THE BATTLE THAT CHANGED THE WAR IN VIETNAM
From the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam’s Central Highlands came
this poignant response, “If he’s that crazy…bring him on in.” The responder was Lt. Col. Harold G. “Hal”
Moore, commanding 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st
Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
The request had come from a persistent UPI war correspondent
who had watched the first day of the battle with observers from an over-flying
helicopter. That afternoon, he slipped
aboard a troop helicopter, only to be replaced by an urgently needed medic. Now, he was requesting permission to be
inserted into the most dangerous spot on earth aboard an evening supply
helicopter.
His name was Joseph L. “Joe” Galloway, who had earned his
combat correspondent credentials after seven months of combat coverage with the
Marines. “That night, I rode into the
pages of history sitting on two cases of grenades.”
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| AS A WAR CORRESPONDENT, JOE GALLOWAY HAS BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! |
Galloway, 74, and a native Texan, now resides in Concord,
North Carolina with his wife, Gracie, and their animal-rescue Poodle, Jacques. As for what he’s done lately, “The most I do
nowadays is grow about 25 tomato plants each summer and a few rows of corn.”
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| GALLOWAY HOUSEHOLD CHAIN OF COMMAND: JACQUES, GRACIE & JOE |
Even if his tomatoes and corn are of Guinness proportions,
vetting such a gross understatement is beyond the purview of this column. However, what Galloway did between riding in
on the grenades and gardening in Concord is where we are at the moment.
Much of what Galloway did in this interim involves the New
York Times best-seller he wrote -- in collaboration with Moore -- We Were
Soldiers Once…And Young. “It took six
months to write this book, but 10 years to research it – actually, it’s a
soldiers’ story told in their own words,” says Galloway. It has been printed in six languages and over
1,300,000 have been sold.
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| NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER IS REQUIRED READING IN MANY MILITARY CIRCLES |
The enthusiastically received book spawned a popular movie,
We Were Soldiers, produced in 2002. Moore
was played by Mel Gibson, Barry Pepper played Galloway, who confides, “The
movie is 75% reality, 25% other ingredients.”
(Note – “other ingredients” is a paraphrase.)
Written from the first person perspective, the 455-page book
by Moore and Galloway about the first major battle in Vietnam is graphic,
authoritative, and meticulously researched.
It is required reading in numerous military circles.
Our grandson’s 8th grade history teacher even
classifies the book as scholarly. A
recent assignment: “Lessons learned from Ia Drang, Old America vs. New America
mindset, miscreant Hollywood productions, our attitude towards North Vietnam –
then and now, and is it good or bad that school children aren’t being taught
about great battles?”
What the book does not say is informative as well. Per Galloway, “I did not go to Vietnam to
cover politics – I went to cover soldiers on the front-lines. These troopers served valiantly. Many were wounded, hundreds were killed, all
had their lives changed at the first sound of war.
For them to be advised to return home out of uniform and not
to interfere with fellow Americans protesting and burning their draft cards is
too ludicrous to print.” Adding salt to
their wounds, the Vietnam GI Bill was termed, “retrograde in its philosophy,”
by the New York Times.
As a Vietnam War primer – U.S. support for the war was
undermined by a credibility gap between two successive presidential
administrations (Nixon and Johnson) as to prosecuting the war. Additionally -- whether cause or effect -- a
strong anti-establishment counter-culture arose to compete with the patriotism
which had permeated our country in wars past.
Galloway was awarded a bronze star with valor device for rescuing
a badly wounded soldier in combat. His
was the only such award made by the U.S. Army to a civilian during the Vietnam
War.
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| GALLOWAY'S BRONZE STAR WITH VALOR DEVICE |
Moore and Galloway returned to the Ia Drang Valley 30 years
after the battle. This visit resulted in
their second book, We are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of
Vietnam, published in 2008.
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| GALLOWAY ISN'T ADVERSE TO A BIT OF LEVITY HIS CAVALRY COVER MAY BE THE ONLY ONE WITH THE MARINE CORPS EAGLE, GLOBE & ANCHOR |
Galloway will be in Greensboro on June 1, 2016 to talk about
his career as a war correspondent. The
luncheon event, sponsored by the West Point Society of the Piedmont, will be
held at the Grandover Resort. Per
Galloway, “I have invited my friend, Joe Marm to join us – I believe he
will.” (Marm lives in Goldsboro -- he
won a Medal of Honor during the Battle of Ia Drang Valley)
Reservations are required and may be made at https://secure.west-point.org/wps-piedmont/luncheon/
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