We tore back to a landing zone that we had arrived at less than an hour later. When the ambush was sprung at Albany, an intelligence sergeant shot and killed the two North Vietnamese prisoners with a .45-caliber pistol. Where you aware at the time that person was suffering from PTSD or was that something that only came to you in hindsight? Another 71 Americans had been killed in earlier, smaller skirmishes that led up to the Ia Drang battles. Unfortunately the young soldier was later killed but this image conveyed the senselessness and horror of how the human condition was playing out. His legs were paralyzed and VA got him a car with hand controls. During WWII Italian Commandos Were Tasked to Ride Torpedoes. Joseph Galloway had four tours in Vietnam during his 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent. I was so eager to get to Vietnam before the war ended that my only real fear was that the first. Though Capas illustrates cruelty, my corpsman illustrates humanity, almost saintliness a man carrying a child away from the sorrow and injuries of war. The war correspondent Joe Galloway, who has died aged 79, just as the Afghanistan conflict of 20 years has reached its chaotic end, predicted such a finish long before. (AP Photo) How much preparation are they given for dealing with what they encounter? ++After some time pass, some helicopters landed and I put him aboard one of them. As a 24-year-old UPI correspondent, Galloway was at the first major battle of the Vietnam War. When 1st Cav commander General Kinnard asked for permission to pursue the withdrawing North Vietnamese troops across the border into their sanctuaries inside Cambodia, cables flew between Saigon and Washington. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. It was almost a religious experience for me to record this extraordinary event. russell: But there and then, I decided to follow in his footsteps and complete his mission. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam at the best online prices at eBay! The UH-1B Huey helicopters buzzed around the rugged area like so many bees, landing American troops among the North Vietnamese, forcing them to split up into ever-smaller groups like coveys of quail pressed hard by the hunters. They took the child into a bunker, cleaned him up and dressed his wounds under candlelight. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. high above the jungle on its way to the Ia Drang Valley. It is not often you see enemies cradling each other. ============== In 1998, Galloway became the only American civilian to receive the Bronze Star Medal with "V" for heroism during the Vietnam War. The acclaimed photographer Robert Capa came in to take his place and cover the fighting. We did. The Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam began on November 14, 1965, and saw around 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fight for four days with about 2,500 North Vietnamese troops. Purdie, wounded for the third time in the war, was about to be flown to a hospital ship off the Vietnamese coast and leave that country for his last time. Knowles was furious at Stockton for disobeying his orders. In November 1965, journalist Joseph L. Galloway hitched a ride on an Army helicopter flying to the Ia Drang Valley, a rugged landscape of red dirt, brown elephant grass and truck-size termite mounds in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. The worst cases of PTSD are usually confined for treatment in a VA facility. They are the increased infiltration from the North and the increased willingness of the Communist forces to stand and fight, even in large-scale engagements. choppers the engineers they got burned," he said with eyes distant. Bob McDades 2-7 Battalion plus one company of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, would follow Tully part of the way, then break off west and northwest toward another clearing closer to the river dubbed LZ Albany. Galloway brandishes a Swedish K submachinegun at Danang in August 1965. day battle. It was forever a search for a picture, and you never knew, sometimes for weeks, whether you had that picture or not. Some had feared that the helicopters were too flimsy and fragile to fly into the hottest of landing zones. I shot a photo of him as he was walking toward the chopper and he was cursing everyone, me included. $5.02. That said, it was often a world of anonymous photographers spending time with anonymous soldiers. General Giap also learned one very important lesson. By Joe Lee Galloway. As the president walked into the room, he was holding McNamaras November 30 memo in his hand. Second Lieutenant Walter Marm (later Colonel) received the Medal of Honor on February 15, 1967 for his actions during the 3-day battle at LZ X-Ray. Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, it dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. LBJ ordered McNamara to Saigon to find out what happened at Ia Drang, and what it meant. My older brother Huynh Thanh My, who was killed covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press, always told me that an image could stop the war and that was his goal. When the ambush was sprung, the American artillery wreaked havoc on the North Vietnamese plan and the 33rd Regiment. However, the American GIs often showed compassion toward the Viet Cong. (Paperback 9780345475817) Jimmy D. Nakayama's casualty report no crushed ankles! Soldiers and journalists alike are reluctant to seek treatment, and for the same reason: A fear that it is a confession of fear, and may damage your career. It was an old guerrilla ploy that usually worked, but not here, not now. While the Vietnam War raged roughly two decades worth of bloody and world-changing years compelling images made their way out of the combat zones. In the next six hours, McDades battalion would lose 155 men killed and 120 wounded. How those photographs made history is underscored throughout the new documentary series The Vietnam War, from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. What is We Were Soldiers about? Its insane to think that these three young children with grenades were going off to fight the Viet Minh army. McDade and his command group went forward so the battalion commander could personally put questions to the prisoners through the interpreter. A short time later, Capa was killed by a land mine while out on a mission with the U.S. troops. Another political decision flowing out of the Johnson White Houselimiting the tour of duty in Vietnam to 12 months (13 months for Marines)would soon begin to bite hard. In 1981, working with his co-author, Joe Galloway, he turned his attention to the research that underpinned their 1992 New York Times Bestselling book on the Ia Drang battles, We Were Soldiers Once and Young. These hard Marines suddenly became the most gentle, loving persons. Im thankful that this is my picture. Nov. 14-18, 1965< this would be LZ X-Ray's battle, Robert Saucedo should have been leaving the war. 