His weapon was on fire," he said. The real Harold G. Moore and Joseph Galloway traveled back to Vietnam after the war and met the real Nguyen Huu An as research for their book so they could understand the battle strategy of the North Vietnamese at Ia Drang. Urge them to get some counselling; to spend some time talking with others afflicted by PTSD. "He was the kindest, most gentle and loving man," Grace Galloway said. I worked for a little cooperative French agency, Gamma, which we had created a few years earlier. Excerpted from a 2013 interview with Art Greenspon by Peter van Agtmael, a Magnum photographer who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: As the first medevac chopper hovered overhead I saw the First Sergeant with his arms in the air. Giap would later say: We thought that the Americans must have a strategy. Karen Spears Zacharias, a Gold Star daughter, lost her father, Staff Sgt. All total in the battle of X-Ray and the ambush near LZ Albany, 234 Americans were killed and more than 250 wounded in just four days and nights, November 14-17, 1965. We are in a small hamlet near Dakto late in 1967, barely two months away from the Tt Offensive. War Zone C Ambush of the 173rd Airborne, 1965. Katherine Holden, daughter of photographer Philip Jones Griffiths: This picture was taken by my father, Philip Jones Griffiths, in Vietnam in 1968 during the battle for Saigon. ignorance. Free shipping. At Jeremiah Purdies packed funeral, there wasnt a man or a woman with a story to tell that didnt mention how, in some way, he had reached out. Fear, tension and uncertainty are visible in the contained defiance of the mother and the awkward posture of the young warrior clutching his automatic rifle. discharging a load of infantrymen on a search and destroy mission. During the time I spent with him and his platoon they didnt come into direct contact with the enemy, but there was always a common undercurrent that ran through them, a palpable anxiety and fear about what could come their way in a split second. On December 15, 1965, LBJs council of wise old men, which in addition to McNamara included the likes of Clark Clifford, Abe Fortas, Averell Harriman, George Ball and Dean Acheson, was assembled at the White House to decide the path ahead in Vietnam. His legs were paralyzed and VA got him a car with hand controls. Colonel, for outstanding service in the Office, Chief of Research and Development, from July 1 1957 to 31 January 1960. General Knowles called a news conference late on the 18th in a tent at Holloway. Despite these numbers, senior American officials in Saigon declared the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley a great victory. Fifty years ago this week, a young UPI correspondent named Joe Galloway talked his way onto an Army helicopter headed for the Ia Drang Valley, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. - ARC 653177 / LI 263.2408 Credits. Danielsens men joined the line, and Stocktons helicopter crews got out of their birds and joined the battle with their M-60 machine guns and the pilots pistols. A photo of a young widow sprawled atop the grave of her soldier husband at Arlington Cemetery leaves me choked with grief and sobbing aloud. In the fairly rendered background a soldier, probably wounded, is seen surrounded by comrades who, somehow, form an awkward Piet. Evaluation. A kid headed out for R&R and a floor stacked with KIAs [killed in action]. Joe. Just as he pulled it I came up fighting for my life, and threw my wife out of bed and against the wall of our apartment. I notice that as the years dwindle down to a precious few I weep a lot more often as the memories cross my mind. In Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent an urgent message to Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, who was in Europe, ordering him to come home via Saigon and find out what had happened at Ia Drang, and what it meant. By Joe Lee Galloway. When the war ended in 1975, that man and five others were all that were left alive of the 400. contribution that his branch made to the accomplishment of the Air Mobility Division mission. only a couple bottles of blue pills which you need, Joe Lee Galloway I had read Ernie Pyles columns and his collected work and I thought if a war comes ++"They ran to our foxholes. This is a photo that Howard felt was very powerful. The Recon Platoon had captured two North Vietnamese soldiers. A siege by a massive North Vietnamese force was about to take place. I had given all of my food away so I didnt eat for two days. Kinnard, and by Colonel Moore. All of this was merely prelude, setting the stage for the savage mid-November battles at LZs X-ray and Albany. . This image shows troops getting off a UH-1 "Huey" helicopter