A while ago, while I was still trying to get 2-16's side of the "collateral murder" fiasco out I had reached out to Joe Galloway, to ask his advise. What truly amazed me is that the Joe Galloway, who went into Ia Drang with 1-7 Cavalry actually responded to me. He made it clear that he was long since retired, so he didn't have contacts that I could use, but he did actually critique my work and provide useful insight. I was star struck, and I tried hard not to pester him with questions (I was, and am still particularly interested in his view of Lam Son 719).
Joe Galloway is one of the few reporters out there that just "get it," that understand the Soldier's mentality, on an intellectual as well as an emotional level. There are precious few others I've seen that have this understanding. Sebastian Junger, David Finkle, Jake Tapper, and a very select few others have been able to relay to the American people in words what being an American Soldier is all about. This very select group of people don't just report the hard facts ("a roadside bomb went off today killing two soldiers and wounding four others") but are able to make people who have no emotional connection understand the mentality that takes boys from vastly different living circumstances and melds them into a unit that will literally die for each other without a second thought.
Joe Galloway's work has in a large part helped heal the rift between the military and civilians that the Vietnam era caused. The 2002 movie adaptation of his book "We were soldiers once. . . and young" helped bring to life the grit determination camaraderie and sorrow of the soldiers that went into the battle of LZ X-ray, as well as the families that were left behind. In no small part this gave the country a very visceral reminder of the forgotten heroes of the Vietnam era. Joe Galloway's work is right up there with Jan Scruggs' in helping bring peace to a group of service members who were often forgotten abused and mistreated by their country. Reading about some of the homecomings that the 1-7 Cav troopers got is why I always go out of my way to welcome home any Vietnam Veteran.
It's also important to say, that Joe Galloway really is in every sense of the word, a hero. Very few civilians are awarded combat awards, and it's hard to say that he did not earn his Bronze Star with V device, and the fact that even after the Battle of Ia Drang left him with many emotional scars he still went back to Vietnam to cover the near disastrous Lam Son 719 after a friend and fellow UPI reporter was killed. That took a lot of guts. More than a few people would have sat down and said "I've had enough, count me out." He didn't have to go back. Nor did he have to ride with the 24th Infantry Division in Desert Storm.
With all that said I had hoped that Joe Galloway's Facebook feed would be posting news articles of the day, and offering short incite. I had hoped that there would be mentoring, encouragement and even positive feedback for young writers. I had hoped that he would also share secrets of what he did to make peace with the demons war can give you. I was taken aback to find that a lot of the tings he said were bitterly partisan. Some of the articles he posted as well as some of the things he said about the articles left me feeling really uneasy. This is JOE GALLOWAY. I might be a smart ass with a penchant for sticking my foot in my mouth, but one does not simply walk up to a guy like that and say "no this isn't right."
I do not hide the fact that I am generally Conservative/Libertarian. I also believe that debate is important. So eventually I started offering counterpoints to what was being said. I offered opposing views as well as justifications. I did my utmost to be respectful, and try to admonish the people commenting (some with truly horrid responses) that debate is essential to our Republic, and without respect debate is impossible. This went on for a few weeks, before Joe himself banned and blocked me. His description of me does not bare mentioning.
So here I am. I still greatly respect Joe. His volume of work, nor the impact it has had can not be understated. If he wants to be partisan, he has earned that right a lot more than most. I am a little crestfallen that a personal hero thinks so little of me or what I have to say. It still bothers me a little, but as always you have to pick yourself up and move on. Despite the disagreements we had on various issues, and the way things ended I wish him peace, he really has earned it. For my part I'm just going to walk away. It's a little sad, but that's life.
8 comments:
If he cannot allow civil discourse, even if it is against his own beliefs, he is not worthy of your respect.
Thanks for this article and the qualified insider perspective. Former FMF Corpsman here with no combat exposure but I studied / reached out to Joe in 2005 while writing songs for an album about Iraq and 9/11.
Thanks for saving me any further effort.Thank you for writing important words and thank you for your service.
Yo, Doc! Tis streetsweeper here. My apologies for not keeping up with your blog, bro. Life's been pretty crazy down here but, I keep swinging my baseball bat anyway. Sooner or later I will hit a homerun. :) As for Joe...ah, we parted ways after making friends when he lived down in South Texas. GreyLocke is correct, Joe does not allow civil discourse. I do not believe he ever has and one of the last times I heard him speaking, I had to drag up and leave.
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Name: Russell L. Ross
Email: lzalbany65@aol.com
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Russell-L-Ross/100009547068289
Comment: from Hal Moore A Soldier ......Once and Always by MIKE GUARDIA page 171-172
Joe Lee Galloway "I speak for the Vietnam Veteran."
BUT, JOE LEE GALLOWAY'S TRUE FEELING ABOUT THE VIETNAM VETERAN.
" Damed if I'd want to go for a walk in the sun with them."
"Black GI's going thru long involved black power identification rituals."
"THE REST ARE JUST COMMITTING SUICIDE."
