The Vietnam War Summit: The Battle of la Drang [Day 1]

ladies and gentlemen please welcome mr. Jim Nantz president and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund after the gulf of tonkin resolution was passed in the fall of 1964 1965 saw a dramatic increase in the number of American ground troops in Vietnam the Battle of the I drink valley was the first major battle between the US Army and the People's Army of North Vietnam the two-part battle in the central highlands took place from November 14th to 18th 1965 it was Thanksgiving Day back at home that most Americans first read the headlines about the battle which was a turning point of sorts with single week casualty numbers exceeding those of the worst weeks of the Korean War Americans had to face the fact that we really were engaged in a war today we have veterans of the Battle of the I drank valley recalling what it was like on the frontlines mr. Vince Cantu was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1963 and became a US Army private in the first Battalion of the seventh Cavalry his battalion was charged with pioneering a new kind of air warfare that the army termed air mobile Colonel Bruce Crandall is a veteran master army aviator in both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and has led more than 900 combat missions during two tours in Vietnam he was drafted into the Army in 1953 and in early 1965 he joined the Dominican Republic Expeditionary Force as liaison to the a thinked Airborne Corps and later that year commanded the 1st Cavalry Division divisions Company a 229th assault helicopter battalion in Vietnam he has received many awards including the Bronze Star Medal the Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster and the Medal of Honor dr. Tony Johnson jr. went to Vietnam in 1963 as part of the seventh Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division in November 1965 his unit was ambushed by the Vietcong in the I drank Valley and was all but destroyed he received the Bronze Star for his meritorious achievement and the recognition of his bravery during the campaign later recovering in the hospital he was inspired by the care he received to pursue a career in medicine he later became a family practitioner and started a combat medical training program for infantry soldiers to learn first aid Colonel Joe marm enlisted in the Army in 1964 and graduated from Officer Candidate School as a second lieutenant he was then reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division and by September 1965 was in Vietnam in November 1965 his battalion came under fire in the I drank Valley Colonel Mara sieved the Medal of Honor in recognition of his bravery in the campaign he later successfully petitioned to go back to Vietnam for a second tour only after signing a waiver stipulating that going back into harm's way was his own choice and finally your moderator for this panel mr. Joe Galloway Joe is one of America's premier war and foreign correspondents he is the recipient of numerous journalism awards but he is also the recipient of the Bronze Star for valor the only civilian to receive the honor in Vietnam in the Vietnam War and is the recipient of the Daugherty award the highest honor the US Army infantry can present to an individual mr. Galloway has co-authored several critically acclaimed books including We Were Soldiers once and young and its sequel we are soldiers still a journey back to the battlefields of Vietnam the first book was made into the major motion picture we were soldiers in 2002 ladies and gentlemen your panel for the afternoon it's awful quiet out here it is yeah I don't know about this being a much of a panel discussion but it sure is a great gathering of my brother soldiers it's been 50 years and five months since we met on a battlefield in the central highlands of Vietnam on the 14th of November 1965 it was the first major battle for American infantry to run head-on into North Vietnamese regulars two very fine light infantry and they went at it tooth and nail the North Vietnamese were there to kill us all and we were damn well determined they wouldn't and I met it's interesting on the battlefield on the second day I was shooting some pictures and I was behind a little bush on one knee and a fellow jumped out of a mortar pit and zigzagged across the edge of the clearing and douve under that bush and all I could see were two eyeballs about the size of saucers under the rim of the helmet and he said joe galloway this offense can two from refugio don't you know me man Vince Cantu and I graduated in the class of 1959 from refugio high school 55 of us and the next time I saw him was in the middle of the worst battle the first battle the worst battled the bloodiest battle of the entire Vietnam War he sure looked good I think and he said hey Joe if I lived through this I'm going home to refugio by Christmas I said Vince go by and see my mom and dad but don't tell them where we met we I came to be on that battlefield at the engraved invitation of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore who was the battalion commander I had marched with his battalion three days before the battle began a long hot walk in the Sun to the east of playmates Special Forces camp and I spent the night with them coldest night I ever spent anywhere in Vietnam in the Central Highlands at 4,000 feet and we were all soaking wet from fording of river and I I was trying desperately to get into this battle and there were five other reporters and photographers including my nemesis Peter Arnett of the AP also trying to get in but I had the edge on them because I recognized Colonel Moore's s - captain Matt Dillon I grabbed it I said Matt I need to get in there he said well I'm going in as soon