1 post from November 2007

firstcav-Nov2007(8.10)-5101
Originally uploaded by DotComet

I grew up in a time when my father was tormented by demons. Today they call it PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The cause of this was of course the Vietnam War, but it wasn't just being in Vietnam. It was because of the battle that my father survived. The Battle of Ia Drang was the 1st Cavalry's and the US Army's first battle with North Vietnamese Regular Army soldiers on November 14 - 16, 1965.

If that weren't enough, take 450+ men and put them in a valley clearing about the size of a football field and then have about 2, 000 enemy soldiers surround them for 3 days. There were many heroes that came out of that battle those three days. Rick Rescorla was one. Bruce Crandall was another.

But judging from the conversations I was privy to the last few days, there were more heroes that came of that day, that America will never hear about. In the conversations the theme was the same. The men were torn with so much fear, but they didn't know how to react so they did what they knew how to do...fight.

Another comment I heard often was that each man who survived that battle was glad to have experienced such terror.

My father has never really told me much of that day, but what I have heard, impressed me, terrified me, and just made me respect the men who lived and died on those three days in November.

What is the battle of Ia Drang you ask? Think of Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers. That movie was based on a book of that battle written by Joe Galloway and Hal Moore. Two survivors of that battle.

If you want more information you can visit http://www.lzxray.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Ia_Drang.

So in true honor to all the men and women who served and serve our nation in the armed forces. Thank you this and every Veteran's Day. May you never feel the stigma that those who served in Vietnam felt when they returned home.