and entering the battlefield. Joe Galloway takes a hard look at the assessments of Ia Drang by the war's architects in Washington, Saigon and Hanoi: McNamara, Westmoreland, Ho and Giap, https://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, How Operation Homecoming Was Sprung into Action to Repatriate American POWs. 10 things you never knew about we were soldiers task. (AP Photo) When American GIs landed on British shores they exuded generosity to their allies, giving away candy, nylons and cigarettes. Joe Lee Galloway I thought I was bulletproof, invincible, as young men often do before they see the elephant.. War Zone C Ambush of the 173rd Airborne, 1965. On July 16, 2001 and February 26, 2007, respectively, helicopter pilots . Free shipping. He co-authored the book We Were Soldiers Once And Young with Hal Moore. but you dont. I shot a photo of him as he was walking toward the chopper and he was cursing everyone, me included. The UH-1B Huey helicopters buzzed around the rugged area like so many bees, landing American troops among the North Vietnamese, forcing them to split up into ever-smaller groups like coveys of quail pressed hard by the hunters. He is the only reporter who covered the war recognized for heroism in combat. My first tour in Vietnam lasted 16 months. My father didnt know that Jeremiah Purdie had enlisted in a segregated Marine Corps 18 years earlier, that cooking in the mess and polishing shoes were the limits placed on his service. Galloway brandishes a Swedish K submachinegun at Danang in August 1965. day battle. The shot was made one-handed as we carried him out of the fire cone. Colonel Crandall broke his back when he crash landed a year later while rescuing 12 trapped soldiers. It was followed by a barrage of incoming automatic weapon and artillery rounds. But for that fraction of a second, in his face, his posture, was all the fatigue and despair of a young soldier who is surely wondering what in the hell hes doing there, so far from home. Bob McDades 2-7 Battalion plus one company of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, would follow Tully part of the way, then break off west and northwest toward another clearing closer to the river dubbed LZ Albany. In 1998, Galloway became the only American civilian to receive the Bronze Star Medal with "V" for heroism during the Vietnam War. Bearing in mind the nature of the war, the expected weighted combat force ratio of less than 2-to-1 will not be good enough. Why were these uniformed men just giving them away? A battalion of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division was ambushed while marching from the jungle clearing where the Ia Drang Valley fighting started Nov. 14, 1965. Beginning Nov. 14, 1965, Moore led his battalion in a fierce battle around Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. Both sides had lost interest in taking prisoners. Later I realized that I had shot a photo, in the heat of battle, of my childhood friend from the little town of Refugio, Texas. Employers shy away from hiring people who have been diagnosed with PTSD. The soldier, seen from the back, facing a Vietnamese woman hugging a baby, with a half-naked boy by her side? We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the place now called Victoria, and all First Peoples living and working on this land. Some had feared that the helicopters were too flimsy and fragile to fly into the hottest of landing zones. By late summer, the 1st Cavalry was stationed in Vietnam's Central Highlands. The clearing was silent for now. Jimmy D. Nakayama's casualty report no crushed ankles! But Im fascinated by the photograph because of the man behind the camera: Yoichi Okamoto. Without them, the battles of the Ia Drang could never have taken place. We have but two options, it seems to me. "It was bad. Stockton, an Army brat who had grown up in horse cavalry posts all across the West, had resurrected black cavalry Stetson hats for his men and smuggled the 9th Cavs mascot Maggie the mule aboard ship and 8,000 miles to Vietnam in defiance of another of Dick Knowles orders. What happened when the American cavalrymen and the Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) collided head-on in the Ia Drang had military and civilian leaders in Washington, Saigon and Hanoi scrambling to assess what it meant, and what had been learned. Joe Lee Galloway a Reporter who did not have to go to Vietnam has PTSD?! War Correspondent, Vietnam, Joe Galloway speaks during the 'Vietnam in HD' panel during the History portion of the 2011 Summer TCA Tour at the. Jimmy Nakayama. As the president walked into the room, he was holding McNamaras November 30 memo in his hand. JG. In a steady, highly effective, and most outstanding