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Lt.Gen. Harold Gregory "Hal" Moore, Jr., USMA 1945, left us this past February (2017) after a long and distinguished career.

While he was the 'star' of the book and movie, there was another soldier there at the Battle of Ia Drang that we should keep green in our memory, Col. Cyril Richard Rescorla, a Cornishman who lived a life that left footprints in the sands of time. When called to ultimate action, after a very eventful life, he died at 09/11 saving people in the South Tower. It was his face, his photo, that was on the cover of Hal Moore's book.

On this day where we remember our Veterans, lets us also praise them for they are and were heros in our midst!

there was another soldier there at the Battle of Ia Drang that we should keep green in our memory, Col. Cyril Richard Rescorla

And also Jack Goeghegan. I knew him when he was a cadet commander at military college, and he was a very fine individual. He died there trying to save another man.

Rescorla, after the van attack in the basement of the trade towers was talking with a Vietnam vet friend about security at the towers. I can’t recall if it was Rick’s idea or the other - but they ended up agreeing that the next attack would be crashing an airplane into it.

Rescorla trained his people accordingly - and after the first tower was hit, had his people evacuate rather than staying in the second tower as he had been told.

Regarding the Ia Drang battle, Moore said it was about as realistic as could be. Although he said the part where the enemy runs through their command post was dramatic license. Something to the effect of “Our boys didn’t let a single enemy soldier break through the perimeter.”

And when he saw the part about his wife delivering the telegrams to the nice homes on base, something like “Those were the officer’s quarters. The housing had changed, and the enlisted had to fend for themselves on their housing allowances, which I tried to fight to get their families back on base. Most of them lived in substandard apartments. I wanted that part changed - to show them delivering the telegrams to their run-down homes - but shooting was too far gone and the budget and logistics wouldn’t allow it.”

I think Moore helped many of them out personally.

Read the book. It is a tribute to the heroism, bravery and sacrifice of the American soldier and airmen who fought in Vietnam and every other war in recent history (including my father-in-law, Iwo Jima; son - Iraq; son-in-law - Kosovo/Iraq).

I once met Galloway and he was a lot bigger than his reporter/combat weight of Nam, but he was a quiet, jovial, humble man, and very perceptive of history and events. I missed seeing him in Nam but I hold him in the greatest respect as both a journalist and as an America. He may have been Vietnam’s Ernie Pyle, and if not, he was damned close to it.

From one Bao Chi to another - Salute!