survivors of ia drang valley

Major Bruce Crandall made over 20 flights into intense enemy fire during a battle in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam, in November 1965, evacuating 70 wounded and delivering ammunition. KELLING, George, fifty-four, who ran Charlie Med, the rear-area casualty receiving station during LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, retired a lieutenant colonel in 1978. (U.S. Army). It was his positive decision to do something that reinforced my own will to go on.". He completed 22 flights: Rescuing Wounded in Ia Drang Valley from 2015: https://vvmf.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/he-spent-14-hours-in-the-air-rescuing-wounded-in-the-ia-drang-valley/, Stars and Stripes Article: https://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/vietnam-stories/1965/ia-drang-valley-where-the-us-truly-went-to-war-1.376662, Larry Gwin | VVMF: https://youtu.be/_PDBgEu4cx4, Jon Wallenius | VVMF: https://youtu.be/Qb9a1L4rc2g, Bruce Crandall | VVMF: https://youtu.be/SSNTph4QQ2g, Joe Galloway | VVMF: https://youtu.be/N6XXcDATAgE, Faces Never Forgotten with Joe Galloway: https://www.facebook.com/VietnamVeteransMemorialFund/videos/2239219906358006/, National Geographic Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLyBazkpUFQ, 1965 CBS Special News Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx1rzDNcFmE, AARP Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtWX9TDFYc, Military.com In Depth Look: https://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/vietnam-war/the-battle-of-la-drang/2071462322001, Medal of Honor Recipient Bruce Crandall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIAEcZ29aG4, Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdDYNI7V0co, Medal of Honor Recipient Walter Marm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7-U0FBiYUU, Docs Teach (National Archives): https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/battle-la-drang-valley, PBS Clip (Plei Me and la Drang): https://whut.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/c27a31b7-14fc-4c5f-804e-168fbb24f5ed/plei-mei-and-the-ia-drang-valley-clip-the-vietnam-war/, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 Elements of the Armys 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) entered the first major land battle of the war at landing zones X-Ray and Albany, which would turn out to be proving grounds for a whole new kind of warfare. He retired a colonel in 1981, and is vice president of human resources for a large corporation in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. "The main point that I try to get across when I speak to Soldiers, and this is what saved me, is the training," he said. Major Bruce Crandalls UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission in Ia Drang. On November 18, 1965, the US forces were able to gather their dead. The bulk of the fighting lasted about 6 hours and in that time 2/7 Cav lost 155 killed and 124 wounded. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. A total of 305 soldiers died. Joseph Galloway was a civilian reporter at the Battle of Ia Drang. He is the perennial master of ceremonies at the Ia Drang dinners; he claims he is the only one of the brothers who can get through an entire sentence without using the f-word. They are stories that not only serve to maintain our connection with history, but also educate us and force us to confront the good and the bad and learn from it. On March 2, 1969, thirty-two-year-old Buse Tully was killed in action. Moderate. The men, women, and children of this story are Americas neighbors, living quiet lives in every corner of the nation they served. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. The two-part battle took place between November 14 and November 18, 1965 west of Plei Me, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. On the second day, North Vietnamese forces launched a heavy attack including hand-to-hand combat. He teaches physical and earth sciences at Venice High School, Los Angeles, California. On November 27, 1965, Diduryk wrote a detailed account of Bravo Companys actions at X-Ray for the ROTC students at his alma mater, St. Peters College in Jersey City, New Jersey. 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. No one wanted to look weak in the face of communist aggression.. Other donors to the fund are readers of the book from across America, Veterans, and supporters of the fund. MAPSON, Betty Jivens, forty-two, daughter of Sergeant Jerry Jivens, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, killed in action at X-Ray on November 15, 1965, is married, the mother of two, and works as a secretary at the Medical Center Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. 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. JAKES, Jimmie, Sr., forty-nine, a fire-team leader of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, was wounded in LZ X-Ray, but recovered and returned to complete his tour. Unknown to them at the time, they were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. SHADDEN, James Haskell, fifty, mortarman, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, survived half a dozen operations and one year in Army hospitals recovering from the wounds received at LZ Albany. copyright 2023 He left the Army in October 1966, and went home to his native Ohio, where he works as a carpenter. It occurred in the Ia Drang valley, near Vietnam's border with Cambodia, on November 14-18, 1965. RIDDLE, Bill, fifty-two, artillery forward observer with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, completed his Army service in the summer of 1966. The instructor of that class, Colonel John F. Jeszensky (ret. Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. Adams and his wife have a three-year-old daughter. 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. He was paralyzed. This is the tale of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in 1965. Finally, after 10 months, had some makeshift buildings. Read More While Beck survived the ultimately victorious 2-1/2-day fight at Ia Drang, 305 other American soldiers did not. That spring, the Saigon government had begun collapsing under the combined. After they were airlifted out of the combat zone, McDades men were joined by the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. Married and the father of three children, Winter works for the Long Island Railroad and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, New York. Crandalls back was broken; he spent five months in an Army hospital recovering. "The fear factor, when you know someone is within yards of you and is trying to kill you desperately, the fear factor can shut you down. You've got to be in command and as I was on the way up, with my helmet strapped on, a North Vietnamese soldier in a tree put two bullet holes right through my helmet.". WHITESIDE, Jerry E., fifty-five, fire-support coordinator in LZ X-Ray, served a second tour in Vietnam as an adviser. 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. Freeman won a battlefield commission in the Korean War. "I realized it when Sgt. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. He is partly paralyzed as a result of his terrible wound. POLEY, Clinton, forty-eight, assistant machine gunner, 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, was discharged from Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado, early in 1966, and went home to Iowa and the family farm. He and his wife, Kathie, live on a seventy-acre ranch near Aspen, Colorado, where he owns and operates an outfitting company for fishing and boating trips. He was director of training development at Fort Benning when he retired as a colonel in 1983. Westmorelands biggest problem with the strategy was that he thought it would work in two or three years when it would have taken 10 or 12.. The majority of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, under the command of Lt. Col. Robert McDade, didnt enter the fight until X-Ray had already been relieved by Moore. They are all Don Cornett to him, his best friend. Shadden lives on a seven-acre farm outside Tellico Plains, Tennessee, and works part-time at odd jobs. He did not know at the time that his friend, Don Cornett, had died. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Outnumbered when they arrive, the men are forced to fight for their lives while eliminating the 4,000-strong North Vietnamese force. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. Her research focused on military, environmental, and Canadian history with a specific focus on the Second World War. Omaha, For the last twenty-one years he has been in the tire business. They died dirty. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Galloway served a total of fifteen years overseas with UPI, assigned to Tokyo, Saigon, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, and Moscow. He told me that if he didn't make it, I was to write her and tell her that he loved her. Rate the pronunciation difficulty of Ia Drang. He and his wife live in Anniston, Alabama, where Martin is employed at the Army Depot. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. 'The torture stopped': 1969 brought temporary changes to infamous Hanoi Hilton, Patriotism or protest? He and his wife, Julie, divide their time between homes in Auburn, Alabama, and Crested Butte, Colorado. In the fall of 1965 the Vietnam War was an event most Americans saw as a series of smaller battles leaving little to remember. This account has been disabled. After three days of fighting, 240 Americans had been killed and another 300 wounded (more troops were brought in in support). TOWLES, Robert, forty-seven, rifleman, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, spent five months in Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania, recovering from twenty-eight shrapnel wounds he received at LZ Albany. 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. WALLACE, Bruce M. Jr., sixty-one, Air Force A-IE Skyraider pilot over the Ia Drang, served two more tours in Vietnam and retired a colonel in 1976. GWIN, S. Lawrence (Larry), fifty-one, executive officer, Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, stayed with his company through July 4, 1966. It wasnt until Albany was back in American hands that the engagement officially drew to a close. Lt. 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Crandalls UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy in!

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