Talk:Joseph L. Galloway/@comment-73.162.181.61-20200112000818

Joe Galloway"Clark had died".

Joe Lee Galloway Clark lived, 2 articles same date March 3, 2002

Russell L. Ross said..

Joe Galloway gave live interview to Helke Hasenaure a reporter for

West Point's SOLDIER'S Magazine, In Feb. 2002 interview,  Using this date as I'm giving a 30 days

to go to press to be distrubuted on  >>March 3,2002.<<<

Joe Galloway stated that "Clark had died",after the naplam drop, to Helke Hasenaure.

4th week in Feb.. Giving 1 week before being printed in a newspaper March 3, 2002

Joe Galloway writes a story for Columbus, Georgia, Ledger-Enquirer.

About how Clark survived the naplam attack. Date it printed March 3, 2002.

Same date

Soldiers Magazine march 3, 2002, Clark died.

Columbus, Georgia, Ledger-Enquirer, March 3, 2002, Clark survived naplam attack.

Joe Galloway KNIGHTRIDDERS military consultants FICTION EXPOSED.

From Soldiers the Offical U.S. Army Magazine. March 3, 2002<<

An Author's Quest Story By Helke Hasenauer about Joe Galloway. page 33 ph 1-703-806-4486 < soldiers Magazine March 2002 vol 57 no3 http://www4.army.mil/soldiers/archive/mar2002/pdfs/mar0226-37.pdf Joe Galloway stated that Clark DIED soon after the incident.

As he gave that interview, He wrote in March 03. 2002 for LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM

(Columbus Ga.)newspaper a KNIGHTRIDDER newspaper,

ABOUT CLARK having survived the Naplam attack and his road to healing. date sunday MARCH 03 2002 1. Corpus Christ Caller Times thur. June 4 1998 By STEPHANIE L. JORDAN Staff Writer Joe Galloway "CLARK DIED" 2. LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM Posted on >Sun, Mar. 03, 2002< BY Joe Galloway" Clark Lived." 3. From Soldiers the Offical U.S. Army Magazine. Joe Lee Galloway "Clark Died." An Author's Quest Story By Helke Hasenauer about Joe Galloway.page 33note the Irony Soldiers issue is >March 2002< Galloway "Clark DIED".

Moore didnt see Joe Galloway save Jimmy!

Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander,

didn't learn about Galloway's actions until the two collaborated

on ``We Were Soldiers Once. . . And Young,''

a best-selling book about the history of the battle published in 1992.

Moore, who retired as a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.

FICTION: Fabarication applies particulary to a false but carefully invented statement or a

series of statements, in which some truth is sometimes interwoven, the whole usually

intended to deceive.

The Greatest Hero

"People everywhere are smitten- With a tale that is written.

Once a hero's deeds are known- They're as good as etched in

stone. Every word, folks take to heart- And think this makes

them very smart. Amazing how the very wise- Never stop to

realize- That what they read may not be true.

Groo Moral: Even when the words are true the may not speak the truth. Groo

Moore didnt see Joe Galloway save Jimmy.

Harold G. Moore, then the 1st Battalion commander,

didn't learn about Galloway's actions until the two collaborated

on ``We Were Soldiers Once. . . And Young,''

a best-selling book about the history of the battle published in 1992.

Moore, who retired as a three-star general, put Galloway in for the award.

LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM

Posted on Sun, March. 03, 2002 Joe Galloway writes how Clark survived the napalm attack.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/special_packages/they_were_soldiers/2765842.htm

After I pointed this out to LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM that Joe Lee Galloway said Clark died they took it down.

LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM

What you need to ask is WHO IS PAUL CLARK?

James Clark was with Jimmy D. Nakayama during the Naplam attack!

Posted on Sun, Mar. 03, 2002 BY Joe Galloway

Specialist 5th Class Paul Clark, demolitions specialist, 8th Engineer BattalionPaul Clark, the son of

a coal miner from Boomer, N.C., was a newlywed when he received orders to go to Vietnam with the

1st Cavalry Division in 1965.

His main job in 'Nam would be to clear away trees, brush and anything else that would prove to be

an obstacle to the landing of helicopters.

As for combat, Clark, then 24 years old, knew when to fire his rifle and when to keep his head down.

Which he did during the first day of fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray.

But on the second day...

"We could hear the plane (an F-100); I could see the canister being released from the wing.

I had a pretty good idea where it would hit.

That's why we started running.

