survivors of ia drang valley

He retired a lieutenant colonel in 1980 with twenty years service, and is now a plastics-plant manager. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. The British-born Rescorla earned a masters degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. The Battle that changed the war in vietnam Overview A Vietnamese military maxim states: He who controls the Central Highlands controls South Vietnam. He went home to Anderson County, South Carolina, where he is a deputy sheriff. Her daughter, Camille, was soon joined by a brother, Robert, and a sister, Barbara. Gwin left the Army at the end of his ROTC commitment and went home to his native Boston, where he teaches and writes. Knowles has served in the New Mexico legislature since 1982. PARISH, Willard, fifty-one, mortarman in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who won the Silver Star for his work as a machine gunner in LZ X-Ray, was among the draftees who rotated home in December 1965 for discharge. In 2016, he joined a panel of Ia Drang survivors at the Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Ga., to share their experiences with both young and seasoned officers and noncommissioned officers. Difficult. (U.S. Army). The Pleiku Campaign took place from 20 October to 26 . Although the fighting had ended, the Battle of Ia Drang didnt officially conclude until the next day, as it took two days to collect the bodies. (Skip), fifty-three, commander of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, is still on active duty. The bulk of the fighting was centered around two vital helicopter landing zones: LZ X-Ray and Albany. It had been a small undeclared war mainly fought by South Vietnamese troops with a few U.S. advisers in the mix, sometimes on the ground, sometimes in helicopters, said Andrew Wiest, a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and the founding director of its Dale Center for the Study of War and Society. Weve updated the security on the site. Although it was left out of We Were Soldiers, Albany was no less bloody than X-Ray. At approximately noon,the North Vietnamese 33rd Regiment attacked. Sandpoint, ID 83864 He and his wife, Billie, have a son in college and a daughter still at home. MARTIN, John C., fifty-one, rifleman in Lieutenant Sissons platoon detached from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry for duty in X-Ray, served a second combat tour in Vietnam. New York, 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 lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and owns and operates a real estate brokerage firm. I've also included soldiers who survived and died later and the wife of the commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, Julia Moore for her role in supporting the grieving widows of the men slain. It was the first major combat action between U.S. ground forces and the North Vietnamese Army. The conflict is divided into two engagements: the Battle at Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major engagement during the Vietnam War, between members of the U.S. Army and the Peoples Army of North Vietnam. WALLENIUS, Jon, forty-nine, mortar observer, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany, got out of the Army in August 1966. Merchant retired a lieutenant colonel in 1982. A bitter conclusion to the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley came soon afterward, when Gen. Westmoreland told the 2nd Battalion survivors that they had achieved "a great victory over the Communists from the North." Douglas County, (Purp), fifty, rifleman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, was evacuated to Japan. The instructor of that class, Colonel John F. Jeszensky (ret. 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 served another Indochina tour in 1975, planning and helping run the final American air evacuation of Vietnam from a base in Thailand. "The emotions are so high, the noise is tremendous, the confusion is everywhere; they had overrun us by now. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets He was discharged a sergeant, completed his college education, and is now an on-air national news correspondent for ABC Televisions Weekend News. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh had warned the French, who were trying to restore control over their former protectorate, that you can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.. He became a legend in the unit for his behavior in combat, and his face became an American icon when a young reporter named Peter Arnett snapped his photo. Resend Activation Email. He earned a doctorate in education and is personnel director for the Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Georgia in Athens. He and his wife, Kornelia, live in Columbus, Georgia, where for several years Scott taught military subjects to Junior ROTC in the high schools. He lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Crandall kept his helicopter on the ground in the line of enemy fire, so that four wounded soldiers could be loaded aboard. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. They have four children and three grandchildren. George Nye was a sparkplug of Operation Welcome Home, which brought veterans groups, brass bands, and Bangor townsfolk to the airport by the hundreds to hug and shake hands with the Desert Storm veterans. Clinton Poley was an assistant machine gunner, who said they landed in grass that was 5 feet high and didnt know where the other troops were. Johns retired a brigadier general and is now dean of faculty at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Johns, whose two youngest children are in college, does volunteer work and writes for her own pleasure in her spare time. Tully retired a colonel in 1976. He joined IBM as a salesman in Austin, Texas, and spent twenty years with them, rising to the post of Midwestern regional manager. "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. