[November 19, 2020] I remember being called a lunatic by several of my commanders. I was an Infantry Company Commander when it first happened. My boss at the time, a Lieutenant Colonel, said that I was a “crazy man and lunatic” when it came to battle tactics. I ran across a poem by Vietnam War correspondent Joe Galloway the other day that reminded me of the phrase God’s own Lunatics!
I have a lot of respect for Joe Galloway. Not a typical news reporter, and that is a fact. 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). Galloway was immortalized in the movie; We Were Soldiers (2002) when he and Lt Col Harold Moore’s battalion of airmobile Infantry soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division fought with multiple North Vietnamese regular army regiments.
Joe Galloway was to later write and narrate a poem to the helicopter soldiers. This is how it begins:
“I don’t know if there is anybody here today who doesn’t thrill at the sound of those blades. That familiar whoop whoop whoop is the soundtrack of our war. The lullaby of our younger days. To someone who spent his time in Nam with the grunts, I’ve got to tell you that noise was always great comfort.”
This presentation by Joe Galloway was a hero in his own right. He was also the only civilian to be awarded, from the U.S. Army, the Bronze Star in action. Never since have I ever heard this happen; a true honor.
“It meant that someone was going to help, Someone was coming to get our wounded, Someone was coming to bring us water and ammo, Someone was coming to take our dead brothers home. And eventually, someone was coming to give us a ride out of hell. Even today when I hear it, I stop, catch my breath, and think back to those days. I love you guys as only an infantryman can.”
Armed only with a camera, Joe Galloway was everywhere on the battlefield. This battle was the first major battle between the U.S. Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). This was also the first use of a new tactic developed at Fort Benning’s Infantry School in Georgia that used helicopters to move troops quickly from one point on the battlefield to another.
“We are the fortunate ones. We survived when so many better men gave up their precious lives for us. We owe them a sacred debt, to live each day to it’s fullest. What they are saying when you listen hard enough is this, “We’re at peace and so should you be… and so should you be.””
To read the poem, go to this link or listen to the soundtrack from The Shadow of the Blade (see link). Several versions can be found on YouTube and elsewhere. Thanks to Vietnam Veteran and Marine Robert “Bob” Reilly for sending me the links to this Joe Galloway poem.
quote: Joe Lee Galloway “I speak for the Vietnam Veteran.”
quote: Joe Lee Galloway: ” Damed if I’d want to go for a walk in the sun with them.”
quote: Joe Lee Galloway:”Black GI’s going thru long involved black power identification rituals.””THE REST ARE quote: Joe Lee Galloway: JUST COMMITTING SUICIDE.”
Joe Lee Galloway “I speak for the Vietnam Veteran.”
https://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win.htm
Ia Drang – The Battle That Convinced Ho Chi Minh He Could Win
Joseph L. Galloway
So, even before Ia Drang, you were having doubts?
No, it didn’t take Ia Drang to convince me that we didn’t have enough force to counter a guerrilla force the size of the Viet Cong, never mind the NVA.
Joe Lee Galloway ” THIS WAR WE CAN’T WIN” March 1965 with the Marines ,I was(disabused ) of that notion pretty early on with the( Marines.)
disabuse = Free from Error, Fallacy or Misconception.
JOE LEE GALLOWAY two faced.
You thought that, but couldn’t say it in your reporting?
Joe Lee Galloway ” This war we can’t win.” worked for UPI. We were not paid to have an opinion and if we did we were to keep it to
ourselves.
I And for me, there was the other thing. I thought, “ This war we can’t win.”
http://www.historynet.com/interview-joe-galloway-soldiers-reporter-speaks-his-mind.htm
Joe Lee Galloway “I speak for the Vietnam Veteran.”
Joe Lee Galloway’s true fillings about the Vietnam Veteran.
In a letter Joe Lee Galloway wrote to Hal G. Moore.
from Hal Moore A Soldier ……Once and Always by MIKE GUARDIA page 171-172
QUOTE Joe Lee Galloway ” Damed if I’d want to go for a walk in the sun with them.”
