We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

· Open Road Media
4.5
171 reviews
Ebook
453
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

New York Times Bestseller: A “powerful and epic story . . . the best account of infantry combat I have ever read” (Col. David Hackworth, author of About Face).
 In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam.
 How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor.

Ratings and reviews

4.5
171 reviews
Harry Pennington
April 24, 2024
Once I got over the fact that I felt like I was reading a report of the battle instead of a story of the battle it was good. I appreciate the accounts of everything that happened and what these brave men went through. There is definitely not enough talk about what the brave men and women did in Vietnam. Semper Fidelis
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mike cummings
February 22, 2015
This is an incredibly realistic book..,Galloway does a fantastic job of putting the reader as close to LZ X-Ray as anyone without the courage of these young men would ever want to be..,the REAL heros in our midst are these outstanding young men ..,We should never forget what they did and we owe them our eternal gratitude..,as we do all of our fighting troopers. The part on Albany was enlightening..,I didn't know about it before reading this book.
1 person found this review helpful
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Greg Edmand
July 31, 2014
Excellent snapshot of a few day's intense combat. Balanced viewpoints from both sides allow the reader to form their own conclusions. Tragic commitments of so many young men, to sacrifice life for a future beyond the scope of who won and lost the X-Ray battle. The PAVN were better informed about their role: some day, a country free from foreign domination. The Americans had little idea beyond the bond of fighting for the man next to them.
15 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) (1922–2017) was a master parachutist and Army aviator who commanded two infantry companies in the Korean War and was a battalion and brigade commander in Vietnam. He retired from the Army in 1977 with thirty-two years’ service.
 
Joseph L. Galloway (1941–2021) was the author of a weekly syndicated column on military and national security affairs, and a senior military correspondent of Knight-Ridder newspapers. He spent twenty-two years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and nearly twenty years as a senior editor for U.S. News & World Report.

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