Wish I were there..
The interview was done as research when they were writing what turned out to be their best seller, We Were Soldiers Once.....and Young and later the Mel Gibson film, We Were Soldiers. They went back in 1991 to interview the commanders who were their opponents on the battlefield in 1965 and then again in 1997 to spend time at LZ XRay, site of the battle.
Joe knows Vietnam well, having spent the better part of five years there as a journalist with UPI and probably having seen more combat than the majority of infantry soldiers. He is returning to Vietnam now to commemorate and remember the fall of South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975. Thirty years seems so far removed yet the faces of those who were left behind are as fresh as yesterday. Joe is going to pay homage to them. His itinerary is described by Joe as....
Joe has promised, if he can find an Internet hook-up, to email some of his thoughts and perhaps a picture or two that I will post. While he's there I've asked him to try and find a souvenir for me, a 25th Division Zippo lighter, though Joe's comment on that was....
Update 4/25: Comment #4 below rec'd from Dick Ackerman. Here's a picture of Dick and Ed "Too Tall" Freeman who received the Medal of Honor for his actions while flying into LZ XRay in 1965. Dick was the "point man" in his battalion at the horrendous action at LZ Albany. Dick and Too Tall
 Joe Galloway Vietnam '65 | My good buddy Joe Galloway ought to be just about approaching Vietnamese air space at the time I write this. He left Washington D.C. yesterday afternoon for the 20 some hour flight to Hanoi. I can only image what he is thinking as he approaches what used to be the most heavily defended piece of airspace in the world. This however is not his first trip to Hanoi since the war ended. He, Hal Moore and several others were there in 1990 to interview General Giap, commander of all North Vietnamese forces during the war and architect of their victory. |
Joe knows Vietnam well, having spent the better part of five years there as a journalist with UPI and probably having seen more combat than the majority of infantry soldiers. He is returning to Vietnam now to commemorate and remember the fall of South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975. Thirty years seems so far removed yet the faces of those who were left behind are as fresh as yesterday. Joe is going to pay homage to them. His itinerary is described by Joe as....
we fly hkg to hanoi for 2-3 days; then to hue; then to quang tri and dmz; then to danang china beach resort; then on to saigon for april 30 30th anniv. of fall of the whole shootin match.Joe still writes in the terse no nonsense style of the combat journalist that he is. Short and to the point with a minimum of punctuation, a style made neccesary in the war years by the short time the reporter had to file his story on the phone lines available.
Joe has promised, if he can find an Internet hook-up, to email some of his thoughts and perhaps a picture or two that I will post. While he's there I've asked him to try and find a souvenir for me, a 25th Division Zippo lighter, though Joe's comment on that was....
they ain't no original zippos of any sort in all of Nam; they counterfeits them thangs. complete with misspelled 1st Calvery Divisin etc. but i will look.Joe also talks in Bubba-ese to me, his West Texas buddy, and I only wish I were there with him to look.
Update 4/25: Comment #4 below rec'd from Dick Ackerman. Here's a picture of Dick and Ed "Too Tall" Freeman who received the Medal of Honor for his actions while flying into LZ XRay in 1965. Dick was the "point man" in his battalion at the horrendous action at LZ Albany. Dick and Too Tall