It wasn't supposed to be dropped there."

Clark, an Army veteran of six years at the time, and his pal, PFC Jimmy Nakayama, tried to

outrun the spreading napalm.

They weren't fast enough.

The "friendly fire" killed Nakayama two days shy of his 23rd birthday.

The napalm engulfed Clark, leaving him with severe burns over much of his body.

It took skilled surgeons 10 years to rebuild his face.

His wife didn't even recognize him when she saw him at the burn unit at the San Antonio

hospital.

I had one uncle in the Army and two in the Navy and I don't know why, but I always liked the Army

better.

I went to basic at Fort Knox, Ky. After a battery of tests decided what specialty I was suited for. I got

into engineering. I spent six months there with the 54th Engineers. After that I went to Germany for

five years, all at the same base. Then got orders to Fort Benning, 11th Air Assault.

I'd heard stories about the South. When I first got here, I didn't even go out downtown. I would catch

a flight on weekends and go home, to New York, where my family is. Then one weekend, some

guys, since I had a car, asked me to carry them downtown. They stayed and stayed and stayed. So

I went in to find out what they were doing. That's when I fell in love with Columbus. There's a lot of

women. I'm young, single... that made me fall in love with Columbus.

Columbus was out in front when it came to integration in the '60s. It was because of the military post.

'We're the ones who went in first'

In Germany, for instance, we were taught how to blow up bridges, certain bridges should be blown if

something happens.

A few of the explosives we dealt with were C-4, Flex X, land mines and, of course, dynamite. The

land mines, you have to be real familiar with them.

With the 11th Air Assault, our job was to blow bridges and clear helipads. Sometimes we'd use

explosives to clear out the trees; other times, chain saws. It all depended on how much time we had.

Our job was to clear.

We're the ones who went in first. We had to be there to clear things out before they bring the

infantry in. Our secondary mission is to reorganize as infantry.

At the time, I wasn't supposed to be going to Vietnam because I had been out of the country for five

years. I'd been told I'd be shipped to Fort Campbell (Ky.), to the 101st, since I was Airborne. I got

married, and found out then I was going to Vietnam anyway.

I got married with the idea I would be going to Kentucky. There was nothing my wife could say.

We went by bus to Hunter Air Force Base (in Savannah) and flew out of there on C-130s with stops

in California, Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and then, Vietnam.

It was blistering hot. Of course, it had been hot here; it may have been worse here than there

because of the humidity. After a while, you get used to the heat.

The 8th went to An Khe. We were part of the division (1st Cav). We had people from all the units in

the 1st Cav as advance party. To lay out they had their areas picked out. Each unit would come in

and all of us would go in and clean it out so they could bring the helicopters in.

My job was clearing, cutting trees, moving dirt and bushes and things, getting them out of the way. It

was 30 days before the main body got there.

Most of us had C rations. We liked it better than the regular food.

We weren't allowed to go into the town until the VC were cleared out of there. You never went into

town without your weapon.

'Go to pieces or do your job'

One or two Viet Cong regulars were captured when we landed (at LZ X-Ray on Nov. 14). I'm not

sure what was said when they were interrogated. But we moved on. Then all hell broke loose.

That's the only way to describe it.

We knew it was a "hot" LZ. We were among the first to arrive at the landing zone. If they needed an

LZ cleared, then Col. Moore would direct us to do it. We went right along with the rest of them -- we

all had weapons, we were just like an infantry platoon. I also had C-4 on me.

The first shots came about 15-20 minutes after we landed. That was the first time I'd ever been shot at.

You've been trained to react when you're fired upon. I think that's the first thing that happens. Then

it finally sets in that somebody is trying to kill you. You can go either way -- go to pieces or do your

job. I chose to do my job. That will keep you alive.

We followed Colonel Moore's group after landing. We went through bamboo, into the wood line.

That's when we got hit. We knew we'd run into some pretty good fighting. But nobody knew right

then that we'd run into one of the largest, best-equipped North Vietnamese units there.

I think our guys were ready for a fight. We were more alert.

People were getting killed and wounded. Col. Moore's group was using a large ant hill as cover.

There was a dry stream bed that a lot of us used as cover. It ran a long way.

If we could get to them, we would try to pull the wounded back into this dry stream bed where they

wouldn't get any further harm. This went on and on and on... air strikes, artillery barrages...

'We could hear the plane'

The next morning is when I got hit. With napalm.