as it's dark with two helicopters full of ammo and but I can't take you unless the colonel says so I said get him on the horn and he got on the radio made a report to the colonel could hear the battle raging in the background over the radio and he said oh and by the way I've got that reporter Galloway he wants to come in with me and I'm listening real close and the colonel said if he's crazy enough to want to come in here and you got room bringing how Moore believed that the American people had a right to know what their sons were doing and what the army was doing with their sons and that was that was how he conducted his operations the press was always welcome so I got my all I had to do then was hide from the other guys until it got near dark and they all flew back to Pleiku to get a hot meal and a cold bunk and I got a ride into the pages of history so here we are Bruce Crandall tell your story well I made the mistake of taking him back out of there he took me in oh yeah I took him in and I also took him back out that was the first experience we'd had with helicopters being that influential on the battlefield the the infantry had a lot of experience but the helicopters were we're just learning our role and it I don't know why we waged laughter dark to take them in I prefer to go in when it's daylight and I can see who's shooting at me but evidently had the infantry had some kind of disagreement with that we went in after dark my women and I flew 14 and a half hours that day and we were we brought out 71 people that survived and we we got enamel in water and medical supplies into the people on the ground so they survived it was a very exciting time to say the least when we'd get shot up with your shift air after and start flying and another one and I'd call in to the that base where the helicopters were and tell him crank one I'm coming and I'm shot up and we would do that and we changed aircraft I think we got five five different aircraft during the day but we flew the same aircraft a number of time duct tape works but we were and we know what we were doing because I don't want it to sound like we didn't have a real good idea of what we were doing but we knew but we also knew that we had to do what we were doing otherwise the infantry would not survive on the battlefield and they were ours they were ours to make sure they survived and my wingman ed Freeman was too tall in the movie he was played by a Sam Elliott and no no Sam played sergeant major anyhow ed was one hell of a good helicopter pilot and we'd been together for 10 years before we went to Vietnam we had five company commanders that were engineer officers that that had worked in the topo units and we'd been together so we knew each other we trusted each other we trusted the infantry we had eight battalions of infantry and so we had a marriage the normal relationship with the infantry and how more in the 1st to 7th was my heaviest load they were able to find the most trouble I think they they knew Custer personally yeah that big big head Freeman received the Medal of Honor first and that was right because he's the only one that volunteered to go when I asked for volunteers and he stayed with me all day and into the night until we brought Joe and him in and that was the last light cone you wanted to take over is this is one of my particular personal eros a private of the infantry was shot the doll ribbons on the battlefield lost an eye and spending a year in an Army Hospital decided that the doctors were his heroes and the army helped him become a doctor and he became a reservist a reserve officer then he became a National Guard officer his last tour of duty was as the Surgeon General of the Texas 36th National Guard division and he still practices medicine today in Corpus Christi it's amazing the stories that come off a battlefield don't sum up well true just right some of it some of these true it as you can believe the craziest person that I know is here and what he's seeing over here on the other side is the USA party I guess part of it is true but I mean to make major mistake myself I said Caixa when I was when I was 17 coming to the end of my 17th birthday I went down to sign up for it the board and signed up to go into - for the army and I went there and and the lady said to me she said what's your name and I looked at her and I said I said Tom Johnson and she looked at me and that's not me the relation Jib to the Tom that was here before but but I saw in nice she say no that shot knew her name and I said yesterday is this my name is she said no that's not your name and then she said again I'll give you one more chance what's your name and then I said Junior Johnson and then she said well that's not your name and I said in her dinner and I said well also I said it's time she said your name is tone and tone and for that I'm gonna seen you in today so she told me to go outside and sit down and I went outside and I sit down in the waiting room for a little bit and I and I got up and and I and I walked out and I said well I can beat her this I'm going to go over him and sign up myself so I was signed up as a volunteer to go into the army and so we went and and and on add on that day that we were asked to support you know the first are the support in the field I looked at it as gosh we just going to go out we're gonna take our mortars because I was in 11c 1011 c10 is heavy weapon infantry and I said gosh I'm going to go out and we're just going to support them you're going to we going to lay put up set up our waters in lay down fire for them and that's what we gonna do or not so we got out there and some I always call those helicopter pilots kinda crazy because he was going out and and he's ducking around the treetops and then I didn't