QUOTE Joe Lee Galloway “BLACK GI’s going thru long involved BLACK POWER identification rituals.”
BUT, JOE LEE GALLOWAY’S TRUE FEELING ABOUT THE VIETNAM VETERAN.
” Damed if I’d want to go for a walk in the sun with them.”
“Black GI’s going thru long involved black power identification rituals.”
“THE REST ARE JUST COMMITTING SUICIDE.”
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
from which we sprung
Life to be sure
Joe Lee Galloway “I speak for the Vietnam Veteran.”” Damed if I’d want to go for a walk in the sun with them.””Black GI’s going thru long involved black power identification rituals.””THE REST ARE JUST COMMITTING SUICIDE.”
Korean War, Hal G. Moore had no “COMBAT” experience!
Hal G. Moore 12 days in command of the heavy mortars.
only 16 days in a combat position Company K in Korea.was placed there by the Division commander so he could get promoted. the rest of his time in Korea 13 months, in Regimental S-3 and Division Assistant G-3.
Hal G. Moore’s records , attached,not assigned, to the 11 Air Assault in 1964, 2nd entry from top.
Even though Hal G. Moore was attached to the 11 Air Assault ,He still had to earn the Badge!
Hal G. Moore wearing an unauthorized award, the 11 Air Assault badge.
No orders, Not in his records, didn’t earn it.
Jimmy D. Nakayama died in flight,3 degree burns, 70% of body, no other injuries. ie Crushed ankle.
News Paper reporter Joe Lee Galloway original story of LZ X-Ray Nov 14-16 1965
Joe Lee Galloway’s original story Nov 17,1965, bottom of page.
+++ Two Americans stumbled out of the inferno.+++
( Jimmy D. Nakayama and James Clark walked out of the fire!! )
Joe Lee Galloway did not rescue Jimmy Nakayama! Joe Lee Galloway did help load a burned trooper into the
Huey.
But only after Joe Lee Galloway, was ask to help, by a Medic.
No crushed ankle! Joe Lee Galloway was one of 4 persons to carry a burned trooper to the Huey.
Joe Lee Galloway “I later learned his name was Jimmy D. Nakayama, his wife “CATHY”.( TRUDY is Jimmy D.Nakayama’s wifes name)
Jimmy D Nakayama and James Clark walked to the Aid Station, under their own power aided by other troops
that were on the perimeter.
The troops who helped Jimmy Nakayama and James Clark, not Joe Lee Galloway.
http://www.oanow.com/news/the-battle-of-ia-drang-joe-galloway-s-first-hand/article_057448d7-57e4-5fe5-89ac-cacd37ecc574.html
Jimmy and Clark not given morphine as stated on page 163 We Were Soldiers Once and Young, SGT. Keeton,
Were was all the morphine? page 133 chapter 11 We received 125 to 130 styrette’s of morphine.
The styrette’s, lasted us the rest of the Vietnam war.
http://www.oanow.com/news/the-battle-of-ia-drang-joe-galloway-s-first-hand/article_057448d7-57e4-5fe5-89ac-cacd37ecc574.html
Arturo Villarreal · Sidney Lanier High School
Sp4 James Clark was not given any morphine by the medics. He came running towards my foxhole with his clothes on fire. I helped putting the fire out and I just gave him some saline solution. I took him to the CP and ask the doctor to give him something for the terrible pain, but the doctor told that they didn’t have anything to give him and he just told me to just keep giving him the saline solution. After some time pass, some helicopters landed and I put him aboard one of them.
https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/counties/calhoun/ia-drang-veterans-recall-bloody-battle/article_c7f979ea-4bd8-5260-88ca-1776a88f03cb.html
Nov. 14-18, 1965 Which became We Were Soldiers Once and Young.