Napalm burns, liquid fire. As long as it can get oxygen, it burns. I was familiar with napalm. Only the

U.S. had napalm. The enemy didn't even have airplanes.

It's designed to clear out areas and kill people.

Clark

"I was in the dry stream bed that morning."

"We had just pulled some soldiers back who had been wounded." < Joe Lee Galloway couldn't have talk to Jimmy Nakayma or Clark,as they were in the stream bed, not near the command post.

We were on our way back when it hit us."

__________

We could hear the plane... I could see the canister being released from the wing. I knew what it was.

It was silver. I had a pretty good idea where it would hit. That's why we started running, trying to get

away from it. It took just a matter of seconds to explode. It wasn't supposed to be dropped there.

A lot of us began running in different directions. Nakayama and I were running together. It gets on

your body and just sticks. It's like a jelly, hot.

I knew what had happened right away. One of the other soldiers took his fatigue jacket off and put it

over me to smother the fire. You had to cut the oxygen off to stop the burning.

The fire really got me from the waist up, but the main portion got me in the head and shoulders.

Arms? Just spots. My hands were completely burned. My head, shoulders, that's what took the

brunt of the attack.

My whole scalp. My eyes, nose, mouths, ears... have all been rebuilt. It was all burned off.

'Your mind takes over'

I think once something this bad happens to you, your mind takes over. The mind is a wonder

mechanism. It blocks out part of the pain. So a lot of things you don't know that you did.

My eyelids were rebuilt. My whole face was rebuilt.

But I did not lose my sight. That was a miracle.

I was pretty alert during that time. One of the people told me not to go to sleep, not to close my

eyes. This stayed with me until I got to Brook (Army Medical Center in San Antonio). The doctor

there said if I'd ever gone to sleep I would never have woke up.

I didn't see my face until... they don't have mirrors in the ward... I got to where I could walk around

and I went down to another ward, went into the bathroom and I saw my face then. I was shocked.

I don't know if I cried.

I was somewhat bitter at first. But that wore off after a while. My mother and all my family... as long

as it didn't bother them, I didn't care about it.

I think I got the best of care after I got back to the U.S. I was in a hospital eight months. I was a

newlywed. My wife was able to visit with me almost immediately. My mother and her traveled

together. My wife was 24 at the time. We're still married.

Some of the guys, after I was out of the hospital, from the engineers I used to run with at Fort

Benning, came to visit. About four of them came through and spent about 10 days with me.

'I know he felt bad'

Plastic surgery went on for about 10 years, off and on. Rebuilding my face took the longest. They'd

do a little bit and have to wait until it took hold, or start back growing or get life in it. My ears, this

was cut, it started down here on my neck. They made a tube. To get blood circulating in it, they

would move it and walk it up beside my head, then attach my ear. It took a while. My ears probably

took the longest.

Every once in a while I look at some of the old pictures of myself and say "they didn't do a bad job

at all." I never saw any of the pictures of myself before they put me in the hospital.

I probably would like to see exactly what they looked like.

It doesn't really bother me that I was the victim of "friendly fire."

They had a big investigation here at Fort Benning after I started work. Some Air Force people here.

They asked me if I thought it was deliberate. I think they were going to hang the officer who dropped

it. They knew who it was.

"No, I don't think it was deliberate. Maybe he saw something on the ground we didn't see."

I think it was an accident. They didn't prosecute the pilot. The general who headed the investigation

told me I probably saved one of his better officers. I never met the pilot, never talked to him. I know

he felt bad.

'In my own time, I'll tell him'

I have one son, 26 years old. He works in Atlanta, in telecommunications.

He never wanted to be in the Army. I asked him when he was very small if he wanted to go into the

service.

He said: "No, daddy." I never approached him about it again.

He never asked me about my time in Vietnam, or the accident.

In my own time, I'll tell him about it.

My wife knew it was my job. I was doing what I was paid to do.

When I went back on active duty, I taught in the Infantry School. Taught demolition, how to stop

tanks with different things when you don't have any weapons.

I hadn't talked to anyone about Vietnam in 30-something years until I talked to you the last time. I

had a drinking problem. I thought it would help. But after you wake up, you have the same problem.

The problem never goes away. But finally I went to talk to a psychiatrist. And I prayed. And I haven't

had a drink for over a year. The problem had lasted a long time.

I drank to forget the nightmares. That day and other things I saw during my tour.

I'm 61, and I feel a lot better about myself.

They were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.

Copyright Joe Galloway