we get to the place where we was going to go in and he he just came in real low and he says now boys get your tails off the plane off the cot chopper and yet he's liners higher higher than this state this podium here he's hiding he's flying higher than that and he's I never said what are we going to be say go ahead and jump out just get out get out now because I'm taking fire and I need you to just get out so I can take off and so uh we just we jumped out and nevertheless we was in a rice paddy and of course in a rice paddy in Vietnam you a lot of water plus some other things that we don't we don't want to probably talk about so we well Jeff answers where are you what we did and and we were taking heavy fire and then so I told the guys at the time I said gosh I said I think I think we are we were sent here to take the fire off of the the others in he said I mean everybody was saying well what are we going to do so we actually hit it for the wood lined and then we started we started to lay down fire and I was that was a tough day when I stood there and I was looking through the elephant grass and I pulled the elephant grass back and right before me there was a guy who looked about my age or younger and he was looking right at me and I was looking right at him and neither one of us was fired and either we was just staring at each other and then all of a sudden a large noise out of nowhere and and when I woke up what four hours five hours later I thought I was I thought I was dead I think because I couldn't see anything and I was just laying there so I and then all I could think of boy you know heaven searching circle is dark because I can't see a thing because I and so I laid there for a while and did something told me to reach up and go and and check yourself and so I started checking my filling my song and I said I'd be alright here but I felt my face and my face life I don't like somebody kick mud all over my face but fortunate for me it was my own blood and it was covering up my eyes and I couldn't see so when I finally opened up and I got to blood off I could I could see off and then I noticed that gosh you know I'm here and I'm here alone and I could hear firing from the distance and so we decided well well I decided that I will go and try to find some others and we will get together and we will try to develop a circle of fire and we we did that and we fought through alpha throughout the evening and through the night and to the next day we was laying down as much fire as we could and then at nighttime Assocation oh we was there and and the vietnamese was coming and and we saw them coming one of the guys says well what are you what are we going to do and I said you know sorry to say but I said to hell if I know I'm just a private and you know and we look at everybody looked around and they said oh are you the ranking this private so so so I said well well okay well well let's let's try to you know find something to eat because it's in the middle of the night and we and we haven't had anything to eat and it's we've we've been at this since about 9:00 a.m. in the morning and I said well and so we we did that and we were sitting down and and waiting for things to kind of clear down settle down a little bit and we noticed that the Vietnamese start coming again and I say nobody fights at night and no this is silly and and and all I could see was a the tracer ammo and we had tracer ammo but I didn't think the Vietnamese had tracer and board because her or this the Vietcong had tracer anymore so we were we were just looking at that and I land on my back and I was watching this tracer ammo come so across my face and so finally I said you know what I think it's somebody from our side is shooting our way and so we started hollar a little bit and then finally they said who's there and we says his dog company actually less Delta company for all of you people here don't do it and there's hey uh what we're here but we have no ammo or they say well you better stay down because the vehicon is right up on you so we we we stayed down for a little bit and then we decided well we got to get back in the fight and so we decided to to move out and start doing what we could it was a tough night and we went through that and and to the part of the day of the next day and and when I first had a new Joe I said well well he he came to Corpus and said and I didn't know he lived in a reef area or actually he lived out on the bay you know yeah and he he told me one day he said well we're going to have a meeting and up in refugio we were ought to come up and and we're gonna and we want to discuss some things and so we went up there then he told me he had written a book and I had already seen the movie so and he asked me to come and and look at it and and everything and then he showed me say cos you know your name is in the book and I said he said because I could get to you to get anything else I your portunity your name is in the book and I looked at it and I say wow my name is in the book that's something for the ranking US private yeah but actually I you know I I why did we live to everything I lived through the war and I came out and I as joe said I I went back to school and they near me was I was nice enough to let me join the army health professional program and and go to school and I went to school and and I decided I will pay them back by going back into the army went back into the army served and and and then I got out and I say well and I went into public health service and and I served as a commander in the Public Health Service for a few years day night and I got out and I - why sure what am I going to do well so I decided well I go into the guard and I went into the guard and I served in Texas guard for about thirty