Soldiering—A Matter of the Heart Part 2

By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

“Soldiering comes down to a matter of the heart. That is unchanging. I think it has never changed from the first day a guy picked up a rock to defend his cave and his wife and kids, over 10,000 years ago,” explained Joseph Galloway in an interview with Gary Lillie of the Veterans Radio Broadcast in 2009.  

    Galloway, a retired reporter for United Press International, spent twenty years as a senior editor and writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Galloway began his career as a war correspondent in Vietnam. He covered the war from 1965 to its climax in Saigon in 1975. Then he went to every war in between including the Iraq War. He saw plenty of battles. But Vietnam moved him most. Was it any surprise that through his writings, he would become the voice of the Vietnam generation? 

Joe Galloway had a gift. He could make the American people understand what war was like through the eyes of a soldier. He wrote not what the public wanted to hear, but what the public needed to hear. 

    This is an excerpt from We Were Soldiers Once…And Young. In Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore’s own words: “Joe Galloway shot a few final photos of Tony Nadal’s weary soldiers clumped around termite hill, gathered his own rifle and pack, and approached me to say farewell. We stood and looked at each other and suddenly and without shame the tears were cutting tracks through the red dirt on our faces. I choked out these words. ‘Go tell America what these brave men did; tell them how their sons died.’ … In Columbus, Georgia, Mrs. Julie Moore got the kids off to school and picked up the Enquirer that morning: ‘The first paragraph of the story—it was written by Joe Galloway—said the battle was the bloodiest in Vietnam history. Then, in the next paragraph, he quoted my husband. I had to take a deep breath before I read the rest’” (pg. 217).

In the three-day la Drang Battle, there were somewhere around 800 North Vietnamese dead, with an additional 1,215 estimated killed and wounded by artillery, air attacks, and aerial rocket attacks. Americans captured and evacuated six enemy prisoners.  

For the 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, fighting under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, there were 79 killed in action, 121 wounded, and none missing. 

That three-day battle showed every soldier’s high morale, determination and fight-to-the-death resolve to protect Americans from the propaganda and plagues of communism that these South Vietnamese knew of firsthand. The American soldier’s self-sacrifice, fortitude, dedication, and faith are seen here. 

“Please dear Lord, don’t let them shoot us down.” Moore had seen two choppers and a plane shot down. He thought, “You wouldn’t bring us down now after You let us survive three days and two nights of Hell.” Moore then writes: “God watched over us; He brought us home…” (We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, pg. 216).

The sacrifice and valor of these young Americans never ceased. Helicopter pilots Major Bruce Crandall and Captain Ed Freeman together flew a total of thirty-six flights delivering water, ammunition and picking up wounded soldiers, thereby saving countless lives during those three days. The enemy fire was so heavy that the medical evacuation helicopters who were supposed to pick up the wounded refused to do their job. Crandall couldn’t refuse.

“Big Ed and I took off and headed for the LZ. We picked up the radio traffic and knew things hadn’t improved. About five minutes out I contacted Colonel Moore, explained what I had on board, and he acknowledged they needed the ammo. That made it mandatory for us to go in, no matter what the consequences. Moore knew the problem and gave us instructions on the approach and where to land. We started receiving heavy fire on our approach. I notified Big Ed and he calmly came back with: ‘Roger. What do you want me to do about it, Snake? I kind of thought this might happen.’

“Crandall remembers, ‘My bird carried out eight of the seriously wounded. While we were in there a wounded captain helping another officer onto my Huey was shot. We took him out, too. Ed was able to get five wounded out on his ship.” (We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, pg. 118)

Galloway rarely visited Saigon where most of the five hundred-plus accredited correspondents stayed. They went to daily briefings. Galloway said this was called “the 5 o’clock follies.” These American correspondents often complained to Galloway that they were being lied to. Galloway’s answer was “No one lies to you with the sound of the guns. You come out with me and people will tell you the truth.”

    As Abraham Lincoln stated, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

Were the American people receiving the true facts? We fought in Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism. Yet, in an interview with the top brass in Vietnam, Major General Phuong said, “We knew that it would not be enough just to make propaganda…. We had to study how to fight the Americans” (We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, page 50).

