'We Were Soldiers' Company Commander on Being Surrounded | The Battle of Ia Drang

15 to 20 minutes after we arrived my whole front erupted in fire you can't describe what it's like the noisiest place I've ever been you hear that first round go overhead and you realize that this is serious business and there's a guy out there very much wants to kill you the enemy quickly closed casualties mounted hand-to-hand fighting resulted training kicks in at that point you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail the Army kind of chose me when I went to Lafayette College there was a program that all land-grant colleges in exchange for funding from the government would offer the ROTC program and the first two years of that were mandatory for freshmen and sophomores so that's how I got in after the first two years I was enjoying it they then would recruit people they considered to be potential officers for a program called the advanced program uh if you uh successfully completed that program you got a commission and went in the Army the next day after graduation a friend fraternity brother friend of mine and I reported for active duty at Fort Indiantown Gap out near Harrisburg waiting for the basic officer infantry course at Fort Benning which we started in mid-july that was a two-month course we stayed on went to Airborne school made the qualifying jumps and we both went to Germany not to the same post but the same post name because in those days Germany was the focus of the nation's military huge Army presence in Germany tensions were very high uh we trained to defend West Germany from a possible East German Russian attack across the border I was assigned the 8th Infantry Division which was stationed in multiple post very close to the French and Belgian border front line if you want to call it that was manned by a couple of our armored Cavalry regiments early warning type thing until the guys like us back in rear could get mobilized and deploy it forward to the defensive positions I was in Germany for a little over three years I came back from Germany went to uh back to Fort Benning home of the Infantry I was a promotable first lieutenant waiting to be promoted to Captain he put me in a staff job in a brigade headquarters and three or four months this that was January of 64. maybe mid April or so one of the infantry battalion commanders stopped by my office stuck his head in and said Bob how'd you like to command an infantry company commanding a company for an infantryman is the ultimate goal when I left Germany there were senior captains waiting for companies I hadn't made Captain yet and this guy's offering me that I said absolutely sir let's do it right now late April early May of 64 took command of sea company 2nd battalion 23rd Infantry which was a second division unit but shortly thereafter it was loaned to the 11th Air Assault division which was testing the Army's new air mobile concept the concept of air Mobility was to find out whether you could do everything on a battlefield that you had to do not with wheeled or tracked vehicles but with Aviation assets helicopters and and fixed-wing aircraft testing started that summer of 64. they tested small units and then they kept increasing the size of units until they got to the division size test in the fall of 64 six-week exercise up in the Carolinas and when that was over we just went back to training and and doing the normal things while the Army evaluated the results of the test the results were that yeah this is going to work let's make uh the air mobile concept uh let's integrate a air mobile division into the Army Force structure and their first decision was what are we going to call these guys and the decision was we'll take the colors of the first Cavalry division which had been in Korea since the end of the Korean War and the colors will come back and we will re-flag all of those units that are in the 11th aerosol division test we'll reflex them as first Cavalry units and the second the 23rd became the first Battalion seventh cavalry with a little bit of history behind it colonel Moore took command uh while it was still the second and the 23rd in I think late June maybe early July of 64. he was our Battalion Commander through all of the air assault training and when we became the first cab and and so they made the decision that it's going to the first cab is going to be it and the president went on the air in June or July and said I have today ordered uh two Vietnam the air mobile division so we had six to eight weeks to get combat ready loaded in Old Navy ships and aircraft carriers made a one-month sailing Voyage to Vietnam we pulled into the harbor in the middle of the night anchored got up next morning and saw this landscape of very green vegetation the humidity was off the charts uh and that was the first impression this is very early and worse we The Advisory effort had been going on for a while but in terms of American combat units fighting there hadn't been a lot a lot of that going on our Bible for uh fighting the Vietcong or the enemy whatever you want to call them was Bernard Falls book street without Joy there were a couple of copies of that on the boat and we all read it and then passed it on to the next guy from that book we we kind of learned what the the enemy Guerrilla tactics were and that sort of thing here's how it all happened when we got to Vietnam the