thirty years and it takes this guard and when I got out I asked Governor Rick Perry was in the governor and he said well tone you suture you're such a good fellow we won't weaken we won't make you a brigadier but I guess we'll make you an admiral in Texas one and and the Texas State Navy and I said yeah what is this I'm an army officer right no I think you really tell us let's move along over there this too but tomorrow to us mate Vince can't to Metz tell us your story well don't I shouldn't have been there in the first place me too you know President Kennedy had passed a proclamation no married men at the time I was married and I had a little girl Mary Lou and flop felt safe but then Uncle Sam came knockin and he'd say hey I'm an issue so I gathered all my papers took them to Victoria because that's what the recruiting station was and I say hey you can't take me and put all the information in front of them that's I'm sorry but we need from that will um will you read I said okay so I was sure I wasn't going to pass but three guys went one didn't make it because intelligence the other one he was too fat so I loved that it was ha ha ha ha who was the one who had no intelligence yeah I should have prayed like I had no intelligence should have done that but anyway they took me in now the way I met Joe Sergeant Montgomery was my platoon sergeant and sergeant Mueller who was German descent with my platoon I mean thought squad leader and he was sitting there in the barn all around us and big old tree behind him I said sorry what'd he do sin here I see Kate - I came to the earth it my Dodgers had a dollar who coming back we went over then the useless Maurice grosse I said and I have a seen her a couple crying so that they get behind a tree and I put him behind a tree and I rushed over to sergeant maguro acid sergeant monkey sergeant you Muller King function he said well can't you send him back to the back area so went back to the back area in the took him and I went to Sergeant Montgomery he said can't do you squatted years and then the next ship coming send some of your man to pick up the dead and put them in his chopper so I went there now waiting does it these are guys that I've been Oh two years together because when they took us in there I needed ten days left an army so how can I get the confidence you don't set sin on mountain that I could get to Beckett we feel safe so I made up my mind to hate God to tell them to follow me so when the chopper came in they all follow me and would put the dead body in it in the chopper and then I see Joe of course I didn't know it was him come from behind a bush and kneel down and take a picture but I thought he was going to shoot me so I go down into the elephant grass and the elephant grass is real tall at that time if we wrote tall because nobody has stepped on him so I could look in the now one wondering why he didn't have a rifle I kept looking and in my monitor I know their guy and then you go hard - at the time a lot of freckles well look at me yeah that's Joe Galloway I'll call over toward you bastard Joe get away they looked up the best can't - you remember me and then we will grin so we crawl to work to each other what are you doing is our quill UPI that were you better get your rifle that they didn't live village and then how am I going to feel and it took a bit to me that been all over the place and that has opened up my world I took I played with a group called the saints and sinners 10 members and the wife I've took them to refugio we played there have been 40 years since I've played and we had a big crowd so after that the dance and a music winter my escape faith is a real popular cafe is mentioned in a lot of books and everybody goes there so here we are about $35 we all eat after the deal because I rather kind of money to pay for all those guys so they will where everybody would you divide it into ten and go big so I went to daleman where the owner of the restaurant I said dill I need to build she said this it's already been taken care of I say who he said they won't stay anonymous so that's the way my life anymore and think you're getting none of this playing my hearing aids I like Vince you earned more than a free meal at Moyes because I could that's what I was yes Apple the two mini chopper pal days Joe marm and Colonel marm tell us your story it's an honor for me to be here there's many Vietnam veterans out there so I can't tell any lies never stop Doug I would have been drafted they had a draft back in the 60s so I enlisted under the college option program and went through basic training advanced individual training and NoCs and we did KP and we did guard duty which they don't do now but it made me appreciate being a being a soldier and I graduated from OCS --nt went into went into into the Ranger School and that was my best preparation for Vietnam nine straight weeks of intensive training up in the mountains of North Georgia and down in the Everglades of Florida and we had a big formation right before we graduate and they called out about 50 names of our of our classmates and said your order is now being changed you can make one phone call home you're going to Fort Benning I was supposed to go to Fort Jackson South Carolina and push basic trainees but I went in and signed in and we were there just a month and we headed to Vietnam my first sea voyage went over on the USS Maurice Rose we took a bus from Fort Benning to Charleston and boarded the the rose and in headed headed west went through the Panama Canal up to California and across the Pacific went through a typhoon the whole division had to get over there 15,000 soldiers and 400 plus helicopter all had to get over there and the the helicopters were on aircraft carriers they took we took a mule