Was it too late for Americans? Had the lies of Communism already spread like an untreated cancer in America? Our Vietnam soldiers returned with no parades or jubilant hoorays. No soldier in a snappy dress uniform carried this heart-rending news to parents and wives of their loved ones’ death. Those reports came from a telegram, and a yellow cab driver delivered them. A simple telegram stating, “their son or husband was killed. Never said, ‘in action.’ 

Was Major General Phuong’s Communist Party propaganda working? Morale is the lifeblood of every soldier. These 17- and 18-year-old young men right out of high school had no choice but to be drafted into the Army for two years, with President Johnson’s mandatory twelve months in Vietnam it could feel like an eternity under battle. Or like some did, they could flee to Canada. Or try and get into a college. But if their parents could not afford college, the high school guys had no choice but to be drafted. 

        Is it any surprise that by 1967 and ‘68 these young men understood what the public thought of their sacrifice. They knew they were marching to the drum beat of bad luck or worse yet, pity. No moral boast here—just boos. But in General Moore’s eyes, they were already heroes of the highest esteem. For, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13 NKJV)

God does not fail us. He gives us what we need when we need it and then some. Many of those young men would not give up that Vietnam experience. Because they learned about themselves. They learned to face their fears, to face the worst foe a man can face—death. They accepted every challenge with courage, fortitude, and a prayer upon their lips.

General Moore said, “We would be outnumbered twelve to one at times and our survival was by no means guaranteed” (We Are Soldiers Still, pg. 6). “That any of us survived is testimony to the fighting spirit of the great young Americans—the majority of them draftees—who, when their backs were to the wall, fought like lions and died bravely” (We Are Soldiers Still, pg. 4).

En route to the United States for their discharge upon the completion of their twelve months in Vietnam, they were scheduled to leave that day. Lt. Gen. Moore asked for a moment to speak to each draftee. “These young men each wearing the thousand-yard stare in his old man’s eyes, had gone willingly into the inferno at X-Ray.” X-Ray was part of the three-day la Drang battle consisting of 450 men who won that battle against 2,000+ North Vietnamese. (We Were Soldiers Once…And Young, pg. 358). 

Specialist 4 Pat Selleck of the recon platoon remembers: “Colonel Moore shook our hands and said, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Go back home.’ I was the second or third guy he spoke to, and he had tears in his eyes. ‘I see you are married; you have a wedding ring on. Just go home, pick up the pieces, and start your life all over again.’ I did what Colonel Moore said. I tried to put the war behind me. I served. I did my job. I came home. I didn’t ask for anything, no fanfare, no parades. I went back to work, back to school and did my best. He might be a general, but to me he’s still Colonel Moore. If it wasn’t for him and all his knowledge and training, I don’t think any of us would have survived the la Drang Valley.” (We Were Soldiers Once…And Young, pg. 345).

It proved difficult for the United States military to win over an enemy who, when the going got tough, fled the five odd miles to the Cambodian border. American troops were forbidden to follow into Cambodia. General Kinnard said, “I was always taught as an officer that in a pursuit situation you continue to pursue until you either kill the enemy or he surrenders.”  

The conclusion of this story will appear March 16 in “Soldiering—a Matter of the Heart.” 

Waltz with Destiny: Waltz into the Big Band Era and the splendors of Detroit's ballrooms with Esther (McConnell) Meir as a story-book romance swirls into a battle for survival. 

Guys like Eric Erhardt remember those days vividly: "The outside world all thought Americans were too soft, and not much more than playboys, and we wouldn't be able to fight—man, did we show them!”

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Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted Dandelions, Swept

into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer. Her short stories have appeared in Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-two years live on their ranch in Addison Township, Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, three dogs, three cats, three bunnies and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more fun details.

References:

We Were Soldiers Once… and Young, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret) and Joseph L. Galloway, Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books, New York, Copyright 1992 photos pgs. 232-233

We are Soldiers Still, Harper Collins Publishers, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway, Harper Collins Publisher, Copyright 2008 Photos pgs. 170

https://homeofheroes.com/heroes-stories/vietnam-war/joseph-l-galloway/