AVE ATQUE VALE

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebInIaDrang

 

Quote

The U.S. Military decided to send the 7th Regt of the 1st Cav Div, led by LTC Harold G. Moore, to investigate the Ia Drang Valley. Up to that point, contact with the enemy had been limited. When Moore touched down with the men in the first wave of sixteen helicopters at LZ X-Ray near the base of the Chu Pong Massif, he found no enemy. Moore remained cautious. With only 90 men on the ground and the next ninety at least an hour away (34 miles to Plei Me and back), he was operating lightly in a region largely unexplored and that American Intelligence had suggested could be filled with a regiment of enemy forces. During the first hour, Moore’s men captured an enemy private; a boy. He informed Moore that there were two PAVN regiments on the mountain next to them that “wanted very much to kill Americans but have not been able to find any.” There were, in fact, three. At that point Moore knew he would be fighting a battle for survival rather than mounting a first strike. His premonitions were confirmed when roughly 90 minutes after landing, his forces met with enemy fire. The battle at LZ X-Ray would last for three days and two nights as members of Moore’s 1st Bn, and later 2nd Bn replacement, fought for survival against a numerically superior force

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

And then came LZ Albany and the fight resumed with the 2nd Bn who had relieved the 1st.