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On the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Gen. Moore returned to his alma mater at the invitation of the Department of History to address the Corps of Cadets on battlefield leadership during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Following a brief narration of the battle, Moore got to the main purpose of his visit: the preparation of American soldiers for combat. Cadet time is carefully regimented, but 200 of the 1,000 cadets remained one hour beyond the scheduled lecture to hear the old warrior’s remarks. For an additional hour, Moore captivated his audience, dividing his comments between a leader’s preparations for battlefield leadership and his own philosophy on the conduct of a leader in battle.

In preparing America’s sons and daughters for combat, Gen. Moore directed the cadets to read military history, particularly small unit actions. The personality of a big battle is often formed by a small unit action. During the Ia Drang Battle, for example, much of Moore’s efforts were directed at rescuing an isolated platoon of one of his companies. In addition to Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, Moore cited Stephen E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers and Ian Knight’s books on the defense of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu Wars of 1879. Both books have appeared on the Army Chief of Staff’s recommended reading list.

Second, Moore urged cadets to visit historic battlefields with maps, books and narratives from actual participants to understand the intricacies of battles and campaigns. The staff ride concept was pioneered by Capt. Arthur L. Wagner at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., at the turn of the 20th century and emerged as a vital component of officer professional development for more than a hundred years. Today most commanders incorporate some aspect of the staff ride in their training to enhance unit morale and to determine how and why key leaders made their decisions under hazardous conditions. Moore himself recently returned from the Normandy battlefields where he contemplated the decisions by the senior Allied commanders.

Next Moore stressed the necessity of installing the will to win in one’s command. He was adamant that commanders should not place any second place trophies in the unit. "Focus on winning, being first," and the soldiers will respond more rapidly. His remarks were reminiscent of former Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi who demanded a commitment to excellence and victory above all else. To Lombardi the greatest joy in life was to give one’s last ounce of strength and to lie exhausted in victory.

Fourth, Moore concentrated on building unit discipline and teamwork. When he commanded Fort Ord in 1971, Moore instituted bayonet and pugil stick training, hand-to-hand combat training, confidence and close combat courses, field marches and rappelling to improve morale and prepare his soldiers for combat. Such combat-enhancing courses resulted in a "family of warriors," much the same as his 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang Valley. Only by installing "layer after layer after layer of personal discipline on one’s troops" will units "stand tall, hang in, and stay alive when the going gets tough."

Fifth, Moore urged the cadets to prepare their commands for their own death and that of their subordinate leaders. Squad leaders must be ready to assume command of a platoon and a company.

To illustrate his point, Moore remembered on the first day of the Ia Drang fight, one of Bravo Company’s platoons lost every officer and noncommissioned officer save one. Faced with overwhelming pressure from the North Vietnamese Army, Sgt. Ernie Savage, the fourth man to inherit Lt. Henry Herrick’s Lost Platoon, called indirect fire upon his own position. His action saved the remainder of the platoon, which had suffered nine dead and 13 wounded in the first 90 minutes of combat.

Not only must platoon leaders train squad and fire team leaders to adjust artillery and mortar fire, but leaders at all levels must prepare for wounded men yelling for "Medic" or "Mom." In battle, leaders must divorce themselves from the sounds of combat and concentrate on making clear, logical decisions.

Gen. Moore concluded his comments on preparation for battlefield leadership by reminding the cadets that mission accomplishment comes first, then care of their soldiers. The easiest part is responding to the soldiers’ personal needs -- food, water, mail and information on what is going on. The more important steps are developing stressful realistic training, rigorous physical conditioning and "stern, fair and square discipline."

With respect to his own battalion, Moore’s pre-combat training inculcated the Spartan qualities of self-denial, discipline and sacrifice into the troopers who deployed to Vietnam in 1965.

So important was the work of Crandall and his helicopter crews that Hal Moore (then a Lt. Col. and now a retired Lt. General) wrote a personal letter thanking Crandall for his heroism during Ia Drang. "We on that field would have gone down" without the "extraordinarily heroic effort" of Crandall and his men.