Colonel Stockton they gave him a mule during the the testing phase of the of the 11th Air Assault when they were testing the helicopters to see if they would work and it proved to be a very very successful division a very good division but it's very expensive they were able to outmaneuver the 82nd and 101st during the war games that they were participating in but Colonel he wasn't supposed to do it but he took his his mule they gave it they gave it to him as a gag gift and he called his his mule after his wife's name Maggie and guttin got the Vietnam and Maggie the generals told Stockton I don't want Maggie on my Chinook helicopter and so he had the sling load Maggie underneath his command helicopter to our base camp up in the Central Highlands upon K Maggie came to a bad end yeah she she was killed one night by a century from the seventh Cavalry and sergeant major Plumlee reported this back to Colonel Moore who held his hands over his head and said what what did you do and he said well sir a loaded baggie aboard the ciao truck and they delivered her back to the ninth he said why did we kill her he's that she were challenged sir and didn't know the countersign yeah you and I we was on the same what we're not the same time on a USS Maurice Road sir he wrote that same same you yeah don't go ahead and sorry they had a ride we were in the seventh Cavalry and whose lineage goes back to General George Armstrong Custer and there at the LZ x-ray we thought were in another Little Bighorn surrounded outnumbered but we had a lot of assets Custer didn't have we had the entire division ready to give us support so that was very very very very fortunate that we had that but I was that was my first job right out of my army training and as a rifle platoon leader in a company we were the second company in Bravo Company came in first and started looking for the enemy and our company a company came in about 10:30 on a Sunday morning the 14th of December and November and one of one of the platoons of Bravo Company got separated and surrounded by the enemy and the rest of the company had to pull back my company commander Dunning the doll said marm take your platoon and link up with Bravo Company they're going to make it they're going to make an attempt to get back up to to that that platoon that was tracked so we started we started doing it that we were taking casualties from the the enemy into our front and we were unable to do it on that first attempt so we pull back and we're going to make a second attempt with two two companies minus the platoon that was strapped B Company and and a company and so we started out we put our Torre and mortar fire in front of us trying to soften up the the front as we move forward but everybody has their own little fire fight in front of me was a it was elephant grass and shrubs and trees it wasn't heavy jungle like you think of in Vietnam but this one solidified Rock and Hill is about seven feet tall and this looked like a big ant hill with shrubs and trees around it was right in the front of my platoons sector in the heat of battle I told one of my one of my men to throw a grenade run up there and throw a grenade over the top but you trying to use sign language because he couldn't hear me that well but he thought I meant throw it from where we're at he didn't it landed in front of the monk err and it went off and it didn't do much damage so we kept moving forward and I told another one my men to shoot a bazooka it's called a light anti-tank weapon it's a one-shot disposable tank killing weapon that we had this new weapon for Vietnam and my soldier tried to shoot him it was a misfire so what'd you do with mr. fari I took the the weapon from him and closed it up and opened it up again and shot it and it boy went right into that that big rocks with a five rocking I made a big boom and a big cloud of dust and it really picked up our him around we started moving moving forward again but we were taking too much too much fire for many but we had to stop and was about thirty meters away that I said rather than waste any more time because it's starting to get dark we wanted to get to that platoon before the before it got too dark so I told my men to hold their firing and not to shoot me up that kind of worried me a little bit so I ran forward about thirty meters got to the solidified rock anthill and to a grenade over the top and then went around to the left side of it and silenced some more North Vietnamese that were that we're still trying to shoot me when the bunker was silenced is when I turned to I turned to my men to tell him to let's go we got to get to the Petunia and I got shot somewhere from a bad one of the North Vietnamese further in the background there and it kind of ruined my day I the bullet shattered my left jaw went in went in the left John deflected down and came out underneath my right my right jaw and I didn't have you were supposed supposed to have a medic with you there's a sign attached to you one of my sergeants a squad leader was a medic in the Korean War in the hits which demo essence was an infantry guy now so he was doing double duty carry the aid the aid bag and taking care of his squad and so he came up to me and patched me up and a couple of my soldiers carried me back to the rear and so I was I was a walking wounded it didn't have to it just kind of had to help me back to me but it and this guy took me out later that night before before last life I think he still owes me a pig yeah I have a hog farmer with your lines he bled all over my helicopter we had tremendous soldiers and they've been training together and some of them like had 10 days left off and many of them had a week left or you know two or three months left and we're in that battle fighting right