone to man a machine gun, and appointed Galloway to the task. Beckwith's instructions were simple, Galloway said.
``Don't shoot the little brown men inside the wire because they're mine, but shoot all the little brown men outside the wire,'' said Galloway, repeating Beckwith's words.
For four days and nights Galloway stayed on the line with Beckwith's troops. As Galloway was leaving after the battle, Beckwith gave the reporter an M-16 Galloway carried until the war ended in 1975.
``I told (Beckwith) that I wasn't a combatant and he said, `Son, in these mountains there's no such thing,' '' Galloway said.
A few weeks later, and 14 miles away, Galloway would face many of the same North Vietnamese troops who had attacked Plei Me.
On Nov. 14, hours after the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley had begun, Galloway hopped on a helicopter bound for the fighting. He was kicked off because there wasn't enough room. He boarded another helicopter, but Moore ordered it away because it was too dangerous to land.
Galloway was grounded at the rear command post, itching to get to the action, he said.
He hid out overnight at the base camp while other reporters retreated to beds and warm meals. Galloway asked Capt. Gregory Dillon if he could fly with him to the battle.
``He was such a young guy, but was dedicated to covering the war from the bottom end up,'' said Dillon, who retired as a colonel. ``It was pretty hairy there the first couple of days. We used to have an awful lot of reporters come in after the fact, but he was willing to take the same risks as the soldiers.''
They arrived on the morning of the second day of the battle. Galloway had just spoken with Nakayama when an Air Force F-100 Super Sabre dropped the jellied gasoline on the soldiers.
Two days later, Galloway flew out to Pleiku to file his story. For the work he did in Ia Drang, UPI gave him a raise, from $135 per week to $150.
``I had an exclusive in the biggest battle of the war,'' Galloway said. ``All I had to do was survive.''
On his first tour of Vietnam for UPI, Galloway spent 16 months in-country. He would return three times, the last in 1975 as the North Vietnamese headed to their victory.
``A mentor of mine, Dickey Chapelle, who had covered World War II, once told me you can have the best story in the world, but you have to get out and live to file it,'' Galloway said.``War is a great story. There is always room for you on the front page and in many ways it's a simple story. Afterwards, you wonder if you can cover normal life. I mean you wake up one day, when you're 30, and realize you have more friends dead than alive.''
Galloway lived in Asia for a total of 12 years before transferring to UPI's Moscow bureau. Later, he moved to UPI's Los Angeles bureau as its chief. In 1982, Galloway went to work for U.S. News & World Report, eventually going to work for the magazine in Washington, D.C.
But in 1992, Galloway would go into battle again, this time with tanks and armor roaring across the Iraqi desert. As he did in Vietnam, Galloway reported the war from the sharp end.
Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Galloway looked up his old friend H. Norman Schwarzkopf, now commanding the coalition forces. Galloway wanted to return to the First Cav, Schwarzkopf said, but the general knew where the real action would be.
``We argued about it because I wanted him to go on the 24th Mech (Infantry Division),'' Schwarzkopf said. ``I'm sure all the way there he was cursing me under his breath thinking that I wanted to give some press coverage to the 24th.''
But Galloway soon found out that the 24th was one of the armor units assigned to the charge across the desert in an end-run around heavily fortified Kuwait.
Since Galloway had been briefed on the plan, he was able to interview combat leaders before the battle, he said. The ground war started on a Monday, ended on Thursday, and Galloway's story was due on Friday.
Galloway had survived another war.
Joe Galloway still covers the military, but the men he met in Vietnam -- some of whom never returned home -- are never far from his mind. Galloway often gives talks on military bases, and reminds the men and women in uniform of the unspoken bond that unites a fighting force.
``I remind the soldiers that when they leave (the military) it will be the last day that the man on their left and the man on their right will die for them,'' Galloway said. ``Back when I started uncommon valor was a common virtue. It was during that time when I made some of the best and closest friends of my life.''
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/special_packages/they_were_soldiers/2765842.htm
They Were Soldiers
The requested article was not found.
are they taking off Joe Galloway's Fiction?