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. 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. He was chief of security at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, until his death on April 18, 1992. Moore lectures at military academies and at several colleges and universities. We saved so many more people because of that helicopter.. Controlling the central highlands would enable the North Vietnamese to cut the south in two and separate South Vietnams northern cities of Hue and Da Nang from the capital, Saigon, to the south. SETELIN, John, forty-eight, squad leader, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, left Vietnam with three Purple Hearts and left the Army a sergeant. 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. He is now a financial officer with the U.S. The battalion commander had ordered his command helicopter to land and check out a North Vietnamese soldier killed by the door gunner. This allowed troops to be quickly brought in and out for battle. He lives in Olympia, Washington, and works for the state government. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle of Vietnam fought on the dates of November 14-18, 1965. MARM, Walter J. The Ia Drang Valley is the place the U.S. really went to warfare. LOMBARDO, Riccardo, sixty-one, Huey pilot in X-Ray and Albany and Pop Jekels good buddy, was retired on one hundred percent disability after a serious back injury in 1967, when he was thirty-six. Heroes of Vietnam: Death in the Ia Drang Valley American soldiers fought their first pitched battle of the Vietnam War here. Married and the father of three children, Winter works for the Long Island Railroad and lives in Howard Beach, Queens, New York. 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. HAZEN, Robert D., fifty, Lieutenant Bob Tafts radio operator in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav, retired from the Army a master sergeant in 1988 after twenty-seven years service. This operation responded to the NVA attack on an American . They are representative of the more than three million Americans who served the United States of America in its long and bitter war in Vietnam, representative of those who loved one of the more than 58,000 Americans who died in that war. I thought to myself. Today he is president of a major chemical-waste management corporation in Oak Brook, Illinois. Lawrence, even in his paralyzed state, was able to give some direction to his company. He was forty-five. The Battle of the la Drang Valley would come to be remembered as one of the most iconic battles of the Vietnam War, and later would set the scene for the film We Were Soldiers based on the novel We Were Soldiers OnceAnd Young. South Carolina, For the last twenty-one years he has been in the tire business. Since retiring he serves on the boards of half a dozen major corporations and also works as a consultant to defense industries. James Lawrence, a 77 year-old Vietnam veteran from Alabama, tells people about his best friend and the battle he died in whenever he gets the chance. The training kicks in and can save you.". The "Lost Platoon," led by Lt. Henry T. Herrick, became separated from the rest of Lt. Col. Harold G. "Hal" Moore's battalion at the start of the battle of Ia Drang on Nov. 14, 1965. The following is a partial accounting, prepared in 1992, of where some of them are and what they have done with their lives: ADAMS, Russell, fifty-one, machine gunner, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Cav in the Ia Drang, helps run the family dairy farm on five hundred acres outside Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Ia Drang Still Matters - War Is Boring. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. He and his wife live in Lake Forest, Illinois. Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, on the radio during the fight for LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. Shortly thereafter, US units began . SUGDINIS, Joel E., fifty-five, who had already served one tour in Vietnam as an adviser, completed his second tour with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry. SHUCART, William, M.D., surgeon, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang, had nearly completed his tour in Vietnam in the summer of 1966, when he suffered a broken back in the crash of a Chinook helicopter. Facebook Twitter He was killed in an automobile accident less than ten years later. He was made famous by the account of his actions during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965, the Americans' first major battle of the Vietnam War. Pujals recently closed his law practice. He studied to be a tool-and-die machinist and worked at that job for several years until the strain of long hours standing on his bad leg severely affected his hip and back. Although he was a civilian, Galloway was awarded the Bronze Star medal for helping to rescue wounded soldiers during the battle. On 27 October Westmoreland committed a brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry to search-and-destroy operations. I didn't do as I should have.". Towles received a masters degree in history from Kent State in 1989, and is currently working on his doctorate. He retired a major in 1980, after twenty years service. He served in both Brazil and El Salvador, was a history instructor at West Point, and served in the Center of Military History for a number of years. In her spare time, Rosemary enjoys spending time with her partner, her cats, and her horse, or sitting down to read a good book. Fighting was so intense that a battalion commander, Lt. Col. 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