We Were Soldiers Once, And Young: A Review Essay

For ten long days, American and South Vietnamese Army troops fought alongside each other to gain control of Dong Ap Bia, Hill 937. Their mission was to search and destroy the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Chong (VC), believed to have grouped in the A Shau Valley area. The battle now known as Hamburger Hill begun May 10, 1969 and is recognized as one of the last major encounter between the Americans and the NVA. Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Weldon Honeycutt, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment

Forces were the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, and the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry. These units were supported by the 9th Marines and the 3rd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, as well as elements of the Army of Vietnam. ‘Don’t mean nothing’, That was the reference from the powerful 1987 movie about the battle for Hamburger Hill, more correctly called Ap Bia Mountain also known as Hill 937. Many soldiers of that May 1969 fight would no doubt agree, since the hill was abandoned to the enemy soon after it was taken. But the truth is that it was one of the most key and historical battles of the war, for it spelled the end of Major American ground combat operations in Vietnam.

A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.

The Battle of Ia Drang comprised of two main engagement by the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment that took place on November 14th-15th, 1965 at Landing Zone X-Ray, at the eastern foot of the Chu Pong massif and by the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment on November 17 at Landing Zone Albany further north in the Ia Drang Valley. They were the first group of combat troops that set foot into the Ia Drang Valley. The Ia Drang Valley is 32 miles southwest of Pleiku in Vietnam. West Pointer by the name of Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore was in command of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry of the 3rd Brigade, , which was an Airmobile unit. Moore was tasked with training soldiers to be battle ready to go to Vietnam and specifically the Ia Drang Valley. On

At dawn, the Marine 1st Battalion, 5th Marines—commanded by Major Julius Turrill—was to attack Hill 142, but only two companies were in position. The Marines advanced in waves with bayonets fixed across an open wheat field that was swept with German machine gun and artillery fire, and many Marines were cut down.[9][10] Captain Crowther commanding the 67th Company was killed almost immediately. Captain Hamilton and the 49th Company fought from wood to wood, fighting the entrenched Germans and overrunning their objective by 6 yards (5.5 m). At this point, Hamilton had lost all five junior officers, while the 67th had only one commissioned officer alive. Hamilton reorganized the two companies, establishing strong points and a defensive line.[11]

Campbell and Shelby had successfully surprised Ferguson’s men. The Patriots advanced in a methodical manner and picked off Ferguson’s men on the exposed heights. Ferguson’s men returned fire, the Patriots fortunate “Loyalists shooting downhill with their Brown Bess muskets tended to shoot high.” (Jones, 2009) Ferguson countered and ordered a bayonet attack down the mountain. The Patriots then retreated to the base of the mountain, waited until the Loyalists disbursed, and returned to the top. The Patriots regrouped and resumed their attack, picking off more and more loyalist. Both sides repeated this maneuver three times during the battle. Some of Ferguson’s Loyalists ran out of ammunitions. Ferguson realized the impending loss, attempted a breakout with his men, and advanced. In the attempt to escape with his men, Ferguson died on the mountain. (Hickman, 2015) The Loyalist consequently surrendered. The battle lasted an hour. Out of 1,200 men, 300 killed, at least 120 wounded, and at least 680 taken as prisoners. The Patriots out of the 900 men had approximately 65 wounded and 28 killed. (U.S. Army War College,

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

and South Vietnamese enjoyed a much stronger position than the French had In addition to all of helicopters and cargo planes that could resupply and reinforce the Marines, they could rely on the heavy bombing capacity of the B-52 fighter planes, which dropped loads close to 100,000 explosive bombs on the hills surrounding Khe Sanh over the course of the battle. Although U.S. officials expected a full scale attack by North Vietnamese forces on the base, it never came (Impact of Khe Sanh). In March, Westmoreland ordered Operation Pegasus, a joint Army, Marine and ARVN ground advance that relieved the base and ended the battle by mid-April, after the 77

We Were Soldiers Once…And Young: Ia Drang-The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph Galloway, published 20 October 1992. This book is the account of the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965, focusing on the First and Second Battalions of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. This book is not only an account of war through the eyes of those in the field, but an account of then Lt. Col. Moore’s leadership leading up to and during combat. I chose this book because the story is not only a gripping recollection of American war history, but an account of the love for your comrade that inspires leadership at all levels.

The UN forces totaled approximately 550,000 men, which included troops from US, South Korea, France, Philippines and other countries. According to Burnt, “over 253,000 troops were American, 260,000 were South Korean, and 28,000 men came from other countries. While on the other side, the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) had 250,000 men, and the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) had about 210,000.” The UN forces outnumbered the Communist forces by about 90,000 men overall, however that difference in manpower would not help the American soldiers at Heartbreak Ridge due to circumstances such as difficulty of the terrain and lack of coordination effort.

On the third day, 3rd Battalion 1st Marines opened up a holes for the US Army’s 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry to provide it with support by fire. They then followed them into Jolan Park and cleared it of insurgents. (Camp, 2014) The Marines attacked further into northern Fallujah to destroy the enemy and to seize the regimental objectives. (Camp, 2014)

The conflict at Fox Hill lasted seven days followed by a grueling march of wounded back to base, a temporary safe spot that would also be taken by the Chinese shortly after.  Their retreat, or Major General Oliver Smith’s infamously quoted “attack in a different direction!” was escorted by the Ridgerunners of 1st Battalion’s Apha, Bravo, and Charlie companies who came down from the Chosin Reservoir and had to fight through the Chinese that surrounded Fox Hill.  By the time the Ridgerunners arrived by the look of the arriving Marines you could not tell who was rescuing whom. In the end Fox Company had 26 dead, 89 wounded and three missing. There were at least 1,000 Chinese

However, Hemingway’s soldier, Krebs, felt that his responsibilities and duties were non-existent after returning from the war. He could not find the motivation or faith needed to have a affluent or fulfilling life. Although the combatants are accountable for deciding to join the army, the military is responsible for their misleading recruitment techniques. Hemingway’s depiction of a soldier post war may be an infrequent and uncommon rendition but it is an evident epidemic. Statistics have found that “at least 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have PTSD and/or Depression” (Veterans Statistics).

In Soldier's Home, Ernest Hemingway paints a vivid picture of Harold Krebs return home from World War I and the issues he confronts while trying to shift his way back towards the ordinary life he once lived. After his battling over seas took place, it took Krebs over a year to finally leave Europe and make his way back home to his family in Oklahoma. After finally finding the drive to come home, Krebs found that it was difficult to express his feelings towards all he had seen during his tour of duty, which must be attributed to the fact that he was in the heart of some of the bloodiest and most crucial battles mankind has ever seen. Therefore, Krebs difficulty in acknowledging his past is because he was indeed a “good soldier” (133), whose

LTC Moore was the commander of the First Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry, that was the first to engage the enemy in a major conflict. The book does an excellent job illustrating his steadfast courage under fire, and sound use of tactics. Which can be easily argued as one of the key reasons why this engagement is called a battle and not a massacre of U.S. soldiers. Moore constantly anticipated the enemy commander's moves. He concentrated his limited man power, artillery, and air support; exactly where the enemy would attack. As stated before, Joseph Galloway is the co-writer of this book and was the only reporter on the scene during the battle. He literally begged his way onto a helicopter that was doing a return trip to drop off ammunition and other supplies. While there, he not only took some amazing combat photographs, which are illustrated in the book, but also helped tend to the wounded and even picked up a rifle to help hold the line. Moore and Galloway collaborated to write a passionate novel in gripping detail as only people who have witnessed war and their friends dying in front of them could. They have even gone through the trouble of contacting the