Back to Home +Thursday, Sep 01, 2005They Were Soldiers
The requested article was not found.
http://www.scottmanning.com/archives/000431.php
Joe Galloway in 2 diffrent places at the same time 1700hrs
Nov.14,1965 40k apart places, 1st Catecha, 2nd LZ Falcon
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/galloway3.htm
A Reporter's Journal From Hell
by Joe Galloway
Part Three: The Things We Carried...
CATECHA
In the morning the word passed that B Company was moving out; the whole battalion was moving out on an operation to the west of Plei Me Camp. I caught up with the Brigade Commander, Col. Tim Brown, who confirmed that for me.
I told him I wanted to ride in with the 1st Battalion.
Brown said it was probably going to be another long, hot walk in the sun---but I could hang around and if anything happened he would fly out in his command helicopter and I could go with him.
I nodded but had a bad feeling about this; felt I ought to go in with the troops.
The 1st Battalion troops lifted on out,
replaced by Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion 7th Cav.
1700hrs Nov 14th 1965 Catecha
Later, when the radios burst into frenzied reports of action, Bravo 2/7 Cav began lining up
and loading up on choppers.
Galloway
I slipped down the line, found one chopper with room and got
aboard.
Just before we lifted off a big lieutenant came down the line
looking in every chopper.
He spotted me, waved me off, and put a medic aboard in my seat.
I couldn't complain about that, but there was action out there in a place designated Landing
Zone XRay, and I couldn't get there.
Back to Brigade HQ. Col. Brown came bustling out of the tent with a couple of his staff
officers behind him.
He waved me along, moving quickly toward his command chopper, bristling all over with radio
antennas.
He told me that Lt. Col. Moore and his men had gotten into a helluva fight out there in the Ia
Drang Valley and he was headed there.
1200hrs Nov 14th,1965 LZ XRay 1200hrs
+ As we neared the end of the 20 mile flight we could easily locate the battlefield: cloud of
smoke rose high above it.
We dropped down to about 1500 feet circling the clearing below.
I had earphones on and could hear Col. Brown talking to Lt. Col. Moore. Brown wanted to
land; Moore was telling him the landing zone was under intense enemy fire and if he landed
that command chopper with all those antennas it would be a magnet for bullets.
Moore succeeded in waving off his boss.
aprox 1230hrs LZ Falcon Nov 14,1965
Brown told me on the radio that he was dropping me at
+Landing Zone Falcon five miles
from LZ XRay and I would have to
catch a ride in from there.
More disappointment.
I jumped off the chopper at another small clearing in the scrub brush,
this one filled with a battery of 12 105mm howitzer artillery pieces.
They were firing nonstop, providing support for Lt. Col. Moore's besieged battalion in XRay.
As the day wore on more reporters drifted in.
A new AP guy I had >not previously met
Someone from Reuters, +probably
+A couple of others.
+We met every chopper begging for a ride in to the fight.
probably my friend? Not previously met? other Reporters? this dailog is from a reporter?
some one from?,
No luck.
The day was growing older and except for the incessant din of outgoing artillery fire we were
no closer to the action.
It was then that I ran into Capt. Gregg (Matt) Dillon, the 1st Battalion S-3 or operations
officer.
I asked how I could get to XRay.
He replied: I am going in with two choppers full of ammo and water just as soon as it is good
dark.
I said I wanted to go.
He said he couldn't make that decision without Hal Moore's approval, but he would get on
the radio and ask him.
I stuck with him till he picked up the radio handset and informed Moore of his plans.
"Oh yes, that reporter Galloway wants to come along."
Hal Moore responded: "If he is crazy enough to want to come in here, and you have the
room, bring him along."
All right!
I had a ride.
Now all I had to do was hide out from the rest of the gang till they got tired and headed back
to Pleiku for the night.
I disappeared behind a tent and waited them out.
Finally they were all gone and Dillon's two choppers roared in. aprox 2030hrs-2100hrs
We got aboard in the darkness and lifted off.
I was bound for the biggest battle of the war---
and I was all alone.
An exclusive!
Galloway met Jimmys wife BUT in 2 diffrent stories Joe Galloway writes
Posted on Fri, Apr. 29, 2005,
Joe Galloway His Wife Cathy?