Treated right, Moore said, the least PFC is capable of acts of valor and sacrifice that are breathtaking. One only has to return to the Ia Drang to confirm Moore’s theory. Two cavalry troopers, Russell Adams and Bill Beck, manned an M-60 machine gun and with another crew, they protected Alpha Company’s left flank during the opening stages of the battle. When Adams suffered a debilitating wound, it fell to assistant gunner Beck to maintain a withering fire on the enemy, now within 30 yards of his position. Moore later recalled that when Spc. 4 Beck’s company and his country needed him most, Beck rose to the occasion and answered the call.

Gen. Moore summarized his remarks on battlefield preparation by reminding the cadets to "live each of your troop duty days to the fullest." No one ever wrote a book about the joy and delights of being a staff officer, stated Moore, so "spend time with your soldiers. Talk with them. Never ever abuse them by act of omission. They are the secret to successful command on or off the battlefield." Again his words are reminiscent of the Spartan warrior who described his king Leonidas as a monarch "who did not command his men’s loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold, rather he earned their respect by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endured for their sake."

Turning his attention to conduct in battle, Moore next outlined four basic principles to govern ground combat. First, "Three strikes and you are not out!" A commander has two alternatives in battle. He can either contaminate his environment and his unit with his attitude and actions, or inspire confidence. To inspire confidence a leader must be visible on the battlefield and must be in the battle. Moore cautioned cadets to possess and display the will to win by one’s actions, one’s words, one’s tone of voice on the radio, and face to face.

Lt Col Hal Moore at the Battalion command post in LZ Xray on 15 Nov 65.

Moreover, a commander must display quiet confidence and display no fear, ignoring "the noise, dust, smoke, thirst, explosions, screams of wounded, the yells, the dead lying around him." Such chaos is normal in battle, not the exception. Battle by its nature is chaotic. Good commanders strive to make battle organized chaos, rather than disorganized carnage. In Ia Drang, Moore’s lead helicopter pilot, Maj. Bruce Crandall, remembered Moore as "always making the right decision, always fully aware of the situation."

Second, "There’s always one more thing you can do to influence any situation in your favor -- and after that one more thing -- and after that one more thing." Taking a few seconds to separate one’s self mentally from the battle, Moore repeatedly asked himself, "What am I doing that I should not be doing? And what am I not doing that I should be doing to influence the situation in my favor?" These quiet seconds of reflection allowed Moore to enter a "zone" in which opportunities rapidly crystallized. By refusing to surrender the tactical initiative to the enemy, Moore dictated the course of the battle to the best of his ability, directing arriving units to the most dangerous portions of the battlefield, often minutes before the enemy attacked.

The third principle is "When there’s nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong except there’s nothing wrong!" That was exactly when a leader must be most alert. On the morning of the battle’s second day, Moore noticed that things were too quiet, not even the birds were singing. Something in his gut told him that something was wrong, so he directed each company to send out patrols. Within minutes these patrols intercepted the enemy as the NVA moved into position to assault Moore’s beleaguered troopers. The Americans repelled the attack, inflicting massive casualties on the enemy.

Last, Moore urged the cadets to trust their instincts. In a rapidly developing battle, one’s instincts amount to an instant estimate of the situation. There is no time to conduct a detailed commander’s estimate by the book and to make a matrix of alternative courses of action. An officer’s instincts are the product of education, training, reading, personality and experience according to Moore. Leaders must act fast and impart confidence. Don’t second guess decisions. Face up to the facts, deal with them and move on to the next situation. In the Ia Drang’s opening minutes, Moore’s instincts told him that the enemy commander was likely to strike on his left flank, heading for the clearing that marked the landing zone. As soon as Moore’s Charlie Company arrived on the landing zone, he directed them to take position on Alpha Company’s left, taking the risk of leaving his own rear unguarded from the north and east. They arrived just as the NVA launched an attack.