alongside of us we're a cross-section of America in terms of all races and religions and and I had a 5s with Buck sergeant's with 10 years of service that were that were working with me and so I just had a tremendous platoon of you know of about 35 guys in our company we lost 11 in those 3 days of battle 11 killed in action and the we went in with 450 the whole battalion went in with 450 and we had 79 soldiers killed in action after three days of intense fighting in 121 wounded in action but we were we were blessed with just good good soldiers and NCOs it should be noted here that the overall picture was that the until this point until this battle the war had pretty much been confined to American advisors with Vietnamese troops and the casualties had been accordingly fairly small a couple a week something like that although all casualties are painful at this point with this battle and the succeeding battle at landing zone Albany by our sister battalion the second of the seventh Cavalry 205 Americans were killed in four days and approximately 300 wounded out of two battalions the entire campaign from mid-october to mid-november 305 American dead when these figures hit Washington there was a considerable concern in the White House considerable concern by President Johnson Secretary of Defense McNamara was Robert Strange McNamara aptly named was at NATO in Brussels and President Johnson told him get your butt to Vietnam and find out what the hell is going on over there more or less in those words I think and McNamara came over he took briefings at the Embassy he picked up Westmoreland and they flew up to on K and took briefings from Colonel Moore from genre Brigadier General that Major General Harry Cunard it was the division commander and on the plane home dated 30 November 1965 McNamara wrote a top-secret eyes-only memorandum to the president and on 15 December 1965 President Johnson called a meeting of his wise men at the White House they had a two-day session when Johnson walked into the Cabinet Room for the beginning of this meeting he had a copy of McNamara's memo in his hand and he shook it at him and said Bob you mean to tell me that no matter what I do in Vietnam I can't win that war and McNamara looked at him and shook is hid yes the memo said roughly speaking that the North Vietnamese have not only met our escalation of the war they have exceeded it and we are at a decision point we can decide to find whatever diplomatic cover is available and get out of this war out of this place or we give general Westmoreland the two hundred thousand more troops he's asking for in which case by early 1967 we will reach a military stalemate at a much higher level of violence and approximately a thousand a month American did he was wrong for a bean-counter it was actually would turn out to be three thousand a month that its height but knowing this and having the memo and they sat there and they talked about it for two days they then voted unanimously for option to give Westmoreland the two hundred thousand more troops and go for a military stalemate at a much higher level of violence it's one of the more curious moments in American history at that time we had 1,100 Americans who had lost their lives in Vietnam and the war would drag on for the better part of ten more years and fifty eight thousand two hundred and ninety names would be engraved on the black granite wall in Washington DC so I wanted you to see that larger picture and there's one more part of it it seems to me and and others who've studied it that this battle in the aftermath general canard wanted permission to pursue the fleeing North Vietnamese enemy across this line on a map into Cambodia where they had their sanctuaries and where we knew they were and where we could see their arms dumps and their men and this was kicked all the way back to Washington to the Pentagon and then to the White House and the answer came back you dare not pursue those people into Cambodia period it will not be allowed at that moment I believe we telegraphed a message to general Giap and the bosses in Hanoi that they now had and would have for the rest of the war strategic initiative they would decide when and where we would fight and how long the battle would last and all they had to do at the end of it was cross a line and they were time out we're going to have time to rest refit reinforce and we'll come back when we're ready to fight you again so it's in many ways very depressing to look at the blood that was lost the sacrifices that were made and see that it was all going nowhere we we were not going to win I don't even think we could define what victory would look like in Vietnam so that's my opinion it's my story and I'm sticking with it you guys are welcome to check in as we expanded from a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand I went back in 69 I didn't have the seasoned NCOs like I had in 65 just because the Army had banded so so rapidly and so fast and which was a shame we had great we had great soldiers and many of them were promoted right from out of basic training and had a an NCO course and they would come out they were called many of the Vietnam vets will know they're called chez Quebec 90-day wonders they were the lady soldiers I just didn't have a lot of colleagues are experienced yeah Joe got adapted and so did I and they sent me 12 miles from home after they drafted me and expected me to behave which was expectations they didn't have back home heyhow my first heart you called me and my buddy in and he said you two guys are too effed up to even be in the Army and you might make corporal someday and I don't want that on my conscience but you make good second lieutenants now sign this document sign this document get the hell out of