Joe Galloway his wife Trudy?
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/galloway/11525840.htm
Saturday, Aug 27, 2005
Joe Galloway
Posted on Fri, Apr. 29, 2005
There were men such as +Jim
Nakayama+ of Rigby, Idaho,
who had so much to live for.
+His wife,
+Cathy,+
+gave birth to their baby girl, Nikki,
a couple of days +before
Today, Vietnam is different from when the war started and ended
By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Never mind that dateline. It will always be Saigon to me, the place where I landed 40 years ago to cover a war that would eventually consume much of my youth and much of my country's innocence before it ended in bitter, bloody chaos three decades ago.
The old familiar streets are still here, but now they're lined with chic shops and boutiques instead of the seedy bars where delicate Vietnamese women once wheedled overpriced "Saigon Teas" out of big American GIs.
The traffic is, at once, both denser and calmer as motorcycles have replaced bicycles and the man-powered cyclo taxis have been banned from the center of town. Pedestrians seem to risk death just crossing a street full of speeding motorbikes, but it's a carefully choreographed dance. There are rules for the walker: Don't run. Don't try to dodge. Just walk slowly straight ahead and let the motorbikes adjust for you.
The Vietnamese are still the hardest-working people I have ever known, hustling and bustling and chasing a buck and a living with determination. The majority of them, 60-plus percent, are under the age of 30, and for them the war is something in the history books.
The country and the people are far different than they were when we came and when we left. In the cities, the old shabby yellow colonial buildings that survived have been spruced up and modernized. Office towers and high-rise hotels tower over their older neighbors. Cranes are everywhere in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as new construction sprouts on every available scrap of land.
Communists may still rule here, but business is still business, and business is good in Vietnam. The country's economy grew at a rate of 7.7 percent in 2004.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and the United States has reached $6 billion annually. Trade with neighboring China is also at $6 billion a year. A local Honda plant cranks out millions of the ubiquitous motorbikes that sell for the equivalent of $1,000 to $2,000.
On the outskirts of Hanoi, a huge gate modeled after the Brandenburg in Berlin, complete with sculpted horses, marks the entrance of a new subdivision for the very affluent. A planned but still unbuilt house there sold six months ago for $250,000. The same non-existent home has already changed hands twice. The last buyer paid $450,000 for it.
Yet in poorer rural areas such as Quang Tri province, the per capita income is still around $200.
What we call the Vietnam War the Vietnamese call the American War. "You see, we have fought so many wars over a thousand years that we could never call yours `the Vietnam War' - it would be meaningless to us," explained an earnest young guide in Hanoi.
The American War takes up only one paragraph in the history book taught in grade schools in Vietnam today. But a big, busy bookstore on what once was Tu Do Street in old Saigon carries shelves full of books about the war and biographies of some of the great North Vietnamese Army commanders, such as Gen. Nguyen Huu An, who did his best to kill all of us in the Ia Drang Valley during some terrible November days in 1965.
A friend and fellow scribbler, Phil Caputo, inscribed a copy of his book "A Rumor of War" to me: "As an old French general once told another, `The war, old boy, is our youth - secret and uninterred.'" By then, in the late 1970s, both of us knew exactly what that old French general meant.
It seemed so simple and straightforward when we began that march 40 years ago with the landing of the first American Marine battalion at the port city of Danang. We were a modern superpower blocking the spread of communism to a Third World country.
War has a way of looking simple going in - and generally turns out to be far more complex and costly than the architects ever thought possible. This one sure was.
The Vietnam War consumed the presidency of the brash Texan Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent the first combat troops there. It brought young American protesters into the streets and helped topple Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon. A third president, Gerald Ford, inherited an orphaned war that ended in chaos and defeat on his watch.
To those who fought it, mostly young draftees on both sides, the war was unavoidable, a duty their country demanded of them. To those caught in the middle, the peasant farm families, it was an unending and deadly disruption to their lives. One and a half million Vietnamese perished in those 10 years. On the black granite wall in Washington, D.C., the names of 58,249 Americans who died in Vietnam are engraved.
The war gave me the best friends of my life and took some of them away almost immediately. I can still see their faces as they were then.
