Winkel and his wife live in Springfield, Virginia. from around the world. In the same way, the story of his experiences at LZ Albany is a story that could be told by the nearly 400 Troopers of 2/7 Cav who fought and died at LZ Albany, or the 1/7 Cav Troopers at LZ X-ray or the more than 2.6 million US personnel who served in Vietnam. In the fall of 1965 the Vietnam War was an event most Americans saw as a series of smaller battles leaving little to remember. SMITH, Jack P., forty-seven, returned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry after his wounds healed, and completed his tour. Fighting was so intense that a battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, reported finding a dead American with his hands at the throat of a dead North Vietnamese soldier. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. After three days of fighting, 240 Americans had been killed and another 300 wounded (more troops were brought in in support). Rosemary Giles is a history content writer with Hive Media. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1985; on November 26, 1987, he was killed in the crash of a private plane in Bakersfield, California. SELLECK, Pat, fifty-one, radio operator, recon platoon, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at X-Ray, was discharged from the Army on November 29, 1965, and returned to his old job at the telephone company. CRANDALL, Bruce, fifty-nine, who commanded the helicopters in the Ia Drang Valley, returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1967. Battle of Ia Drang American troops in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965. But Westmoreland believed the battle validated the airmobile tactic of quick strikes to catch the enemy off guard, kill as many as possible and withdraw back to base. Importantly, the battle of the Ia Drang Valley was interpreted in different ways by various groups and individuals: Army generals saw it differently from their civilian leaders; American soldiers had their own take on the combat; the news media saw the battle in yet another way. The Huey was the best helicopter ever made. Since I cant have that, I would like a job working as closely with the Army as possible. He is married and the father of four children. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. Crandall won the first Helicopter Heroism Award of the Aviation/Space Writers Association, for two daring nighttime landings under fire to rescue twelve badly wounded troopers from Captain Tony Nadals Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in Operation Masher-White Wing in January 1966. After they were airlifted out of the combat zone, McDades men were joined by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. They were interrogated by McDade, who, along with most of the commanding officers and radio operators, were called into a meeting to discuss the intel. When he got back to Refugio, Texas, he called on Joe Galloways parents but mercifully concealed the true circumstances of their meeting on the battlefield in X-Ray. Then he somehow managed to crawl away, saying that he was going to organize the troops. Feb 25, 2017. His lieutenants bars were pinned on by General James Van Fleet and, at Freemans request, his first assignment was as commander of Bravo Company. He returned to serve two more tours in Vietnamone with the Special Forces, one with an intelligence agency. He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1977 and returned to Georgia, where he is an executive for a trucking firm. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. The majority of the battle was fought in the valley of Ia Drang, Vietnam by 3rd Battalion, 7th Calvary and was the first major test of air . He works for a consulting firm in McLean, Virginia. I still have my leg, and I can walk on it. TADEMY, Dudley, 3rd Brigade fire-support coordinator in the Ia Drang, served a second tour in Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry and retired a colonel in January 1987, after thirty years service. The secondary plot follows Julia, who volunteers to deliver telegrams informing families of their loved ones deaths in Vietnam. The day before he died, George picked up a Christmas tree, which he planned to decorate with yellow ribbons and small American flags for the airport terminal; soldiers from the Gulf were still arriving and he didnt want them to think they had been forgotten. A Broken Arrow was declared over the radio by the Battalion Forward Air Controller, which meant that an American unit was in imminent danger of being overrun. These additional troops pushed back the enemy, allowing the others to evacuate the wounded. I marked off 65 names and thats when it really hit me what had happened and it just overwhelmed me. Ernie had gone back to his native Chicago and drove a truck for the city. However, Americans killed an estimated 1,800 North Vietnamese, through rifles, artillery, helicopters, and jets. (Tony), fifty-six, commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, later earned a masters degree in psychology and taught at West Point and at the Army War College. PLUMLEY, Basil, seventy-two, the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, retired from the Army as a command sergeant major on December 31, 1974, after thirty-two years, six months, and four days on active duty, and a second tour in Vietnam with the U.S. BUNGUM, Galen, forty-nine, rifleman in Lieutenant Henry Herricks Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, left the Army in April 1966 and went home to Hayfield, Minnesota. He retired a colonel in December 1981, after twenty-four years service. He is assistant principal of a public high school in the Bronx. For a number of years he was a country-and-western band leader and disc jockey. And it all began early one fall day. The idea was to kill the enemy, not necessarily hold ground, and bleed the North Vietnamese until they tired of war. He teaches physical and earth sciences at Venice High School, Los Angeles, California. BECK, Bill, forty-nine, assistant machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, left the Army in 1966 and went home to his native Steelton, Pennsylvania. He was first sergeant of Bravo Company, 36th Engineer Battalion and one of 14 men in his 257-man company who survived the opening stages of the fight for Pork Chop Hill. Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. We Were Soldiers (2002) is considered by many to be one of the best Vietnam War films ever made. Background. Lawrence and Cornett were roommates at Infantry Officer Basic School, roommates in jump school and on the ship together that brought them to Vietnam. He was forty-five. Read More Landing Zone Xray Lead elements of the under strength 450 man 1st Bn, 7th Cavalry air assault into a small clearing in scrub jungle below the 2300 foot Chu Pong Massif. The North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas absorbed even higher casualties from better-equipped American troops on the ground as well as helicopter gunships and B-52s raining bombs, bullets and napalm. He is senior Army adviser to the 79th Army Reserve Command in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. On November 27, 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Bartholomew was killed in action. He personally shook the hands of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers. WINTER, Pete, fifty-one, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was discharged in December 1965. Many did a second tour and others left the service and returned home to their families. Lawrence's story is one that he has told so often to so many people that it is fluid and impactful without being rehearsed. He remained with the medical platoon in Vietnam until July 1966. He returned to active duty in July 1966, and served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser in Long Binh district. Theres certainly politics involved in it, but I do think these guys, as mythological as it turned out to be, were true Cold War believers. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. We were taking an administrative break, guys were taking off their packs and lighting cigarettes and the enemy was less than 100 yards on our right flank and deploying and we couldn't see 'em or hear 'em," he said. copyright 2023 JEMISON, Robert, Jr., sixty-one, platoon sergeant, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, retired as a sergeant first class in 1976, after twenty-four years service. DIDURYK, Myron F., commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, completed his tour in Vietnam with Bravo Company in 1966, and later returned to Vietnam and the 1st Air Cavalry Division as a major. Charlies foot was pinned in the wrecked cockpit when the white phosphorus target-marking rockets under the wings cooked off. After several routine lifts into the area,the men on the ground came under attack from the North Vietnamese Army. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. DEAL, Dennis, fifty, platoon leader, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, left the Army as a captain in 1968 and returned to his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 4/C Jack P. Smith (Illustration by Noel Sickles, SEPS) Weekly Newsletter SUPPORT THE POST He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. After LZ Albany, Thorpe requested a transfer from his company command to the division public-information office and finished his tour as an escort officer for visiting press and VIPs. The vision of VVMF is to ensure a society in which all who have served and sacrificed in our nation's Armed Forces are properly honored and receive the recognition they justly deserve. HASTINGS, Charlie W., fifty-three, forward air controller at LZ X-Ray, retired as a colonel from the U.S. Air Force on March 1, 1992, after thirty years service. This praise is largely due to the heavy emphasis director Randall Wallace put on ensuring what he created was as accurate to the real events of the Battle of Ia Drang as possible. Fred Gilreath of Surgoinsville holds a framed photo of his older brother Luther Gilreath who was killed 50 years ago on the second day of the Battle of Ia Drang, Nov. 15, 1965. Parish now runs the Bristow, Oklahoma, toll gate on the Turner Turnpike. He still grows soybeans and corn on the farm in his spare time. He retired a first sergeant in June 1973, with twenty years service. Thus died one of the finest officers who fought in the Ia Drang. He shares this message with the groups he speaks to, but being able to impart some wisdom and knowledge from his experiences to Soldiers is special to him, because for him it is an opportunity to maybe bring a Soldier home safely. LOSE, Charles R., the medic of the Lost Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, has dropped out of sight. About 80 U.S. soldiers were killed, 124 wounded, in the first two days of the fight. Easy. Returning home, he single-handedly raised his two young children while earning two masters degrees. Hear three personal perspectives from men who survived. A total of 305 soldiers died. WINKEL, Paul Patton, Jr., sixty, Orange 1 flight leader, Bravo Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion in the Ia Drang, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. Gwin left the Army at the end of his ROTC commitment and went home to his native Boston, where he teaches and writes. Initially, Lawrence's thoughts and feelings after he was safe were just moments captured in his mind. Battalions would use helicopters to be transferred in and out as artillery support came in from above. 'Can't you see I'm dying?' Crandalls back was broken; he spent five months in an Army hospital recovering. This browser does not support getting your location. Yesteryears: For survivors, Battle of the Ia Drang Valley changed everything. MORENO, Frank, copilot in Ed Too Tall Freemans Huey in X-Ray, retired a chief warrant officer-4 after more than twenty years service. His awards include the Combat Infantrymans Badge with two stars; two Silver Stars; two Bronze Stars; four Purple Hearts; a Master Parachutist Badge with five combat-jump stars; a European Theater Service ribbon with eight campaign stars and four invasion arrows; a Korean Service ribbon with three campaign stars and one invasion arrow; a Vietnam Service ribbon with one silver and three bronze campaign stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. Alpha company along with most of the command group had setup a perimeter in the trees, but the rest of the battalion was cut off. "They (the PAVN) were everywhere on our right flank, even in the trees. A wounded soldier of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, is attended to by fellow comrades during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. 311 memorials Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. Crandall and Freeman successfully rescued some 70 wounded men. The Ia Drang Valley is a valley located near Pleiku in Central Highlands of Vietnam. ADAMS, Warren, sixty-two, first sergeant, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, retired in 1968 as the best-educated command sergeant major in the Army. He was the father of four children, aged twelve through twenty. SCOTT, James A., sixty-nine, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalrys sergeant major, served a second Vietnam tour in 1970-71 as command sergeant major, USARV Scott retired as a command sergeant major on May 1, 1973, after thirty years, ten months, and twenty days of service, wearing the Combat Infantrymans Badge with one star; six Bronze Stars; three Purple Hearts; a European Campaign ribbon with four battle stars and one invasion arrow; a Korean Service ribbon with two battle stars; a Vietnam Service ribbon with four battle stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation badge. Fifty years ago today, one of the Vietnam war's most ferocious battles broke out in the Ia Drang Valley. Of at least fifty thousand returning soldiers his ROTC commitment and went home to their.! Location in your browser settings his mind 1980, after twenty-four years.! Others to evacuate the wounded in Vietnam until July 1966 cooked off were killed, wounded. 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