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
from which we sprung
Life to be sure
Joe Lee Galloway
Joe Lee Galloway "I speak for the Vietnam Veteran."
Joe Lee Galloway " THIS WAR WE CAN'T WIN" March 1965 with the Marines ,I was(disabused )
of that notion pretty early on with the( Marines.)
disabuse = Free from Error, Fallacy or Misconception.
JOE LEE GALLOWAY two faced.
You thought that, but couldn’t say it in your reporting?
Joe Lee Galloway " This war we can’t win."
worked for UPI. We were not paid to have an opinion and if we did we were to keep it to ourselves.
I And for me, there was the other thing. I thought, “ This war we can’t win."
http://www.historynet.com/interview-joe-galloway-soldiers-reporter-speaks-his-mind.htm
Interview with Joe Galloway: Soldier’s Reporter Speaks His Mind
BY VIETNAM MAGAZINE
4/18/2011 • VIETNAM FIRST PERSON, VIETNAM WAR
part 1
Russell L. Ross lzalbany65@aol.com
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."
Russell L. Ross lzalbany65@aol.com part 2Joseph Lee Galloway's original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965WOUNDED SOLDIER LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAYBy JOSEPH GALLOWAYWAR "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 thewounded 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. Theflaming jelly gasoline, impossible to shake or scrape off once it hits skin, splashed along the ground in a hugedragon'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 inan 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 wasa huge mass of blisters, the other not quite so bad. Somehow his legs had escaped the flames. But he hadbreathed 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 WERENO LITTERS. TENDERLY, WE PICKED THE SOLDIERS UP. I HELD A LEG OF THE MOST SERIOUSLYBURNED MAN. I WASN'T TENDER ENOUGH. A BIG PATCH OF BURNED SKIN CAME OFF IN MY HAND.VC BATTALIONSChu Pong Mountain rises 2,500 feet from the valley below. From the top, you could almost lob a mortar shellinto Cambodia. The mountain slope were heavily jungled. And they hid at least two battalions of NorthVietnamese Army regulars---- possibly the same troops who pinned down two companies of air cavalrymen notfar away about a week ago.The cavalry were looking for them, spoiling for a fight. They found the Communist Monday and dropped byhelicopter into a small landing zone about the size of a football field at the base of the mountain on the valleyfloor.One platoon got about 300 yards up the mountain before the Communist opened up. From Behind, cut it offand 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 toheavy. The platoon spent the night on the mountainside. Their losses were heavy, but the damage to theCommunist was said to be heavier."We got 70 communist bodies stacked up in front of our positions," the platoon leader radioed back Monday.Men DyingIt 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 beensweeping 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 HISHELICOPTER.WE CIRCLED OVER THE BATTLE GROUND. Air strikes went in below us. An American A1E skyraider was hiton a low- level bombing run, and the pilot had no chance to bail out. The plane crashed and exploded in acluster 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.
part 3
Russell L. Ross lzalbany65@aol.com part 2Joseph Lee Galloway's original story of Landing Zone X-RAY Nov,14-16, 1965Twenty JAMESTOWN ( N.Y. ) POST- JOURNAL- Wednesday Evening,November 17,1965WOUNDED SOLDIER LOSES HALF HIS PLATOON IN BITTER CHU PONG FRAYBy JOSEPH GALLOWAY
job. "This is good," Knowles said." This is what we came for.We've got a U.S. battalion well -equipped down there."Many DeadI got my chance to join the men on the ground about 8 P.M. I went with a helicopter loaded with supplies andammunition.we were level with the middle of the mountain and in the darkness we could see the muzzle flashes of riflesand 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 Co. Moore'scommand bunker." Watch your step," Plumley said, " There were dead people, all over here." They were dead Americans manywrapped in ponchos.At Day break Monday, Medical helicopters began landing and taking off again with the wounded. A detail wasassigned the job of collecting weapons and ammunition from the wounded before the were evacuated
"Many DeadI got my chance to join the men on the ground about 8 P.M. I went with a helicopter loaded with supplies andammunition.we were level with the middle of the mountain and in the darkness we could see the muzzle flashes of riflesand 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 Co. Moore'scommand bunker." Watch your step," Plumley said, " There were dead people, all over here." They were dead Americans manywrapped in ponchos.At Day break Monday, Medical helicopters began landing and taking off again with the wounded. A detail wasassigned the job of collecting weapons and ammunition from the wounded before the were evacuated.One platoon got about 300 yards up the mountain before the Communist opened up. From Behind, cut it offand 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 toheavy. The platoon spent the night on the mountainside. Their losses were heavy, but the damage to theCommunist was said to be heavier."We got 70 communist bodies stacked up in front of our positions," the platoon leader radioed back Monday.Men DyingIt 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 beensweeping 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 HISHELICOPTER.WE CIRCLED OVER THE BATTLE GROUND. Air strikes went in below us. An American A1E skyraider was hiton a low- level bombing run, and the pilot had no chance to bail out. The plane crashed and exploded in acluster of trees.Men are dying down there, but they are doing their
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