There was Dickie Chapelle, with her horn-rimmed glasses and a boonie hat decorated with the jump wings she'd earned in some other war long before. She told me that the first rule of war corresponding was that you must survive in order to write the story and ship your film. A Marine walking in front of her set off a booby-trapped mortar shell and a tiny fragment nicked her carotid artery. She bled to death, her head in the lap of another reporter, Bob Poos, while a Catholic chaplain gave her the last rites.
And Henri Huet, half French, half Vietnamese, all heart, all smiles. He took me on my first combat operation, teaching me every step of the way how to do this insane work and stay alive. He went down in a South Vietnamese Huey helicopter inside Laos in 1971 with the finest photographer of the war, Larry Burrows of Life magazine, and another who might have inherited Burrows' mantle had he lived, Kent Potter of UPI.
I think of them all, all 66 who died in our war giving everything they had, telling the truth and showing the real face of war to America and the world.
I think, too, of the young American soldiers who died all around me in the Ia Drang Valley and elsewhere in a war that seemed like it would never end - and never really has in my memory and in my heart.
+There were men such as +Jim
Nakayama+ of Rigby, Idaho,
who had so much to live for.
+His wife,
+Cathy,
gave birth to their baby girl, Nikki,
a couple of days before he died on Nov. 15, 1965.
Then there were those on the other side, such as Gen. An who did his best to wipe us out in the Ia Drang and came damned close to it. Years later, in 1993, he and some of his officers went back to our old battlefield with us, walked that blood-stained ground and shed tears with us for all who died there, American and Vietnamese.
Gen. An died of a heart attack a year later.
In 1995 my good friend Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and I visited Gen. An's home in Hanoi to pay our respects to his widow and children. There, in a glass case of his most precious possessions, along with his uniform and medals and photographs of the young warrior, was a copy of our book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," which told the story of the battle.
I think, too, of Col. Vu Dinh Thuoc, who started his career as a private storming the French positions at Dienbienphu and progressed to lieutenant commanding a company at the Ia Drang and on to colonel commanding a division in the final attack on Saigon.
As we later walked the battlefield together, Thuoc tapped me on the chest and said:
"You have the heart of a soldier. It is the same as mine. I am glad I did not kill you."
So am I, colonel. So am I.
And I am glad that peace and a measure of prosperity have at last come to Vietnam and its people after a thousand years of war. There's no room left for anger or bitterness, only memories, and they, too, will vanish soon enough.
Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. He spent 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and nearly 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. His overseas postings included four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam.
On May 1, 1998, Galloway was decorated with the Bronze Star with V for valor for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. His is the only medal of valor the U.S. Army awarded to a civilian for actions during the Vietnam War. He is the co-author, with retired Lt. Gen. Hal G. Moore, of the national bestseller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," which was made into the movie "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson.
A Reporter's Journal From Hell
by Joe Galloway
Part Four: A Season in Hell
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/galloway4.htm
The two cans went right over our heads and impacted no more than 20 yards from us,
the jellied gasoline spreading out and flaming up going away from us.
That 20 yards saved our lives, but through the blazing fire I could see two men, two
Americans, dancing in that fire.
I jumped to my feet.
I charged on in and someone was yelling, "Get this man's feet!"
I reached down and grabbed the ankles of a horribly burned soldier.
They crumbled and the skin and flesh, now cooked, rubbed off.
I could feel his bare ankle bones in the palms of my hands.
+We carried him to the aid station.
+Later I would learn that his name was Jimmy D. Nakayama of Rigby, Idaho.
+His wife+Trudie+
November 7. ??
Jimmy died in an Army hospital two days later, on November 17.
For a lot of years I looked for Jimmy’s wife and daughter.
Last month, after the movie We Were Soldiers was released I received a letter from
Jimmy’s widow.
Last week a letter came from his daughter Nikki, now 36 years old and the mother of
two young sons.
No single day has passed since that long-ago November day that I have not thought
about Jimmy Nakayama,
the young woman who loved him,
and the daughter who would never know a father’s love.
When Did Galloway meet Lt. Col. Moore, Sgt. Maj. Plumley?
did Galloway load wounded when they landed on LZ Xray?
