We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young

Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway, Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781453293591
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

New York Times Bestseller: A "powerful and epic story . . . the best account of infantry combat I have ever read" (Col. David Hackworth, author of About Face ) .

In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People's Army of Vietnam.

How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor.

"Hal Moore and Joe Galloway have captured the terror and exhilaration, the comradeship and self-sacrifice, the brutality and compassion that are the dark heart of war." —Neil Sheehan, author of A Bright Shining Lie

Index

Ackerman, Spec. 4 Dick, 212, 250, 283, 309–10, 339

Ackerson, Lt. Col. Frederic, 268, 313

Adams, Spec. 4 Russell E., 86–87, 88–89, 105, 108–10, 377

Adams, 1st. Sgt. Warren E., 124, 142, 150, 162, 182, 220–21, 340, 377

Aerial rocket artillery (ARA)helicopters, 90, 113, 119, 267, 280, 322, 372

Ainsworth, CWO Hank, 234, 305–7, 378

Air Assault Divisions, 13, 18, 226

Airborne Branch, Air Mobility Division, Pentagon, 17

Airborne Test Section, Fort Bragg, 17

Aircraft

A-1E Skyraiders, 89–90, 113, 120, 210, 218, 280–83, 291

B-29s, 103

B-52 bombers, 188, 224, 233, 236, 237, 243, 269

Caribou transport planes, 148

CH-47 Chinook helicopter, 10, 27, 40, 60, 113, 187, 212–13, 216, 219, 221, 309, 315, 322

C-123 flare ship (Smoky the Bear), 203, 205

F-100 Super Sabre jet fighters, 175

H-13 scout helicopters, 61, 100, 165, 298, 339

UH-1 helicopters (Hueys), 10, 33, 38, 40, 61–64, 103–4, 113–14, 115–16, 118–19, 121, 124, 135, 136, 142, 147–8, 150, 172, 212, 216, 218, 221–22, 234, 289, 297, 300–1, 304, 306, 322, 339, 374

Air Force forward air controllers (FAC), 146, 177

Airmobile divisions, operations, tests, training, 13, 154, 228

Airmobility Concept Board, 11

Allen, PFC Melvin, 82

Alley, 1st. Lt. J. L. (Bud) Jr., 226, 265–66, 272, 283, 291–93, 378

Allred, PFC Donald, 164, 178

Amodias, Sgt. Osvaldo, 241, 260

Amos, Lt. Col. Harry O., Jr., 183

An, Lt. Gen. Nguyen Huu, 51–52, 53, 66, 100, ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Content
• Prologue
• GOING TO WAR
• X-RAY
• ALBANY
• AFTERMATH
• Epilogue
• About the Authors
• Image Gallery
• Appendix: Where Have All the Young Men Gone?
• Acknowledgments
• Interviews and Statements
• Chapter Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright Page