Replies

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

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 06:
1711 Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg founder of US Lutheran church
1757 Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, French soldier and statesman who aided George Washington during the American Revolution.
1766 John Dalton chemist, developed atomic theory of matter
1805 Horatio Greenough US, neoclassical sculptor/writer
1811 James Melville Gilliss founded Naval Observatory in Washington
1814 Sir George Cartier (C) Canadian co-PM (1858-62)
1817 Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt a Canadian founding father
1860 Jane Addams US, pacifist/social worker/feminist (Nobel 1931)
1881 Leo Carrillo LA Calif, actor (Pancho-Cisco Kid)
1883 Lord Birkett England, judge (Nremburg Trials)
1885 Otto Kruger Toledo Ohio, actor (Lux Video Theater, High Noon)
1888 Joseph P Kennedy financier/diplomat, father of JFK, RFK & Teddy
1899 Billy Rose theatrical producer (Diamond Horse Show)
1902 Morgan Beatty Little Rock Ark, news anchor (Du Mont Evening News)
1904 Maxie Rosenbloom light heavyweight boxing champ (1930-34)
1908 Paul Lavalle Beacon NY, bandleader (Cities Service Band of America)
1912 Vincent DiMaggio baseball player (Giants, Phils, Reds, Braves)
1915 Franz Josef Strauss Germany, minister of defense (1956-62)
1923 William Kraft Chicago, Ill, composer/percussionist
1925 Jimmy Reed Mississippi, blues singer (Soulin', Big Boss Man)
1928 Evgeny Svetlanov Moscow Russia, conductor (Siberian Fantasy)
1928 Rudolph Plukfelder USSR, light heavyweight (Olympic-gold-1964)
1934 Jody McCrea LA Calif, actor (Ben Matheson-Wichita Town)
1937 Jo Anne Worley Lowell Indiana, comedienne (Laugh-in)
1938 Joan Tower New Rochelle NY, composer (Breakfast Rhythms)
1939 David Allan Coe country musician (Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy)
1944 Linda Kaye Henning Cal, actress (Betty Joe-Petticoat Junction)
1944 Swoosie Kurtz Omaha Nebraska, actress (Slap Shot, Garp)
1946 Bryan D O'Connor Orange Cal, Col USMC/astronaut (STS 61B, STS 40)
1947 Jane Curtin Cambridge Mass, actress (SNL, Allie Lowell-Kate & Allie)
1947 Roger Waters singer (Pink Floyd)
1953 Katherine Cannon Hartford Ct, actress (Father Murphy, The Survivors)
1954 Jon Erikson US, 1st to triple cross English Channel (1981)
1955 Anne Henning US, 500m speed skater (Olympic-gold-1972)
1958 Jeff Foxworthy (comedian: You Know You're a Redneck, The Jeff Foxworthy Show; author: No Shirt, No Shoes ... No Problem)
1960 Michael Winslow actor/comedian (Police Academy)
1961 Peggy MacIntaggart Midland Ontario, playmate (January, 1990)
1967 Amy Lynn Baxter model (Penthouse Pet 1990)
1974 Justin Whalin LA, actor (Charles in Charge)

Deaths which occurred on September 06:
972 John XIII Crescentii, pope (965-72), dies
1635 Adrian A Metius, mathematician/fort architect, dies at 63
1701 James II king of England (1685-88), dies at 68
1901 Pres William McKinley assassinated by Leon Czologosz in Buffalo, NY
1939 Arthur Rackham, artist/illustrator (Grimm's Fairy Tales), dies at 71
1959 Kay Kendall British actress, dies at 32
1960 Jimmy Savo comedian (Through the Crystal Ball), dies at 65
1963 Margarita Sierra actress, dies at 26 after heart surgery
1966 Dr Verwoerd South African PM, assassinated in assembly
1966 Margaret Sanger, US feminist/birth control pioneer/racist, dies at 86
1974 Otto Kruger actor (Lux Video Theater), dies on 89th birthday
1984 E.J. Andre actor (Eugene Bullock-Dallas), dies at 74
1984 Ernest Tubb singer (Grand Ole Opry), dies at 70
1985 Jane Frazee singer/actress (Alice-Beulah), dies at 67 of pneumonia
1985 Johnny Desmond singer (Your Hit Parade), dies of cancer at 65