Joe Galloway has boarded Moore's, Plumley's Huey's on the morning of Nov 10,1965
and they dont even know it.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/galloway3.htm
by Joe Galloway A Reporters Report from hell.
Part Three: The Things We Carried...
ref from the Digital Journalist, We Were Soldiers Once and Young hardback
story 1
Galloway meets Lt. Col. Moore, Sgt. Maj. Plumley the morning of the 11,1965 on a
6,000ft mountain top 5 miles east of Plei Me.
We Were Soldiers Once and Young hardback page32, paperback Mel Gibson on cover
page 45-46
Galloway meets Lt. Col. Moore, Sgt. Maj. Plumley the morning of the 11,1965 on a
6,000ft mountain top 5 miles east of Plei Me.
from Soldier of Fortune Sept.,1983,page 27 3rd paragraph far right column
11 Nov 1965 morning.
+Galloway meets +only Moore
Galloway "Moore walked over and suggested that if I were attached to them I could dam
well shave too.
from Soldier of Fortune Sept.,1983,page 27 3rd paragraph far right column
story 2
Galloway meets Plumley aprox 2130hrs on Nov 14,1965 on LZ X-Ray.
from the Digital Journalist
Question How did Galloway get past LT.Col. Moore as they loaded the Hueys as each
person must be accounted for, before lift off.
Galloway "On November 10th the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division moved into the
field to continue operations around Plei Me Camp".
I hooked up with the 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry which was lifting by helicopter into a
remote area of the Special Forces Camp, searching for the North Vietnamese who
had fled.
I had my new M-16 rifle on my shoulder, 20 full magazines in my pack.
I also carried these things:
two full canteens on a pistol belt.
A sheathed bayonet.
Two Nikon F cameras on my shoulder and around my neck.
I had a 35mm lens on one, a 43-86mm zoom lens on the other.
My pack contained the magazines for the rifle.
Clean socks and drawers.
Shaving gear.
A dozen rolls of Ektachrome color; a couple of bricks of Kodak Tri X black and white.
C-rations for a couple of days.
A bottle of Louisiana hot sauce to make them semi-palatable.
Half a dozen small reporter notebooks.
Couple of spare pens.
Two books---Bernard Fall's Street Without Joy, and T.R. Fehrenbach's This Kind of War.
A fist-sized lump of C-4 plastic explosive, about which more later.
Strapped beneath my pack was a nylon poncho liner rolled inside an Army rubber
coated poncho; on its side an entrenching tool.
We heli-lifted into an old cassava field, hacked and burned out of the jungle.
Question How did Galloway get past Col. moore when they loaded the Hueys as each
person must be accounted for, befor lift off.
11 Nov 1965 morning.
+Galloway meets Moore and Plumley for the first time?
I was fishing around for a couple of packets of instant coffee when the battalion
commander,
Lt. Col. Hal Moore, and his sergeant-major, Basil L. Plumley, loomed up.
The colonel welcomed me to his battalion, inspecting me closely all the while.
Finally he said these words: In my battalion, everyone shaves in the morning.
You, too.
He was looking at my cup of coffee water.
The sergeant major was grinning broadly.
I groaned and dug out my razor and bar of soap.
2. Soldier of Fortune 1983 Sept If You Want a Good Fight by Joe Galloway
page 27 3rd paragraph far right column
Galloway dosent meet Plumley till 2130hrs! Nov 14th1965 on X-Ray
Galloway " A gruff voice came out of the dark as Dillion and I stood up.
"Watch out where you walk.
There are a lot of dead bodies around and they are all American"
That was my> INTRODUCTION < to Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley.
We were soldiers Once and Young hardback page 135
Galloway " we crouched there in the darkness, tried to get our bearing, and waited for
some one to come and get us.
'Follow me and watch where you step.
There's lots of dead pepole on the ground and they are all ours:'
The voice belonged to Sergent Major Plumley. 2130hrs X-Ray nov 14,1965
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/galloway4.htm
A Reporter's Journal From Hell
by Joe Galloway
Did Galloway load wounded on X-Ray Nov14,1965 at 2130hrs?