first thing we had to do was establish a base camp uh an advanced party had gone over went to the spot that Mac B had said this is where the first cab division is going and they started there was nothing there there were no roads no building no facilities we had to build a base camp build and then and defend it so we spent a couple of weeks doing that then we started small patrols out of the out of the base camp and uh and then we went into small air mobile operations out of the base camp but those initial operations were all to the east to the coast and not to the west to the highlands where the eye drank battle took place in late October the North Vietnamese Army made a pretty bold decision they moved a division size unit down into the Cambodian South Vietnamese border and their plan was to take one of their regiments attack the Special Forces camp at play me not so much to overrun it but to cause the threat to exist that would cause the South Vietnamese to send it a really Force down an old dirt road to reinforce that camp the north of Vietnamese would had another regiment in a large Ambush along the road only route the south of Vietnamese could use so they attacked the Special Forces camp South Vietnamese cranked up a relief Force but unbeknownst to the enemy that relief Force included in support the first cab field artillery Battalion the Ambush was less than successful mainly because of the artillery the Vietnamese and North Vietnamese broke off the attack on play me broke off the Ambush and retreated back towards the Cambodian border decision at high level then maybe MCV maybe two Field Force was let's pursue so they took the first brigade of the first Cav division deployed it into the pleco play me area to look for fine fight fix and kill the enemy they did they found them and they fought him uh in in not big battles but in in a number of small battles and they were very successful after about two weeks the decision was made Let's swap out first first Cavalry division units uh let's have the third Brigade which was two battalions of the seventh Cavalry first and second Battalion and another uh Cavalry Battalion from another Brigade they will replace the first brigade units so 8 9 10 November that swapping of units took place first of the seventh arrived November the 10th flew in by fixed Wing aircraft uh transferred to helicopters and went out into search areas company search areas the strange thing is that the first brigade contacts were all made to the west but when the third Brigade got in somewhere along the line they said let's have the third Brigade look to the east and south and we didn't find anything General Knowles was up there heading up the the outfits and he he was itching to find a fight and the core Commander who I think was a guy named Swede Larson Major General he came up to check in ask the Knowles how you doing and Noel said sir ain't nothing out here we're not finding anything with all due respect that's where you told us or your staff told us to fight he said the mission is go find the enemy and he left so that pretty much gave Knowles a free hand he found the third Brigade Commander Tim Brown and said I want you to take one of your battalions uh and make a a bold leap from where you are around the play me area where the enemy isn't far to the west and see if the enemy's there the unit chosen was was Hal Moore's first the seventh not to be Brash or anything but we had a really good Battalion the majority of the the commanders and staff had been training together for more than a year we had that air assault down to a t contrary to that the second of the seventh had not gone through air mobile training program so they and they had a new Commander so first and seventh got the mission Warren we got the warning order in the middle of the day and the 13th said tomorrow morning November the 14th the first the seventh will conduct a battalion-sized air assault into and they gave gave the coordinates which was an area at the base of the chupong Mountain Complex which was up against the border of South Vietnam and Cambodia on the morning of the 14th uh Colonel Moore took his command group the S3 the Air Force liaison officer the artillery a liaison officer the company commander of the assault company John Herron of bee company and that group along with the aviation people got into two Huey helicopters escorted by two gunships and they flew what they wanted to enemy to think was a resupply mission north of where we were but in reality it was a reconnaissance mission looking at the area and looking for a landing Zone that would take at least eight aircraft eight Huey helicopters uh they came back there was really only one area it was given the code name of X-ray there were a couple other smaller areas which were given I think Tango and and Sierra or something like that but the primary Landing Zone was to be x-ray Plan called for the artillery to fire diversionary uh preparations on two of the other alternate Landing zones and then would fire a 20-minute concentration on uh LZ x-ray that Landing Zone we would rehearse at Fort Benning without live ammunition and without an enemy but we had the techniques down pat except this time we're doing a live ammunition and a live enemy So the plan was after the artillery preparation was finished right as it ended as the last rounds hit the ground the aerial rocket artillery rocket