my unit and that gave me a career in the army I screw up and move up yeah he made Journal y'all I'm colonel yeah I generally make colonel well I remember Joe was talking about in relationship to Cambodia because one day we were sent out to do a fire and mission and says well you're going to you're at firing mission your mission the Vietnamese are or coming across the border and you know you're firing mission is to go out and fire at them and make sure and so we go out and we are sitting there waiting and and on we see the Vietnamese sitting up on the other side in Cambodia we could see them we actually they was in here and they and we were signal power of our mortars and getting ready and putting down base plates and we noticed that the Vietnamese were all they were doing was putting the mortar base on a the mortar tube on a rock and they were and they were firing with the mortar tube on a rock and we were sitting in there firing with our going to fire hours with and someone said you came fire across the border and if there were wait waiting it and went into fire but and the vietnamese was just firing at us and then and then we look we look back in the rear and we noticed that well there was a b-52 bombers were unloading and you could hear if you ever been in a place where you could hear when they are unloading you just hear a rumbling coming across and is coming right at you and you could hear that rumbling coming coming and and so we need to know what I do was said you go across the border and be with the Vietnamese it goes ba it's got a God but but it was it was something else to watch I remember having a telling the guys one night when we were we were on a laying on our our backside there wondering what was going to do next and I and so and I always carried a lot of grenades with me and I said well guys only one thing we can do I said here his one grenade pulled the pin and and we'll just lay down on the ground because we didn't have any more ammo or anything else so we'll just lay down on the ground and then and when they come up and they reach and get you you just hand him the grenade that's huh so we we did that in Denix but and knew I said afternoon of the next day well we heard the choppers and we said gosh you know okay the choppers are coming and you know and they were coming on the fire I said well but they still were coming in and so we we said well gosh we we just lying there with everybody said well take off your grenades and then and then throw it out and in the woods and we we started to get nomura and I had mine in my hand in my hand was so tight and I'd tell my wife Sam now that's why I can't move my hand very much now because I said I had that grenade so tight I was holding it and I couldn't open my hand and so and I was going to was going to do in the first the first sergeant was the first one to come up sergeant major Bowes we had 30:35 guys and and only five of us survived that day and so we were there waiting if when I heard his name and he when he called in his and and I said Johnson and he said ho he came one start coming across and when he started coming across I I looked and I saw some little helmets and I know the only people tall and understanding the elephant grass with helmets on their hair it happened to be Vietnamese that or Vietcong I said oh my god we've been over an and so and I held him my grenade to throw and I sergeant major said oh no no no and because I was generated to throw the grenade and I went like that and it wouldn't come out of my hand it was stuck in my hand so he had to come over and I take it out and then at that time he said well we're gonna take you back you you've been wounded and and to my surprise I said well I know I've been wounded once he says y'all you know you got a you got a fragmentation wound under your I went right through your face and I said really good yeah we did get that platoon the next day a young a five Ernie Savage took over and put a ring of steel all around that platoon that night so that was very his whole chain of command was killed or wounded and he he survived with the help of the medic da clothes that they survived and we were able to get up to him the next day and get him out of there in one vote one thing that I want to get across to this audience is we never should have a draft again the draft did nothing except change the place where some of our guys went to jail the local chair for the judge could tell a young man that you either go in the army or go to jail and we had the largest stockades we've ever had and you don't gain anything by having a draft you don't get equity and when you talk about it we've got some of the finest young men in our military today and they're doing a great job when they're allowed to do it but the draft is a terrible way to try to solve a problem that can't be solved in any manner shape or form like that I was drafted I didn't have to go but if I had to go again I'd do it and most of your Regular Army types were good men yeah very good we're very good yeah and I served with in the guard when we went to the first Gulf War whether they were a very good bunch they did they did very well I think we have run to the end of our string year gentlemen yeah I got my point in you got your point across something so thank you all for your attention yes thank you thank you

Channel: TheLBJLibrary

Views: 220,573

Rating: 4.7706699 out of 5

Keywords: vince cantu, battle of ia drang, ia drang valley, vietnam war, vietnam veteran, joseph galloway, joe galloway, tone johnson, walter marm, bruce crandall, vietnam war summit, the vietnam war summit, lbj library, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, jim knotts

Id: 0OCdCeuUBIA

Length: 55min 15sec (3315 seconds)

Published: Tue May 17 2016