Part Four
Nov 14,1965 2130hrs
The two choppers roared in to land in the tall elephant grass.
We jumped off, turned and began throwing ammo boxes and
water bladders out.
Emptied, both choppers lifted off as we lay prone in the tall
grass.
The darkness was almost total.
Artillery rounds sailed over and exploded in the distance all
around us.
A voice came out of that darkness:
Follow me and I'll take you to the command post…
and watch where you step!
There are bodies all over the place and they are all ours.,
No ID of Voice
On wounded on LZ X-Ray Nov14,1965 2130hrs
Soldier of Fortune
page 27
Galloway loaded wounded on Huey's after landing
We Were Soldiers Once and Young, page 135
Digital Journalist
Galloway dosent load anything!
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/galloway4.htm
The two choppers roared in to land in the tall elephant grass.
We jumped off, turned and began throwing ammo boxes and water
bladders out.
Emptied, both choppers lifted off as we lay prone in the tall grass.
We Were Soldiers Once and Young page 135
Galloway dosent load anything.
Why didnt the troops who were with the wounded take them to the CP.
was the wounded just lyng there on the landing Zone.
how did the troops know where to put the wounded,as not to be landed on whe the
Hueys landed.
MOORE LEFT SOME OF HIS DEAD TROOPS ON X-RAY!
Moore said he wouldnt leave any troop behind on the Battlefield dead or alive.
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/articles.php?p=2785&page=1
Memories of Vietnam
Submitted by Stephane Moutin-Luyat
Steve Hansen
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/articles.php?p&page=1&p=2785&page=6
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/articles.php?p=2785&page=1
Memories of Vietnam
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 by Stephane Moutin-Luyat
Steve Hansen, two-tour veteran of the Vietnam war, shares his thoughts and experiences in
this fascinating interview.
ArmChair General
“Didn’t you go back to the Ia Drang in March for Operation LINCOLN?”
Steven R. Hansen “Yes, we did return to the Ia Drang.
++In fact, we air assaulted back into XRay.
++It was quiet.”
++The mission was to search for and retrieve the remains of some MIAs.( Missing in Action )
++We found them.
The battlefield had been cleaned up pretty good by both sides.
We found a scattering of stuff and I noticed the remains of one NVA soldier near the “Ant
Hill” that sheltered the command post during the battle.
Isnt it strange! Col. Moore said he brought every one back even the dead.
( page 198, We were Soldiers Once and Young.)Hardback
Moore said he wasnt leaving anyone on LZXRAY !
He did!, then he sneaks back later to retrive the ones he left behind on X-Ray.
Were you destined to be a war reporter?
Joe Lee Galloway
"I had read Ernie Pyle’s columns and his collected work
and I thought if a war comes along in my generation,
I want to cover it.
And preferably as Pyle covered his war."
Joe Lee Galloway "I speak for the Vietnam Veteran."
BUT, JOE LEE GALLOWAY'S TRUE FEELING ABOUT THE VIETNAM VETERAN.
Quote JOE LEE GALLOWAY "Damed if I'd want to go for a walk in the sun with them."
Quote JOE LEE GALLOWAY "Black GI's going thru long involved black power identification
rituals."
Quote JOE LEE GALLOWAY"THE REST ARE JUST COMMITTING SUICIDE."
Galloway's verse to dead Vietnam Veterans, who commit suicide
Joe Lee Galloway Here dead we lie, Because we did not choose To live, and shame the land
from which we sprung, Life to be sure
Joe Lee Galloway about the Vietnam War, quote Joe Lee Galloway " THIS WAR "WE" CANNOT
WIN!!"
from Hal Moore A Soldier ......Once and Always by MIKE GUARDIA page 171-172
Joe Lee Galloway "BUT I MAKE MONEY OFF OF THE VIETNAM VETERAN!"
We Were Soldiers Once and Young is FICTION. PLAGIARIZED from the works of Ernie Pyle's
books.
Joe Lee Galloway " I speak for the Vietnam Veteran." I get the Fame, Awards, and Fortune.
I mention the Vietnam Veteran's, Who get nothing but getting mentioned. He He he.