ships would make a pass shoot up half their load on a landing Zone and that would be followed by the Huey gunships machine gun ships they would come in and shoot a preparation of that fire and then the lift ships 16 Huey helicopters carrying as much of B company and Colonel Moore's command group began landing at x-ray a very quiet and a non-challenged initial Landing might be company once they were on the ground the ships went back to pick up the second company which was a company when the a company was on the ground in sufficient numbers to secure the landing Zone Bee Company would move up to the north looking for the enemy when my company C company the third company started Landing when enough of us were on the ground to secure the landing Zone Bee Company would join a company in that search to the north and Northwest First Landing camera at 10 30 or so uh didn't run into any any enemy initially but maybe a half an hour after Bee Company started looking around they found a North Vietnamese Soldier unarmed uh very ragged and empty canteen uh there are arguments about whether he was a scout whether he was a deserter or whatever but he was the first prisoner we ever captured so Colonel Moore in the command Group which included an interpreter that went up to talk to this guy he said that there are three battalions of North Vietnamese Soldier on that mountain he turned around pointed to the jupong mountain and they very much want to find and kill Americans so this kind of changed the whole tenure of of what we were there to do and we knew there were enemy probably more enemy than we really wanted to find but we weren't about to leave Bee Company uh came in secured a landing Zone a company came in B company was turning loose I came in a company was turned loose and they moved to the north and west looking pretty soon they made contact and and quickly the contact became pretty severe and casually started to roll up and part of that attack one of the big company platoons I got a little over anxious they saw some enemy they pursued him and they ran into an enemy force and they were cut off from the rest of the Battalion when my company came in I was fortunate enough to have most of the company and more importantly I had all three of my platoon leaders so General Moore has a landing Zone that he has to hold because that's where people are going to come in and the wounded are going to go out and resupply comes in we got to hold that lifeline and you've got two companies engaged to the north with a cut off platoon what the challenge he faced what do I do with my third company we had a plan to do a lot of other stuff but that plan went out the window when we found out how many enemies were on the mountain he said Bob take take C company and now run to flock to the South and Southeast I grab some leaders gave him a short order and we got off the landing Zone into the perimeter Landing Zone shrub trees and that sort of thing I had I put three platoons online the second will tune on the left my left first platoon in the center third platoon on the right we got in got down got very shallow holes Doug 15 to 20 minutes after we arrived all my whole front erupted uh in fire you can't describe what it's like yeah we had a couple of uh Korean war vets in the company and they can kind of tell you what is but but until you you hear that first round go overhead and you realize that this is a serious business and there's a guy out there very much wants to kill you training kicks in at that point these were trained so we've been together for a year uh this the ncos knew the capabilities of their men I knew what the platoons could do we had probably better fields of fire than the other companies had and most importantly other companies were moving to try to get to the Lost platoon well my guys were down in the defensive posture so the enemy came straight at us not knowing that we were there and Colonel Moore writes in a book C company defeated the most serious threat of the afternoon the noisiest place I've ever been uh but that that uh that's fighting after 30 minutes or so kind of calmed down uh so I could get up and and start looking assessing my situation which was I had three platoons online but I had a gap on my right flank which was open and I had nothing on my left line uh at some point uh early in the afternoon maybe one two o'clock Colonel Moore had asked for an additional rifle company from the Brigade Commander Delta company the combat support company managed the land and they deployed to my Left Flank so I'm getting the protection there Colonel Moore gave me one platoon of that reinforcing uh second of the seventh second platoon of B company and I put them on my right flank where they were able to complete the perimeter there so by five o'clock or so we had a a defensive perimeter that we could hold for the night coincidentally With the Enemy attacking my area A and B companies were trying to get to that cut off platoon uh which by this time was down to maybe uh I think 10 men on wounded it was commanded by uh a squad leader soon leader had killed a bassoon sergeant had been killed that squad leader did just a super they got them down he got them organized he got and here again where the artillery come into play he built a artillery protective Ring of Fire around the piece of ground that that now depleted platoon held the efforts of the A and B company