PFC Ira Rolston uses the bugle captured during the Battle of the Ia Drang to signal Co. B, 1st Plt., to move toward a valley objective, Feb. 1966.

Moore concluded his remarks by stressing the bond that exists between a commander and his soldiers. When one cadet inquired about the feeling of comrades in arm, Moore’s eyes welled with tears and he said, "When your men die and you don’t, you feel guilty. That’s all I can say about it." Today 37 years after the Battle in the Ia Drang Valley, Moore makes annual pilgrimages to the cemetery at Fort Benning, Ga., where several of his troopers are interred, and to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington, D.C. In the wake of the tragedy of September 11, the old commander, now in his 80th year, paid his respects to Rick Rescorla, a former lieutenant who died in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

How was Moore received by West Point’s Corps of Cadets? A random sample of unedited comments tells the story. "The most important part of Gen. Moore’s lecture was the advice on how people should lead," noted one cadet. Another said, "The single most noteworthy accomplishment was being able to keep his cool and composure while on the verge of being overrun. ... He inspired me to always remain optimistic, even when things look bad." Yet another remarked, "I was hanging on every word. It was the best lecture I have ever heard at West Point. ... I would have stayed and listened to him all night if that were possible."

COMPANY B SWEEPING FORWARD OF THE BATTALION PERIMETER

Perhaps the most touching comment came from a first class cadet who said Moore’s presentation was the "best, most down-to-earth lecture I have ever experienced. It made me feel proud becoming an officer and entering into the Army as a profession. His words are inspirational and his experiences are a model of admiration. I wish I would have gone Infantry."

How many other cadets Moore inspired to select Infantry as a branch is speculative, but the general consensus that April evening was that listening to Hal Moore made these cadets better future commanders. Listening to Moore could make one a better officer and possibly a better person.

One final observation. In the audience the night Moore addressed the Corps was New York Times reporter John Kifver, who asked Moore if his comments were on the record. "All my comments are for the record," Moore replied, "Feel free to publish anything you desire." In the subsequent column that graced the front page of the Times, Kifver described Moore as a "courtly old warrior."

In the final analysis, Moore typifies the finest attributes of the U.S. Army’s officer corps and West Point’s motto of "Duty, Honor, Country."

His mantra for years has been and continues to be "hate war, love the American warrior." As heroic and inspirational as his battlefield leadership was in countless battles in two foreign wars, however, Moore’s greatest legacy remains the preparation of future officers to lead America’s finest soldiers into battle. That is why he is cherished by officers and soldiers alike.

Additional Sources:

www.cav57.org
www.jbs.org
www.army.mil
www.cantho-rvn.org
www.lzxray.com
www.vva.org
www.heritagestudio.com

Just wanted to say "Hi All", I know I wasn't here in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time but didn't forget!

God bless Hal Moore. His service to our country is nothing short of heroic.

I know you don't post here anymore. Here's hoping that you still check your messages. You might like this thread. Thanks for you service, pete.

Just this week, I watched the movie version again, for about the 3rd or 4th time since I bought the DVD. After I first saw it in the theater, I went directly from the theater to the bookstore to buy the book and see how faithfull the movie was to the book. In a word, very.

By all means see the movie, but get the book as well. If you can get one of the early versions from a used bookstore, the man on the cover is Rick Rescola, who was killed in the WTC attack, after getting most of the people he was responsible for, as head of security, out of the building.

I'd just like to say that even though I'm not American, the way you wrote this summary touched me. I am reading Gen. Moore's book 'We were soldiers once... and young' and the way it's written just takes you to LZ X-Ray. It made me decide to join the British military. a decision i will never regret. The world is a safer place because of people like Gen Moore, and I don't think he ever got the gratitude he deserved for the way he fought. I think your admiration of Gen. Moore is portrayed in the way you write, and that alone makes this a well written article. thank you
yours, lianne