Joe Lee Galloway did not RESCUE Jimmy Nakayama, he and James walked to the AID STATION under their own power.
http://www.oanow.com/news/the-battle-of-ia-drang-joe-galloway-s-first-hand/article_057448d7-57e4-5fe5-89ac-cacd37ecc574.html
Arturo Villarreal · Sidney Lanier High School
Sp4 James Clark was not given any morphine by the medics. He came running towards my foxhole with his clothes on fire. I helped putting the fire out and I just gave him some saline solution. I took him to the CP and ask the doctor to give him something for the terrible pain, but the doctor told that they didn't have anything to give him and he just told me to just keep giving him the saline solution. After some time pass, some helicopters landed and I put him aboard one of them.
PART 1
Joseph Lee Galloway's original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965
Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965
WOUNDED SOLDIER LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAY
By JOSEPH GALLOWAY
Chu Pong Mountain, South Viet Nam ( UPI )---- The soldiers eyes were red from loss of sleep, and maybe a bit
from crying too, now that it was all over.
A three-day growth of beard stubbled his cheeks. But was hard to see because of the dirt. He was hurt, in terrible
pain, but you'd never know it. Slivers of shrapnel had ripped his chest and spared his leg.
He sat on the landing zone below the Chu Pong mountain where more Americans had died than ever before in
a battle against Communists in a war over Viet Nam. He had gone through hell -- three days of it--- and still a
bit dazed, more from lack of sleep then his wounds, though. When I walked up to him, he spoke, But not to me
in particular, nor to the other guys sitting around sipping the first hot cup of coffee they had since the fight
began.
Loses a Friend
" I took care of 14 of 'em myself," He said. "They were tough little bastards. You had to shoot them to pieces
before they quit coming . . . just rip them apart."
I squatted on my heels waiting for him to say more, But he didn't. Somebody told me he had lost half of his
platoon, including a friend he had served with for more than eight years. "What is his name?" I ask.
" It's not important," the sergeant slouching nearby said. "He's just one of us and he did a damn good job."
Everyone did a damn good job. And nobody knew it better than Gen. Knowles, task force commander and
deputy commander of the 1st Air Cavalry.
"These men were just great," he told me. "They were absolutely tremendous. I've never seen a better job
anywhere, anytime,"
Back From Battle
Monday another American soldier walked out of the jungle into the valley of death. Bullets whizzed over his
head and kicked up dirt at his feet.
" Get down you fool!" We shouted.
The GI kept walking, He carried no weapon, He walked straight and tall.
A mortar shell exploded nearby, He didn't waver, Shrapnel chopped off branches above my head. But the
American out there in the open came on until he was within a few feet of the battalion command bunker. He
looked funny, dazed.
Then we knew, he was shell shocked. He paused for a moment and looked around. He recognized the aid
station set up under the trees and walked toward it.
Just as the soldier reached the station he slumped to his knees, then pitched forward on his face, That is when
we saw his back for the first time.
It wasn't pretty, It had been blown open by a communist mortar.
Medics were unable to reach the soldier because of the almost solid wall of communist bullets and jagged steel
fragments coming from the jungle. So he walked out, The bullets and mortar did not bother him anymore, He
had his.
Veterans Cried
The men of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry fought like heroes. They died the same way, Some took their wounds
without a whimper. Seasoned Veterans cried.
Col. Hal Moore of Bardstown, Ky., the commanding officer of the 7th Battalion, 1st cavalry, Came over to me,
tears streaming down his face, His men were catching from the slopes of this mountain range less than five
miles from the Cambodian border.
I'm kind of emotional about this, so excuse me," Moore said to me. "But I want you to tell the American people
that these men are fighters.
"Look at them."