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 BUNDY NORMAN L. MIAMI FL.
1968 COSKEY KENNETH L. DETROIT MI.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 DEICHELMANN SAMUEL M. MONTGOMERY AL.
1972 LINDLAND DONALD F. EUGENE OR.
[REMAINS RETURNED 06/03/83]
1972 LERSETH ROGER G. SPOKANE WA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
394 Theodosius becomes sole ruler of Italy after defeating Eugenius at the Battle of the River Frigidus.
1422 Sultan Murat II ends a vain siege of Constantinople.
1492 Columbus' fleet sails from Gomera, Canary islands
1522 Magellen with Vittoria returns to Spain, after 1st round world trip
1620 Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth England to the New World
1628 Puritans land at Salem, from Mass Bay Colony, witches soon to settle
1839 Great fire in NY
1848 National Black Convention meets (Cleveland)
1853 Women's Rights Convention met (NYC)
1861 General Grant occupies Paducah Kentucky
1862 Stonewall Jackson occupies Fredrick, Maryland
1863 After 59 day siege, confederates evacuate Ft Wagner, SC
1869 1st westbound train arrives in SF
1869 Mine fire kills 179 at Avondale Pennsylvania
1873 Regular Cable Car service begins on Clay Street
1876 Race riot in Charleston SC
1876 Southern Pacific line from LA to SF completed
1883 Cub's Burns (extra bases), Williamson & Pfeiffer get 3 hits in 1 inn
1899 Carnation processes its 1st can of evaporated milk
1901 Pres William McKinley, shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at Pan American Exposition in Buffalo NY, died eight days later -- and vice president Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency.
1903 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of The Creeping Man" (BG)
1905 Atlanta Life Insurance Company established
1905 Chic White Sox Frank Smith no-hits Detroit Tigers, 15-0
1909 Word received, Adm Peary discovers North Pole 5 months earlier
1910 Saskatchewan (then Regina) Roughriders football club formed
1912 NY Giant Jeff Tesreau no-hits Phila, 3-0
1913 1st aircraft to loop the loop (Adolphe P‚goud-France)
1914 Battle of the Marne; Germans prevented from occupying Paris
1920 1st radio broadcast of a prizefight
1924 Charles Paddock captures 100 & 200 yd AAU national senior outdoor track & field championships
1930 Brooklyn Dodgers beat Phillies 22-8
1941 All Jews over age 6 in German territories ordered to wear a star
1941 Jews of Vilna Poland are confined to a ghetto
1943 "Congressional Limited" train derails near Frankfort Pa, kills 79
1946 All-American Football Conference plays 1st game (Clev 44, Miami 0)
1948 Juliana becomes queen of the Netherlands
1949 Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in 12 minutes
1953 The last American and Korean prisoners are exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.
1954 Yankees use a record 10 pinch hitters
1963 Church bombed in Birmingham AL, kills 4 black girls
1963 Major league baseballs 100,000th game
1966 "Star Trek" premiers on NBC TV
1966 Race riot in Atlanta Georgia
1968 Swaziland gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1970 Palestinian guerrillas seized control of three jetliners which were later blown up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews were evacuated.
1972 Summer Olympics massacre in Munich Germany when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli compound, kidnapping nine team members.
1972 John & Yoko appear on Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon
1973 NY Times reports almost all Superfectas run at Yonkers, Roosevelt & Monticello from Jan-Mar of 1973 were fixed
1975 6.8 quake along Anatolian Fault kills over 2,000 in Lice Turkey
1976 Russian pilot defects to Japan in a Mig 25 jet
1978 Begin & Sadat meet at Camp David to discuss peace
1980 Chantal Langlace sets women's record for fastest 100K run (7h27m22s)
1980 College football longest losing streak of 50 games ends for Macalaster U of St Paul, Minn beating Mount Senario 17-14
1981 Bob Lemon named Yankee manager
1982 Paul McCartney releases "Tug of War"
1982 Polish dissidents seize the Polish Embassy in Bern, Switzerland
1983 USSR admits to shooting down KAL 007 on 9/2
1984 Today Show begins live remote telecasts from Moscow
1986 Barbra Streisand's 1st live concert in 20 years
1986 USSR charges correspondent Nicholas Daniloff with spying
1986 Attack on synagogue in Istanbul, 23 killed
1987 Saskatchewan's Dave Ridgway kicks a CFL-record 60-yard field goal
1988 Lee Roy Young becomes the first African-American Texas Ranger in the force's 165-year history.
1988 Crippled soviet Soyuz TM-5 lands safely with 2 cosmonauts aboard
1989 Amateur Atheletic Fed strips Ben Johnson of all track records
1989 Police computer accuses 41,000 Parisians of murder/prostitution
1991 USSR recognizes independence of the 3 baltic republics
2000 The Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in history, convened at the United Nations.
2000 Thousands of pro-Indonesian militiamen and supporters stormed a U.N. office in West Timor, killing three foreign staffers
2001 The Justice Department reversed an earlier decision and said it would no longer seek to split the Microsoft Corp. into more than one company or pursue the claim that the company had illegally tied its network browser to its operating system.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Pakistan : Defense Day
Swaziland : Somhlolo Day/Independence Day (1968)
Namibia, South Africa : Settlers' Day ( Monday )
US, Canada, Guam, Virgin Islands : Labor Day (1894) (Monday)
Co-Ed College Day
National Oral Hygiene Week (Day 6)
Mental Health Workers Week Ends
Library Card Sign-Up Month

Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of St Zachariah
RC, Ang : Feast of the Transfiguration

Religious History
1812 Colonial American missionary Adoniram Judson, 24, en route to the mission field, converted from Congregationalism to become a Baptist. He later translated the Bible into Burmese and authored a Burmese dictionary (1849).
1907 Pius X issued the encyclical "Pascendi dominici gregis," in which he condemned the "modernist" movement within the various branches of Christendom. The document also established councils to combat these "modern errors."
1938 The movie "Boys Town" was first released by MGM studios. Starring Spencer Tracy, the award-winning film depicted the founding of the famous vocational institution in Nebraska in 1917 by parish priest Father Edward J. Flanagan, 31.
1940 The National Christian Council of Japan organized its churches into a single body, with complete autonomy from Western church control. The single Protestant structure thus formed was named the United Church of Christ in Japan.
1974 American Presbyterian missionary Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'Only the one who has been hurt can bring healing. The other person cannot. It is the one who has been hurt who has to be willing to be hurt again to show love, if there is to be hope that healing will come.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Ours is a world where people don`t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it."

You might be from Iowa if...
You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows

Murphys Law of the day...(Finagle's Fourth Law)
Once a job is fooled up, anything done to improve it will only make it worse.

Cliff Clavin says, It's a little known fact that...
Among other well-known names, a group of fish can also be called a draught.

Honor Among Soldiers
By Joseph L. Galloway

  If you have fed from a steady diet of Hollywood movies about Vietnam you probably believe that everyone who wore a uniform in America’s long, sad involvement in war in Vietnam is some sort of a clone of Lt. William Calley---that all three million of them were drug-crazed killers and rapists who rampaged across the pastoral landscape.

   Those movies got it wrong, until now. There is one more Hollywood film now playing called We Were Soldiers and it gets it right. Ask any Vietnam veteran who has gone to see the movie. In fact, ask any American who has gone to see it. It is based on a book I wrote with my lifelong friend Lt. Gen. (ret) Hal Moore; a book written precisely because we believed that a false impression of those soldiers had taken root in the country which sent them to war and, in the end, turned its back on both the war and the warriors.

   I did four tours in Vietnam as a war correspondent for United Press International---1965-66, 1971, 1973 and 1975. In the first three of those tours at war I spent most of my time in the field with the troops and I came to know and respect them and even love them, though most folks might find the words “war” and “love” in the same sentence unsettling if not odd.

   In fact, I am far more comfortable in the company of those once-young soldiers today than with any other group except my own family. They are my comrades-in-arms, the best friends of my life and if ever I were to shout “help!” they would stampede to my aid in a heartbeat. They come from all walks of life; they are black, white, Hispanic, native American, Asian; they are fiercely loyal, dead honest, entirely generous of their time and money. They are my brothers and they did none of the things Oliver Stone or Francis Ford Coppola would have you believe all of them did.

   On the worst day of my life, in the middle of the worst battle of the Vietnam War, in a place called Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, I was walking around snapping some photographs when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a tall, lanky GI who jumped out of a mortar pit and ran, zig-zagging under fire, toward me. He dove under the little bush I was crouched behind. “Joe! Joe Galloway! Don’t you know me, man? It’s Vince Cantu from Refugio, Texas!” Vince Cantu and I had graduated together from Refugio High School, Class of ’59, 55 boys and girls. We embraced warmly. Then he shouted over the din of gunfire: “Joe, you got to get down and stay down. It’s dangerous out here. Men are dying all around.”

   Vince told me that he had only ten days left on his tour of duty as a draftee soldier in the 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). “If I live through this I will be home in Refugio for Christmas.” I asked Vince to please visit my mom and dad, but not tell them too much about where we had met and under what circumstances. I still have an old photograph from that Christmas visit---Vince wearing one of those black satin Vietnam jackets, with his daughter on his knee, sitting with my mom and dad in their living room.

   Vince Cantu and I are still best friends.    When I walked out and got on a Huey helicopter leaving Landing Zone X-Ray I left knowing that 80 young Americans had laid down their lives so that I and others might survive. Another 124 had been terribly wounded and were on their way to hospitals in Japan or the United States. I left with both a sense of my place, among them, and an obligation to tell their stories to any who would listen. I knew that I had been among men of honor and decency and courage, and anyone who believes otherwise needs to look in his own heart and weigh himself.