'On the worst day of my life, in the bloodiest battle of the war, on November 15 1965, in Landing Zone XRay in the Ia Drang Valley, we were surrounded by North Vietnamese regulars determined to. Joe Galloway was recognized with the Bronze Star with Valor when during November 1965, Battle of Ia Drang, he repeatedly disregarded his own safety to rescue wounded soldiers . only a couple bottles of blue pills which you need to use more regularly. In November 1965 . It was a great moment for Americans! you were, are and will remain the looniest twit to ever grace a shrinks office, if you had anything worth taking, I would sue you. I had photographed POWs returning home time and again, and been in Vietnam on two tours myself, as a photographer. Two of those enemy regiments had already been busy since arriving in the Central Highlands. But Im fascinated by the photograph because of the man behind the camera: Yoichi Okamoto. It Didnt End Well. A few years later on that fateful day in 1972 on the Trang Bang road, my brothers goal was accomplished. (09/18/1947 - 12/04/1981). Joseph Galloway, the legendary American war correspondent best known for his book-turned-Hollywood-blockbuster that chronicled a pivotal 1965 battle in Vietnam, died Wednesday morning, Aug. 18, of complications from a heart attack, The Washington Post reported. National Archives - The Battle of Ia Drang Valley - National Security Council. Lee Galloway at the Ia Drang photo will be donated to the fund. The rate of infiltration has increased from three battalion equivalents a month in late 1964 to a high of 9 or 12 during one month this past fall. In a message dated 1/15/2004 3:23:36 PM Pacific Standard Time, Some experienced a flash of guilt when in a starkly honest millisecond they thought, Glad it was him, not me. That big ugly candid moment was immediately pushed down, but it would creep back every now and then, especially back in the world when they gave a hug to their new child, the one their dead buddy would never have. Their peasant soldiers had withstood the high-tech firestorm thrown at them by a superpower and had at least fought the Americans to a draw, and to them a draw against so powerful an enemy was a victory. War Zone C Ambush of the 173rd Airborne, 1965. They decided that these results justified a strategy of attrition: They would bleed the enemy to death over the long haul. Purdie was being restrained from turning back to aid his CO. A few frames later, Larry Burrows took another photograph: Purdie is still being held back, but in front of him is another wounded man and Purdies arms are outstretched. He had just turned 30. He is the only civilian awarded a medal of valor by the U.S . War sucks.. The man was a brave SOB, having made a name for himself at the Battle of Ia Drang, November 14-18, 1965 (I wrote about the battle here). Joe Lee Galloway never served in any branch of the Military. The big battles began when thenLt. I could feel those bones in the palms of my hands. This sprang from a soldierly admiration for their dedication and bravery qualities difficult to discern in the average government soldier. Galloway was decorated with a Bronze Star Medal with V in 1998 for rescuing wounded soldiers under fire during the la Drang battle. 4.4 of 5 stars. In the top-secret memo he wrote on his way back to Washington, excerpted below, he coolly predicts the deadly road ahead and the unlikely prospects for victory. A Mars bar was a very special thing indeed. Your browser is out of date. My Dad and all my uncles would not tell us kids war stories. Joe Galloway has PTSD? I saw the medic shouldering wounded and then I saw the kid on his back in the grass. Pete Souza, former White House photographer for Presidents Reagan and Obama: This is truly an incredibly intimate picture. Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, November 1965. . Colonel Crandall broke his back when he crash landed a year later while rescuing 12 trapped soldiers. (b) Any person found guilty of larceny or wrongful appropriation shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. "He loved the boys and girls of the U.S. military. "He was the kindest, most gentle and loving man," Grace Galloway said. Its obvious looking at this photograph that he had unfettered access to LBJ and that everyone was comfortable with him being in the room even when the room was the Presidents bedroom. I remember him telling the story of being lined up in the playground and being handed a Mars bar by a tall GI. All 16 Hueys dedicated to lifting and supporting Colonel Moores besieged force in X-ray were shot full of holes, but only two were unable to fly out on their own. I really cant speak for the general public and what they know or dont know about PTSD. At the head of the column, McDade had no idea where most of his men were and was near-incoherent on the radio. you were, are and will remain the looniest twit to ever grace a shrinks office, if you had anything worth taking, I would sue you. Both sides understood that the war had changed suddenly and dramatically in those few days.Both sides claimed victory. 153 new photos; 616 job history records for people in our database; 192 education records for people in our database; 915 contact addresses, emails and URLs (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) (b) Any person subject to this chapter who, (1) commits an assault with a dangerous weapon or other means or force likely to produce, death or grievous bodily harm; is guilty of aggravated assault and shall be punished as a, 921. Slapping a swagger stick along his leg, he quickly loaded the two journalists who had accepted his invitation, myself and UPI reporter Leon Daniel, into a Jeep and barreled into the town. Russell Burrows, son of photographer Larry Burrows: The fraction of a second captured in most photographs is just that: a snapshot of a moment in time. This particular Viet Cong had fought for three days with his intestines in a cooking bowl strapped onto his stomach. In November 1965, journalist Joseph L. Galloway hitched a ride on an Army helicopter flying to the Ia Drang Valley, a rugged landscape of red dirt, brown elephant grass and truck-size termite. Do you think Gold Star family members can suffer from PTSD even though they have never been in a combat zone? After the beginning of the Iraq War my own employer Knight Ridder hired psychologists who interviewed returning war correspondents, and checked up on them periodically to make sure they were OK. What do you think the general public fails to understand about PTSD? 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