Talk:Joseph L. Galloway/@comment-73.162.181.61-20200111234527

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.

Joe Lee Galloway did not rescue Jimmy nakayama. He was ask to help load Jimmy in the Huey.

Joe Lee Galloway was with Gen Knowles on the 14 Nov 1965. that means he wasn't at Catecha with Brown.

Joe Lee Galloway wasn't with Brown when the Sky Raider crashed.

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.

http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/records/fraudulent_bronze_star/galloway_101_and_napalm_1965_01_16.pdf

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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, He

had 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.

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.