   Hal Moore and I began our research for the book-to-be, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, in 1982. It was a ten-year journey to find and ultimately to bring back together as many of those who fought in LZ Xray and LZ Albany, a separate battle one day after ours only three miles away in which another 155 young Americans died and another 130 were wounded. We had good addresses for perhaps no more than a dozen veterans, but we mailed out a questionnaire to them to begin the process.

  Late one night a week later my phone rang at home in Los Angeles. On the other end was Sgt. George Nye, retired and living very quietly by choice in his home state of Maine. George began talking and it was almost stream of consciousness. He had held it inside him for so long and now someone wanted to know about it. He described taking his small team of engineer demolitions men into XRay to blow down some trees and clear a safer landing zone for the helicopters. Then he was talking about PFC Jimmy D. Nakayama, one of those engineer soldiers, and how a misplaced napalm strike engulfed Nakayama in the roaring flames. How he ran out into the fire and screamed at another man to grab Jimmy’s feet and help carry him to the aid station. My blood ran cold and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I had been that man on the other end of Nakayama. I had grabbed his ankles and felt the boots crumble, the skin peel, and those slick bones in my hands. Again I heard Nakayama’s screams. By then we were both weeping. I knew Nakayama had died a day or two later in an Army hospital. Nye told me that Jimmy’s wife had given birth to a baby girl the day he died---and that when Nye returned to base camp at An Khe he found a letter on his desk. He had encouraged Nakayama to apply for a slot at Officer Candidate School. The letter approved that application and contained orders for Nakayama to return immediately to Ft. Benning, Ga., to enter that course.

   George Nye is gone now. But I want you to know what he did with the last months of his life. He lived in Bangor, Maine, The year was 1991 and in the fall plane after plane loaded with American soldiers headed home from the Persian Gulf War stopped there to refuel. It was their first sight of home. George and some other local volunteers organized a welcome at that desolate airport. They provided coffee, snacks and the warm “Welcome home, soldier” that no one ever offered George and the millions of other Vietnam veterans. George had gone out to the airport to decorate a Christmas tree for those soldiers on the day he died.

   When we think of ourselves we think Shakespeare, Henry IV, Act IV, Scene 3:

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he today that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother.”

   Honor and decency and uncommon courage were common among these soldiers and all the soldiers who served in Vietnam. I think of how they were, on patrol, moving through jungle or rice paddies. Nervous, on edge, trying to watch right, left, ahead, behind, all at once. A friend once described it as something like looking at a tree full of owls. They were alert for sign, sound or smell of the enemy. But they also watched each other closely. At the first sign of the oppressive heat and exhaustion getting to someone the two or three guys around would relieve him of some or all of the heavy burden that the Infantryman bears: 60 or 70 pounds of stuff. Rifle and magazines. A claymore mine or two. A couple of radio batteries. Cans of C-Rations. Spare socks. Maybe a book. All that rides in the soldier’s pack. They would make it easier for him to keep going. They took care of each other, because in this situation each other was all they had.

   When I would pitch up to spend a day or two or three with such an outfit I was, at first, an object of some curiosity. Sooner or later a break would be called and everyone would flop down in the shade, drink some water, break out a C-Ration or a cigarette. The GI next to me would ask: What you doing out here? I would explain that I was a reporter. “You mean you are a civilian? You don’t HAVE to be here?” Yes. “Man, they must pay you loads of money to do this.” And I would explain that, no, unfortunately I worked for UPI, the cheapest news agency in the world. “Then you are just plain crazy, man.” Once I was pigeonholed, all was all right. The grunts understood “crazy” like no one else I ever met. The welcome was warm, friendly and open. I was probably the only civilian they would ever see in the field; I was a sign that someone, anyone, outside the Big Green Machine cared how they lived and how they died.

   It didn’t take very long before I truly did come to care. They were, in my view, the best of their entire generation. When their number came up in the draft they didn’t run and hide in Canada. They didn’t turn up for their physical wearing pantyhose or full of this chemical or that drug which they hoped would fail them. Like their fathers before them they raised their right hand and took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is not their fault that the war they were sent to fight was not one that the political leadership in Washington had any intention of winning. It is not their fault that 58,200 of them died, their lives squandered because Lyndon Johnson and, later, Richard Nixon could not figure out some decent way to cut our losses and leave the Vietnamese to sort the matter out among themselves.

   As I have grown older, and so have they, and first the book and now the movie have come to pass I am often asked: Doesn’t this close the loop for you? Doesn’t this mean you can rest easier? The answer is no, I can’t. To my dying day I WILL remember and honor those who died, some in my arms. I WILL remember and honor those who lived and came home carrying memories and scars that only their brothers can share and understand.

They were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.

Joe Galloway

George Nye's work is still being done in Bangor Maine. Before George died he had the privedlge of greeting Hal Moores son upon his arrival from Gulf War I.
Those of us who carry on the work of greeting troops hope in our hearts that America's heros will never be forgotten again.