get to him two efforts were repulsed so by maybe 1700 or so it's starting to get dark Moore had to tell Sergeant Savage now you got to hold on through the night we're going to come get you in the morning and relatively quiet night a few probes by the enemy but uh no penetrations Sergeant Savage beat off I think three or four attempts of the enemy to get to him but because he was doing such a good job of Defending it they were unsuccessful in fact after he took command of that platoon nobody else was wounded and they had a medic with him he quickly exhausted all the supplies in his aid kit and he resorted to plugging bullet holes with sea rash and toilet paper water to toilet paper like that he was putting them in holes he got all the wounded through the night uh Savage and the platoon and that medic both got distinguished service crosses so we're at uh morning of the 15th 6 30 7 o'clock more gets on the radio calls the company Commander he said okay I'm gonna do two things number one I want you all to send small patrols out from your platoon see what's out in front of you and number two after those patrols come back and we know what kind of situation we have what company commanders to meet me at Sea companies command post and we're going to figure out how to go get Ernie Savage back so I pass those instructions to my now four platoon leaders they each LED very small groups of men for their positions and very quickly the whole line erupted like it had the previous day my two right plant platoons the attached platoon from B second to the seventh and my third platoon both of those patrols got back and in position and although they continue to be engaged the brunt of the attack hit my left two platoons my first and second platoon in very high numbers the anime quickly closed uh casualties mounted hand-to-hand fighting resulted numerous Tales of of individual heroism and and as as Moore says more importantly a unit discipline we held but it was at a cost my friend here will will tell you that this is a where I have a tough time tell my story I started today with uh five officers and 106 men uh we fought for two and a half hours hand-to-hand fighting Savage fighting I got wounded all the platoon leaders and myself were either killed or wounded and 42 men were killed and 20 some were there only 48 or 49 men unwounded left defending that line but what we did and things calmed down enough that uh that Colonel Moore could bring the rest of that attached B company second Battalion uh Across The Landing Zone they took over my area you you have to mourn and you have to grieve but more importantly with the guides you have left that are still capable of fighting you have to keep them organized and functioning and that's what I tried to do when I was wounded it it was a a it wasn't a penetrating front to back wound in my shoulder it came in on an angle it hit the scapula it broke it and it tore a big chunk uh but my left arm was was not working and I and I couldn't move but even if I couldn't move the fire was such if anybody that stood up got shot it broke down to small groups of men fighting for the guy on their left fighting for the guy on their right unit discipline and a lot of individual acts of courage it hurt like hell I never lost Consciousness I got the Aid Station we were short Medics but we had a captain doctor and two senior Medics they plugged me into IVs and lost a lot of blood and uh but hadn't lost Consciousness but I wasn't in any fighting shape at the Aid Station they were triaging casualties uh guys that didn't look like they could make it and survive a flight out they were set to one side and my third platoon leader Bill Franklin was in that category but when the helicopters finally started evacuating them the Battalion S3 walked over to that group grabbed Bill Franklin threw him over his shoulder and carried him out the aircraft and literally threw him into the aircraft on top of Mace we rode out of X-ray in a in a one of Crandall's Huey's to the division uh Medical Center medical post up near Plato wounded at sevenish uh left x-ray maybe 10 30 by by roughly noon I was back on a bigger helicopter Chinook uh headed for the 95th evacuation Hospital in queenon on the coast I was in an operating room there by midnight that night the bullet had broken the scapula but you know they don't put a cast on it it will heal itself After PT and and in my case skin graft it's been a couple days there uh got an air on an Air Force evacuation plane went to uh first stop at Clark eventually went then to Travis in California uh then again Air Force to uh Fort Dix McGuire my family was in uh was in Trenton New Jersey one of the hospitals that I had the choice of going to was Valley Forge near there I chose that by Monday a week from the the attack on the 15th of November the next Monday I was in the United States at Valley Forge General Hospital waiting for a skin graft spent 30 days or so went on convalescent leave by mid-January of 66. I was back at Fort Benning waiting to go to the Captain's Course the career course if you're enjoying this video you should join our exclusive patreon Community to receive Early Access to videos each week the chance to send questions to our heroes and much more we scour the country to identify film share and preserve these first-hand Battlefield accounts and time is of the essence to join our mission visit patreon.com