FICTION as to Hal G. Moore,Joe Lee Galloway,Vincent Cantu, Jack P. Smith, Larry Gwin,and George Forrest.
https://docplayer.net/51922376-If-you-want-a-good-fight.html
From Brian Siddall airborne in normandy
Contact BN Siddall @
Tel: (315) 567-4542
Airborne In Normandy Research
PO Box 3897
Ithaca, NY 14852
Send an e-mail atresearcher@airborneinnormandy.com
http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/records/fraudulent_bronze_star/galloway_101_and_napalm_1965_01_16.pdf
http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/galloway_fraudulent_bronze_star.htm
Joseph Lee Galloway’s original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965
Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965
WOUNDED SOLDIER LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAY
By JOSEPH GALLOWAY
Chu Pong Mountain, South Viet Nam ( UPI )—- The soldiers eyes were red from loss of sleep, and maybe a bit
from crying too, now that it was all over.
A three-day growth of beard stubbled his cheeks. But was hard to see because of the dirt. He was hurt, in terrible
pain, but you’d never know it. Slivers of shrapnel had ripped his chest and spared his leg.
He sat on the landing zone below the Chu Pong mountain where more Americans had died than ever before in
a battle against Communists in a war over Viet Nam He had gone through hell — three days of it— and still a
bit dazed, more from lack of sleep then his wounds, though. When I walked up to him, he spoke, But not to me
in particular, nor to the other guys sitting around sipping the first hot cup of coffee they had since the fight
began.
Loses a Friend
” I took care of 14 of ’em myself,” He said. “They were tough little bastards. You had to shoot them to pieces
before they quit coming . . . just rip them apart.”
I squatted on my heels waiting for him to say more, But he didn’t. Somebody told me he had lost half of his
platoon, including a friend he had served with for more than eight years. “What is his name?” I ask.
” It’s not important,” the sergeant slouching nearby said. “He’s just one of us and he did a damn good job.”
Everyone did a damn good job. And nobody knew it better than Gen. Knowles, task force commander and
deputy commander of the 1st Air Cavalry.
“These men were just great,” he told me. “They were absolutely tremendous. I’ve never seen a better job
anywhere, anytime,”
Back From Battle
Monday another American soldier walked out of the jungle into the valley of death. Bullets whizzed over his
head and kicked up dirt at his feet.
” Get down you fool!” We shouted.
The GI kept walking, He carried no weapon, He walked straight and tall.
A mortar shell exploded nearby, He didn’t waver, Shrapnel chopped off branches above my head. But the
American out there in the open came on until he was within a few feet of the battalion command bunker. He
looked funny, dazed.
Then we knew, he was shell shocked. He paused for a moment and looked around He recognized the aid
station set up under the trees and walked toward it.
Just as the soldier reached the station he slumped to his knees, then pitched forward on his face, That is when
we saw his back for the first time.
It wasn’t pretty, It had been blown open by a communist mortar.
Medics were unable to reach the soldier because of the almost solid wall of communist bullets and jagged steel
fragments coming from the jungle. So he walked out, The bullets and mortar did not bother him anymore, Hehad his
Veterans Cried
The men of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry fought like heroes. They died the same way, Some took their wounds
without a whimper. Seasoned Veterans cried.
Col. Hal Moore of Bardstown, Ky., the commanding officer of the 7th Battalion, 1st cavalry, Came over to me,
++ tears streaming down his face, His men were catching from the slopes of this mountain range less than five
miles from the Cambodian border.
I’m kind of emotional about this, so excuse me,” Moore said to me. “But I want you to tell the American people
that these men are fighters.
“Look at them.”
Moore pointed to a Negro soldier lying in the shade of a tree. A Communist bullet had torn a huge hole in his
stomach The soldier had his hands over the wound. You could see him bite his lip. He was in terrific pain, But
he made no whimper as he waited for a medical helicopter.
” Look at them,” Moore said again. ” They’re great and the American people ought to know it.
WAR “ACCIDENT”
It was shortly after 8:30 a.m. Monday when one of those terrible accidents of war happened.
I was sitting in the command bunker, A mound of dirt screening us from the communist snipers, looking at the
wounded in the aid station just a few yards away.
Suddenly, I felt a searing heat on my face.
An American fighter-bomber had misjudged the Communist positions, and dropped a load of napalm. The
flaming jelly gasoline, impossible to shake or scrape off once it hits skin, splashed along the ground in a huge
dragon’s tail of fire less then 25 yards away.
Screams penetrated the roar of the flames.