PART 2
Joseph Lee Galloway's original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965
Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965 WOUNDED SOLDIER
LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAY
By JOSEPH GALLOWAY
Part 2
Moore pointed to a Negro soldier lying in the shade of a tree. A Communist bullet had torn
a huge hole in his stomach. The soldier had his hands over the wound. You could see him
bite his lip. He was in terrific pain, But he made no whimper as he waited for a medical
helicopter." Look at them," Moore said again. " They're great and the American people ought
to know it."WAR "ACCIDENT"It was shortly after 8:30 a.m. Monday when one of those terrible
accidents of war happened.I was sitting in the command bunker, A mound of dirt screening us
from the communist snipers, looking at the wounded in the aid station just a few yards
away.Suddenly, I felt a searing heat on my face.An American fighter-bomber had misjudged
the Communist positions, and dropped a load of napalm. The flaming jelly gasoline,
impossible to shake or scrape off once it hits skin, splashed along the ground in a huge
dragon's tail of fire less then 25 yards away.Screams penetrated the roar of the flames.
two Americans stumbled out of the inferno. Their hair burned off in an instant. their
clothes were incinerated." Good God!" Moore cried. Another plane was making a run over the
same area. The colonel grabbed a radio." You're dropping napalm on us!" he shouted. " Stop
those damn planes."At almost the last second, the second plane pulled up and away, its
napalm tanks still hanging from the wings.It was an hour before a medical helicopter could
get into the area and tend to the two burned men. One GI was a huge mass of blisters, the
other not quite so bad. Somehow his legs had escaped the flames. But he had breathed fire
into his lungs and he wheezed for air.A MEDIC ASK ME TO HELP GET THE MEN INTO THE
HELICOPTER WHEN IT ARRIVED. THERE WERE NO LITTERS. TENDERLY, WE PICKED THE SOLDIERS UP. I
HELD A LEG OF THE MOST SERIOUSLY BURNED MAN. I WASN'T TENDER ENOUGH. A BIG PATCH OF BURNED
SKIN CAME OFF IN MY HAND. VC BATTALIONS Chu Pong Mountain rises 2,500 feet from the valley
below. From the top, you could almost lob a mortar shell into Cambodia. The mountain slope
were heavily jungled. And they hid at least two battalions of North Vietnamese Army
regulars---- possibly the same troops who pinned down two companies of air cavalrymen
not far away about a week ago.The cavalry were looking for them, spoiling for a fight. They
found the Communist Monday and dropped by helicopter into a small landing zone about the
size of a football field at the base of the mountain on the valley floor.
PART 3
Joseph Lee Galloway's original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965
Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965
WOUNDED SOLDIER LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAY
By JOSEPH GALLOWAY
Part 3 One platoon got about 300 yards up the mountain before the Communist opened up. From Behind, cut it offand fired on the main cavalry force from three sides with small arms, heavy machine-guns, and mortars.Time and again, the cavalrymen tried to move in and help the platoon' pull back, It was futile. The fire was toheavy. The platoon spent the night on the mountainside. Their losses were heavy, but the damage to theCommunist was said to be heavier."We got 70 communist bodies stacked up in front of our positions," the platoon leader radioed back Monday.Men DyingIt was shortly before noon Sunday when the cavalrymen swept down in the area about 12 miles west of Pleiku.Ever since the nine day battle around the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, the cavalrymen have beensweeping the jungles and running into sporadic contact with hard-core Communist units.Brig. Gen. Richard Knowles, deputy commander of the air cavalry division, OFFERED ME A RIDE IN HISHELICOPTER.WE CIRCLED OVER THE BATTLE GROUND. Air strikes went in below us. An American A1E skyraider was hiton a low- level bombing run, and the pilot had no chance to bail out. The plane crashed and exploded in acluster of trees.Men are dying down there, but they are doing their job. "This is good," Knowles said." This is what we came for.We've got a U.S. battalion well -equipped down there."Many DeadI got my chance to join the men on the ground about 8 P.M. I went with a helicopter loaded with supplies andammunition.we were level with the middle of the mountain and in the darkness we could see the muzzle flashes of riflesand machine-gun spitting bullets at us. I said a prayer.Sgt.Maj. Basil Plumley of Columbus, Ga., met us at the landing zone, and led me back to Col. Moore'scommand bunker." Watch your step," Plumley said, " There were dead people, all over here." They were dead Americans manywrapped in ponchos.At Day break Monday, Medical helicopters began landing and taking off again with the wounded.A detail was assign the job of collecting weapons and ammunition from the wounded before they wereevacuated.
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