American Veterans Center or click the link in our description it's up to each of us to guard their legacy and honor their sacrifice thanks and now back to the interview went to the Infantry officer career course at Fort Benning and uh the summer of 66 to the spring of 67 then I went to the Ohio State University as an rot and C instructor that was a great tour uh and in January of 1969 got orders back to Vietnam the rule at that time was if you've served your first tour with American unit you go back on second Tour on the advisory side of the house despite all your my pleadings that I want to go back to America and no you can't do that he said but I can send you any place you want to go in Vietnam I said well I know the second quarter better than any place send me back to tucor they flew me up to two common major now they flew me up to two core I come in late afternoon we went to the Officers Club the first guy I ran into was now a full colonel Who as a lieutenant colonel had come to my office back at Banning and said would you like to command a company and he said what in the hell are you doing here I said I'm back here for another tour and I'm looking for a job he said stop right there I got an opening I worked for him for another six months at a desk job which was taking papers out of the Inbox and putting them in the outbox I went to the command and general staff College when I went out of that second tour the only anti-war experience that I really had was and the Rumor came up students are going to take over the ROTC building the Detachment Commander full Colonel said okay here's what we're going to do and he had a stack of baseball bats he said we're in guard the building from the inside you are not to strike at anybody outside the building but if they reach their hand through a window or a door you are authorized to hit that hand with these bats they never came near the building came out of the commanded general staff College they wanted to send me to Syracuse University to be a get a master's degree in operations research systems analysis probably not so politely as the assignment officer do you look at my college math scores don't worry about those we send you to summer school I said I don't want to go to Syracuse I don't want a degree in operations to research and I want to go someplace else he said I'll see what I can do calls back in the accident how'd you like to go to Fort Bragg I don't think I even asked him what I was going to do there I knew that 99 of the people at Bragg were on jump status so I went to Bragg I served a year with the uh John F Kennedy Center for military assistance the Green Beret folks I wasn't a Green Beret but I was a war a command general staff college graduate and they had a no requirement for my special skills but after a year they let me transfer to the 82nd I was a battalion S3 with the 82nd for six or seven months the commanding Journal of the corps needed a new Aid I interviewed for that job I got that job served with General hay who had commanded the first Division in Vietnam I served as his senior aide for six months so and uh we're now up to the spring of 1970 three and it comes my turn to go to a Washington assignment I go to the military personnel Center there coincidentally commanded at that time by a guy named Moore but now he's a brigadier general and I came out I got selected from Russian Lieutenant Colonel I got selected for Battalion command our office in the Personnel Center was across the hall from the Infantry assignment Branch I had made friends with them my assignment as a battalion Commander was the first Battalion 14th Infantry in Hawaii commanded for 18 months there was a brigade executive officer for six months came out on a war College list went to Carlisle went to the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart Georgia was a the G1 there I got selected for promotion the colonel went back to Fort Benning headed up the department of training development for two years and when it became obvious and I was not going to be General Edwards I retired in August of 83 as an infantry colonel out of Fort Benning the the interesting thing is that uh Fort Benning under the Army's uh or Department of Defense post renaming is going to become Fort Moore his wife was was named Julie when the casualties from from x-rays started to roll in she was still at Fort Benning as were many of the wives of men killed there she went to every funeral but she quickly learned that how the Army notified people that they that they lost a loved one she was not a lady to take things later she went on a rampage and is credited with causing the army to do a personal notification in person with a a chaplain to every family who lost a soldier it'll be Fort Moore but it will really be Fort Hal G and Julia Moore for for viewers who have uh maybe seen this for the first time and want to learn more about this battle don't go to the movie go buy a copy of the book We Were Soldiers once and young because when Joe Galloway and Colonel Moore started to write that book their goal was to find an interview every soldier that they could and tell something about that man and I think they really nailed it

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 372,071

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: 1MtuJ_GQp9M

Length: 33min 7sec (1987 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 04 2023