+++two Americans stumbled out of the inferno.+++
Their hair burned off in an instant. their clothes were incinerated.
” Good God!” Moore cried. Another plane was making a run over the same area. The colonel grabbed a radio.
” You’re dropping napalm on us!” he shouted. ” Stop those damn planes.”
At almost the last second, the second plane pulled up and away, its napalm tanks still hanging from the wings.
It was an hour before a medical helicopter could get into the area and tend to the two burned men. One GI was
a huge mass of blisters, the other not quite so bad. Somehow his legs had escaped the flames. But he had
breathed fire into his lungs and he wheezed for air.
Joe Lee Galloway++A MEDIC ASK ME TO HELP GET THE MEN INTO THE HELICOPTER WHEN IT ARRIVED. THERE WERE
NO LITTERS. TENDERLY, WE PICKED THE SOLDIERS UP. I HELD A LEG OF THE MOST SERIOUSLY
BURNED MAN. I WASN’T TENDER ENOUGH. A BIG PATCH OF BURNED SKIN CAME OFF IN MY HAND
VC BATTALIONS
Chu Pong Mountain rises 2,500 feet from the valley below. From the top, you could almost lob a mortar shell
into Cambodia. The mountain slope were heavily jungled. And they hid at least two battalions of North
Vietnamese Army regulars—- possibly the same troops who pinned down two companies of air cavalrymen not
far away about a week ago.
The cavalry were looking for them, spoiling for a fight. They found the Communist Monday and dropped by
helicopter into a small landing zone about the size of a football field at the base of the mountain on the valley floor.
One platoon got about 300 yards up the mountain before the Communist opened up. From Behind, cut it off
and fired on the main cavalry force from three sides with small arms, heavy machine-guns, and mortars.
Time and again, the cavalrymen tried to move in and help the platoon’ pull back, It was futile. The fire was to
heavy. The platoon spent the night on the mountainside. Their losses were heavy, but the damage to the
Communist was said to be heavier.
“We got 70 communist bodies stacked up in front of our positions,” the platoon leader radioed back Monday.
Men Dying
It was shortly before noon Sunday when the cavalrymen swept down in the area about 12 miles west of Pleiku.
Ever since the nine day battle around the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, the cavalrymen have been
sweeping the jungles and running into sporadic contact with hard-core Communist units.
++Brig. Gen. Richard Knowles, deputy commander of the air cavalry division, OFFERED ME A RIDE IN HIS HELICOPTER.
WE CIRCLED OVER THE BATTLE GROUND. Air strikes went in below us. An American A1E skyraider was hit
on a low- level bombing run, and the pilot had no chance to bail out. The plane crashed and exploded in a
cluster of trees.
Men are dying down there, but they are doing their job. “This is good,” Knowles said.” This is what we came for.
We’ve got a U.S. battalion well -equipped down there.”
Many Dead
I got my chance to join the men on the ground about 8 P.M. I went with a helicopter loaded with supplies and
ammunition.
we were level with the middle of the mountain and in the darkness we could see the muzzle flashes of rifles
and machine-gun spitting bullets at us. I said a prayer.
Sgt.Maj Basil Plumley of Columbus, Ga., met us at the landing zone, and led me back to Col. Moore’s
command bunker.
” Watch your step,” Plumley said, ” There were dead people, all over here.” They were dead Americans many
wrapped in ponchos.
At Day break Monday, Medical helicopters began landing and taking off again with the wounded.
A detail was assign the job of collecting weapons and ammunition from the wounded before they were evacuated.
Jimmy D Nakayama casualty report. no crushed ankles or torn skin.
Joe Lee Galloway
FICTION: “I don’t know what got into me, but I ran into the fire.
I grabbed the feet of this kid, and as I pulled him up his boots crumbled and the skin over
his ankle bones sloughed off.
I could feel those bones in the palms of my hands.”
Jimmy D. Nakayama Supplementary Death Report, died Nov 17,1965, in flight 0845 hrs,from 70% 3rd degree burns.++No crushed ankles or torn skin.