manner, Lt. Now go and if you are invited back, dont come!. Joseph Lee Galloway (November 13, 1941 - August 18, 2021) was an American newspaper correspondent and columnist. The book was later adapted. Russell Burrows, son of photographer Larry Burrows: The fraction of a second captured in most photographs is just that: a snapshot of a moment in time. Which became We Were Soldiers Once and Young. After the beginning of the Iraq War my own employer Knight Ridder hired psychologists who interviewed returning war correspondents, and checked up on them periodically to make sure they were OK. What do you think the general public fails to understand about PTSD? So I just moved on with my life and career. The answer from LBJs White House was that absolutely no hot pursuit across the borders would be authorized. On November 14, 1965, the 1st Battalion (Bn), 7th Cavalry Regiment (Regt), 1st Air Cavalry (Cav) Division (Div) was sent on a search and destroy . Then his men took a prisoner, a North Vietnamese private who was quaking so hard he could barely speak. Nixon left the plane. I guarded that pack like a mother hen. Tell them that they will get better, and help them get there. JG Though Capas illustrates cruelty, my corpsman illustrates humanity, almost saintliness a man carrying a child away from the sorrow and injuries of war. Instead, he was riding in the 16th helicopter in a formation. ie Crushed ankle. Fort Irwin, Calif., March 19, 2016. Thats about six times the rate of PTSD of other professions. During WWII Italian Commandos Were Tasked to Ride Torpedoes. +When did it dawn on you that you yourself might be suffering from PTSD? Word spread quickly that a battalion of Americans had been massacred in the Ia Drang Valley, but reporters were told there was no ambush. The turning point of the five-year-old war, the offensive by elusive Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces failed in military terms but constituted a political victory in the arena of international public opinion. I began having a nightmare that was always the same: I was on my knees begging for my He told the dozens of reporters who had assembled that there was no ambush of the Americans at Albany. Larry Burrows The Life Picture Collection. The title is WE ARE SOLDIERS STILL: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam, and I think its a pretty good story, but he is sure working me hard. ============== A naked limb is hanging from the poncho. Sometimes, even in war, that moment can tell a whole story with clarity, but it can be ambiguous too. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. The Ia Drang River Campaign of early November is an example. Joe Galloway, at a Medal of Honor ceremony from Ia Drang battle helicopter pilot Bruce Crandall at the White House in 2007. PAVN machine gunners climbed atop the big termite moundssome 6 feet tall and as big around as a small automobileand opened up. The Americans trapped in the kill zone were on their own. How those photographs made history is underscored throughout the new documentary series The Vietnam War, from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Lee Galloway at the Ia Drang photo will be donated to the fund. Knowlen and his men beat back three waves of attacking North Vietnamese, but the company commander feared the next attack would overrun his position. Article written by Joe Lee Galloway, the time Bruce Crandall was caught trying to sling load a. And, in the decades since, the most striking of those images have retained their power. Hal, over to you. The smell of rotting corpses hung heavy over X-ray, and with the arrival on foot of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under its new commander Lt. Col. Robert McDade, on the morning of November 16, there were now three Cavalry battalions crammed into that clearing. I have got to get all this in one picture, I thought. Both sides understood that the war had changed suddenly and dramatically in those few days. General Giap knew all along that his country and his army would prevail against the Americans just as they had outlasted and worn down their French enemy. I distinctly remember family talking about a returned soldier who came home damaged mentally.. Dao yelled that they were prepared to fight the enemy, come what may. Shaking it at the defense secretary, he said, You mean to tell me no matter what I do I cant win in Vietnam? McNamara nodded yes. My Leica was soaked, too, and I wasnt sure what kind of pictures it was producing. Neither we, nor General Dao, had expected the tide of advancing communist forces to so quickly and completely surround the town. We arent allowed to forget; we arent supposed to forget. 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