Nov 1965 - The Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam - Part I

I've just completed reading We Were Soldiers Once... And Young by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway. The book covers a series of fierce battles that took place in November 1965 - the very first large battles between the US and the North Vietnamese Army, and also the first tests of the newly-developed air mobility concept. The book itself was later adapted into a surprisingly good movie, "We Were Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson. You can interpret the phrase "surprisingly good" as "Hollywood didn't totally screw this up", oh say like Pearl Harbor.

Setting the Scene
In the fall of 1965 the North Vietnamese began an offensive in the Central Highlands, specifically targeting several Special Forces bases the US had established there, and eventually the capture of Pleiku city. The US 1st Cavalry Division, based in An Khe was there to meet the threat. The 1st Brigade of the division deployed westward to Plei Me Special Forces Camp after a major attack on the camp was thrown back in October, later to be replaced by 2nd Brigade including the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 7th Cavalry and the attached 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry. After several days of patrolling with little contact, the Brigade commander was ordered to probe westward toward the Cambodian border in search of the PAVN forces. And that's exactly where they were, refitting after the earlier failed attack on Plei Me and preparing for another try. And Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore, Jr's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry was about to drop right into the hornet's nest.

Prior to the assault into the valley, the Brigade first established a firebase at LZ Falcon, approximately 5 miles ENE of the intended assault area. Not much can be seen at this location today, and in fact the LZ itself appears to have become somewhat overgrown in the years since. But from here the artillery was to take a terrible toll on the PAVN forces.

Into The Valley
Early on the morning of November 14, 1965, the understrength 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry dropped into a small clearing called LZ XRay, hard against the Chu Pong massif. They came looking for a fight and did they ever find one. For up on the mountain next to the landing zone was the equivalent of a division of North Vietnamese Army regulars - over 2,000 troops. Over the next 3 days a near-constant battle erupted, as the encircled battalion fought for its life against a much larger PAVN force right in its own back yard.

The satellite coverage in the area is hit-and-miss, and unfortunately LZ XRay ends up being just yards out of a better quality shot. Because of this it took me a while to find the clearing that is LZ XRay, but here it is. It's hard to tell given the resolution that this is actually the clearing, but I've cross-referenced a number of maps online and am pretty confident this is the spot. This overview shows the mountain, LZ XRay, and another LZ Victor, which was used to ferry in reinforcements during the battle, with the river Drang just north. You can see there are dirt roads crossing the area today, roads which did not exist in 1965. The area is also dotted with tea or rubber fields, which you can see in higher quality photos just to the east.

I won't go into a lot of detail on the battle itself, as you can read that in Moore's book or other online sources (see links below). The book is absolutely great, and well worth the read. There's a followup book out as well, which I've listed below. After reading a lot of additional material online and spending some time reflecting on it, the thought that struck me was how extraordinary of a man Mr. Moore is. Being a WW2 nut of course I've read many of the books around E Company, 2/506th and what an outstanding leader of men Dick Winters was and still is. I see so many of the same qualities in Hal Moore the more I learn about him. He is an amazing individual, simply amazing. Spend some time and see for yourself.

OK now here's where the fun part comes in (hopefully). I've got a few links and sources below. If you have any other interesting material, I want to know about it and I'll update this post with the good stuff. Participation counts!

Materials, Links, and Other Sources
BOOK: We Were Soldiers Once... And Young
BOOK: We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam
MOVIE: We Were Soldiers - (reviews on IMDB)
VIDEO: The Fight for LZ XRay (YouTube)
SITE: lzxray.com. This is Moore and Galloway's website, and contains many pictures, maps and background info not contained in the book.
SITE: Fight at Ia Drang - US Army Center of Military History
SITE: Joe Galloway's US News & World Report story
GOOGLE EARTH: Google Earth KMZ File - Google Earth placemarks, maps, and overlays.