This is a really good article and focuses in on Vietnam veterans. Those vets did well in their lives but have to deal with negative stereotypes ginned up by Russian communists in order to drag the US down in Vietnam. The useful idiots and cowards in colleges and those who supported them like traitor Jane Fonda are the reason these stereotypes persist to this day. It’s time to drop it and throw the guilt back upon the cowards of the 1960s.
Lunatics beware !!
Ha Ha, good one!
Hero, family man, Joe Galloway, nuff said.
I want to also comment about our military veterans. There are many of us, the majority of Americans who love and cherish the honor for our vets. All of them, especially those who have been in combat and those who gave their lives defending freedom around the world. There will always be idiots in politics and the brainwashed diaper babies. Ignore them. They will go down in history as the pimple on the butt of a great society.
Joe Galloway is a true hero for all Americans and those who respect our military.
Yes, and what a great article that puts out Vietnam Vets in a positive light. I’m so tired of the fake-news media constantly disrespecting our vets.
Wow, once again, you’ve hit it out of the park (I love baseball analogies) with this article, Gen. Satterfield. Joe Galloway is also a hero. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that Joe Galloway was presented with the Bronze Star Medal by the US Army for his bravery under fire. And, of course, for keeping his cool and not going down the path of so many of the fake media and lying about what happened. Fake media will last only so long now. Years from now we will look back and praise people like Joe Galloway and our Vietnam vets and look at the pathetic craziness of our so-called news media.
Max, you certainly capture what many of us think about the media. They are not all “bad.” But they are mostly delusional becuase they work in an echo chamber of hyper liberalism.
Thanks Max for a well written piece. I will honor Joe G. just as I honor ALL our veterans, esp. our war veterans.
I second that, Martin. 👍👍👍👍
A rare moment to hear the effects of war and its impression on a young man (at the time) who honors America and the men and women who fought for her.
An honorable man, Joe Galloway.
From the front lines of Ia Drang Valley: ‘Killing, dying and suffering indelibly marked us all’
https://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/vietnam-at-50/1965/from-the-front-lines-of-ia-drang-valley-killing-dying-and-suffering-indelibly-marked-us-all-1.376837
Thanks Tomas for the link. The article is his account from the Battle of Ia Drang Valley:
Excellent!! Thanks.
This is great info, Gen. Satterfield. Thank you for making me aware of it. Now, others have said it in the past that the lies of the media and our politicians about the Vietnam War and the disrespect given to our war vets MUST be constantly hit again and again, in order to destroy these lies once and for all. History will show, by name, those who were traitors to our nation and lied over and over to us about this war.
Hanoi Jane Fonda must be at the very top. There is only one thing she can do to prevent herself for forever being labeled a traitor and she knows what it is. But, naturally, she will not denounce the lies and slander of our troops because she got rich over her fame. Hell is what awaits her and I just sit back and smile at her fate.
OUCH, tell us what you think of Jane “Hanoi” Fonda! Ha Ha Ha….
I agree she is a traitor and the US doesn’t take traitors seriously anymore so that is what her ultimate fate will be.
But we know who the traitors are. I will by Jane Fonda and any other traitor a one way first class ticket to anywhere in the world if they never come back to the USA.
….. and I will by her a house there if she promises to keep her mouth shut forever. But we all know that communists like her lie all the time. Even when caught lying, they continue to lie.
Although I have read many articles and books on the Vietnam War and on the Battle of Ia Drang and the role of Joe Galloway, I surprisingly have never heard this before. Thanks Gen. Satterfield for once again expanding my understanding of Joe G. and the Vietnam War, as well.
Same here. I never ran across this but, I have to say loudly, I LOVE IT. Great poem or whatever it is…. 💖
Yes, great presentation by Joe Galloway. This type of ‘action’ about the Vietnam War is needed to help crush the false narrative dreamed up by our Marxist news organizations. That includes the top Marxist of them all, Roger Cronkite. He was a commie red thru and thru.
Yes, Cronkike was said to be “the most trusted man in America” but he was the Trojan Horse of communism.
Cool ….. really, really cool.
I agree, one of the best I’ve seen from the Vietnam War in a long time.