I didn't run out of ammo – had about thirty magazines in my pack. [13][14][15][16][17], "Colonel Hieu and LTC Hal Moore re: LZ X-Ray After Action Report (m)", "Sgt MacKenzie - We Were Soldiers Soundtrack with Lyrics", "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; One Last Act of Bravery For an Intrepid Adventurer", "DHS names citizen resilience award in memory of Rick Rescorla", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=We_Were_Soldiers&oldid=1003114939, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 January 2021, at 13:47. [50] The 5-day B-52 airstrike operation were carried on for two more days: on November 19, the carpet bombing aimed at the positions of units of the 66th and 33rd Regiments;[51] and on November 20, units of the 32nd Regiment. [54], A 1966 PAVN Central Highlands Front report claimed that in five major engagements with U.S. forces, PAVN forces suffered 559 soldiers killed and 669 wounded. Despite being trapped and desperately outnumbered, the main US force manages to hold off the North Vietnamese with artillery, mortars, and helicopter airlifts of supplies and reinforcements. "[6], We Were Soldiers is noteworthy for the use of the haunting lament Sgt. As Friday, November 18, dawned on the battlefield, U.S. soldiers began to gather up their dead comrades. '"[24], The battle was ostensibly over. According to the assessment of ARVN Gen. Nguyen Vinh Loc, at the LZ X-Ray battle, the PAVN did not have anti-aircraft weapons and heavy mortars and had to resort to "human wave" tactics: "The enemy has lost nearly all their heavy crew-served weapons during the first phase ... Their tactics relied mostly on the 'human waves. [29], At 09:10, the first elements of Alpha Company (2/7), under Capt. He claims that the Americans will "think this was their victory. The platoon's troopers were told to drop their packs and move forward for the assault. Moore leads a newly-created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. The PAVN learned that they could neutralize that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. At 18:50, II Corps Commanding General concurred with the Arclite request. Sgt. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. "Whiz" Broome for alerting me to Ed Freeman's passing. The Americans at Albany then settled down for the night. He vehemently objected to the order and was allowed to remain with his battalion until its withdrawal planned for the next morning. By their yardstick, a draw against such a powerful opponent was the equivalent of a victory. Just before 13:00, Devney's 1st platoon was heavily assaulted on both flanks by the PAVN, taking casualties and becoming pinned down in the process. The troops were inserted about 200 meters from the position of the PAVN 9th Battalion, 66th Regiment. Moore's plan was to move Bravo and Alpha Companies northwest past the creek bed, and Charlie Company south toward the mountain. [3]:210, At 20:40, 1st Air Cavalry requested for second B-52 strike with primary targets set for YA 830050, YA 850050, YA 843000 and alternate set for YV 890980, YV 910980, YV 890950, YV 910950. Simultaneously, about 10 yards away, his platoon sergeant captured a second PAVN soldier. Myron Diduryk's Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, veterans of the fight at LZ X-Ray, got the word that they would be deployed in the battalion's relief. James Scott and Sgt. Galloway later described Ia Drang as "the battle that convinced Ho Chi Minh he could win". [13]:96, The U.S. command saw this as an ideal area to test new air mobility tactics. "[3]:369 While securing the battlefield, Rescorla recovered a large, battered, old French army bugle from a dying PAVN soldier. It was later discovered that the PAVN were mopping up, looking for wounded American soldiers in the tall grass and killing them. Rarely has a foe been portrayed with such measured respect for a separate reality, which should come as a relief to critics (I'm one) of the enemy's facelessness in Black Hawk Down; vignettes of gallantry among Vietnamese soldiers and such humanizing visual details as a Vietnamese sweetheart's photograph left behind, in no way interfere with the primary, rousing saga of a fine American leader who kept his promise to his men to "leave no one behind dead or alive."[10]. The PAVN then began to organize an assault on the American column. Fear like I had never known before. An intense firefight quickly erupted in the clearing; during the first three or four minutes his platoon inflicted heavy losses on the PAVN who streamed out of the trees, while his men did not take any casualties. ***GRAPHIC - INTENSE WAR SCENES*** Best scene of the movie. Diduryk's Bravo Company (2/7) after having policed up the battlefield in Charlie Company's sector following the assaults, later remarked: "There were American and NVA bodies everywhere. For around 30 minutes B Company fought off the PAVN advance with a combination of small arms and Lund's skilled organization of artillery strikes. Although many notable decorations have been awarded to veterans of the Battle of Ia Drang, in his book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, Lt. Gen. Harold Moore writes: "We had problems on the awards... Too many men had died bravely and heroically, while the men who had witnessed their deeds had also been killed... Acts of valor that, on other fields, on other days, would have been rewarded with the Medal of Honor or Distinguished Service Cross or a Silver Star were recognized only with a telegram saying, 'The Secretary of the Army regrets...' The same was true of our sister battalion, the 2nd of the 7th. One dead trooper was locked in contact with a dead NVA, hands around the enemy's throat. One of his platoon leaders, Lt. Raul Taboada, was also severely wounded, and Lefebvre passed command of D Company to SSgt. The director, Randall Wallace, said that he was inspired by that comment and became "determined to get it right this time.". [53] On November 26, with no further contact, the ARVN withdrew from the area. Galloway would later share how that same week Nakayama became a father. It’s a lost nuclear weapon, as explained on Wikipedia and in the movie “Broken Arrow”, but in the movie “We Were Soldiers” it was a radio signal [47] The United States reported 403 PAVN troops were killed in this battle and an estimated 150 were wounded, probably a large overestimation. Joel Sugdinis, wondered where the aerial rocket artillery choppers were. By 16:30, they came into contact with the Alpha Company (1/5) perimeter under Capt. "[12], Hal Moore, who had long been critical of many Vietnam War films for their negative portrayals of American servicemen, publicly expressed approval of the film and is featured in segments of the DVD. On Charlie Company's broken lines, PAVN troops walked the lines for several minutes, killing wounded Americans and stripping their bodies of weapons and other items. General DePuy, J3/MACV, who executed this B-52 airstrike stated that "this is the fastest a strike of this nature had ever been laid-on. At around 15:30, the relief force started to encounter sniper fire and began carrying the wounded and dead of the lost platoon back to X-Ray. [11] There were few reliable roads into the area, making it an ideal place for the VC forces to form bases, relatively immune from attack by the generally road-bound Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces. [13]:137, The 6th Company, 8th Battalion, 66th Regiment made contact head on with 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, the 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 33rd Regiment and 2nd Company, 1st Battalion, 33rd Regiment maneuvered eastward and attacked the lower and upper flanks respectively and the 8th Company, 8th Battalion, 66th Regiment switched its direction north-westward and attacked the column from behind. While medical evacuation helicopters (medevacs) were supposed to transport the battalion's increasing numbers of casualties, they evacuated only two before the pilots called off their mission under intense PAVN fire. The M60 gun crews, tactically positioned around the perimeter to provide for multiple fields of fire, were told to hold their fire until otherwise ordered (so as to conceal their true location from the PAVN). The bulk of the movie is more like Black Hawk Down , retelling the events of a battle. 2nd Platoon was technically under the command of SFC Mac McHenry, but he was positioned elsewhere on the perimeter. Glenn A. Kennedy. [33][34], At 08:00, the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry set out on foot from LZ-Victor to reinforce LZ X-Ray. Despite Hastings' best efforts, several American soldiers were wounded or killed by this air strike. In 1992, Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway (who was present at the battle) published the book We Were Soldiers Once…And Young about the battle. Broken Arrow SP are in the final stages of wave 5 in an Ending Diagonal ...just before "Broken Arrow". Shortly after 05:00 a third attack was launched against B Company, which was repelled by Lt. James Lane's platoon within 30 minutes. Further engagements over the next few days revealed the arrival of the PAVN 66th Regiment. They were briefed by Lt. Col. Moore about the battle at LZ X-Ray. Sum it up if you didn't see the movie. [61][13]:145,150, Four American helicopters were shot down and 55 damaged. The resulting exchange was particularly costly for the platoon — its lead forces were quickly cut down. The film received mostly positive reviews. Their fire began to cut through Charlie Company's positions and into the command post and the American lines across the LZ. Moore later credited the two gun teams with preventing the PAVN from rolling up Alpha Company and driving a wedge into the battalion between Alpha and Charlie Companies. "[3]:215[13]:129, At 09:30, Col. Brown, the commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), landed at LZ X-Ray to make preparation to withdraw the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, deeming its job done. George Forrest's Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry. Best scene of the movie from Vietnam War. This task took the better part of two days, as American and PAVN dead were scattered all over the field of battle. 1st and 2nd platoons suffered significant casualties in this assault, including Lts. McDade and his group walked across the clearing and into a clump of trees. [3]:309 USAF A-1E Skyraiders soon provided support by dropping napalm bombs, but because of the fog of war and the inter-mixing of American and PAVN troops, it is likely that air and artillery strikes killed NVA and American soldiers indiscriminately. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), also referred to as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), and was part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War. "[31], At 16:30, Brigadier General Knowles, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) Forward CP Commander, landed at the LZ X-Ray to announce the withdrawal of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry set for the next day. The risky trip which took a year to arrange was part of an award-winning ABC News documentary, They Were Young and Brave produced by Terence Wrong. Lt. Franklin was also seriously wounded. 4 Beck, Spec. [3]:277 B-52s were on their way from Guam, and their target for the third day of bombing was the slopes of the Chu Pong massif and LZ X-Ray itself. > Does the military term "broken arrow" have more than one definition? Westmoreland told them they were being recommended for a Presidential Unit Citation. "We Were Soldiers" doesn't have that problem; in the Hollywood tradition it identifies a few key players, casts them with stars, and follows their stories.[9]. What you saw was in "We Were Soldiers", a true story during which a Broken Arrow was called in by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore in 1965 while leading his men through the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. Alpha Company had been in the LZ about five minutes and about then, small arms fire began. It this regard it is a less effective movie, because clearly there are several gaps in realism more serious than the ones Black Hawk Down makes.

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