About this item
Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered--sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up--makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor. Show more Show less #outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered--sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up--makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor.
About the Author
Legendary combat leader and New York Times Bestselling author, Lieutenant General Harold (Hal) Gregory Moore Jr, passed away peacefully at age 94 on February 10, 2017.
Hal was born on February 13, 1922, in Bardstown KY to Harold and Mary (Crume) Moore. Hal started a 32-year military career upon entry into the United States Military Academy in 1942, convincing a Congressman from Georgia to swap Hal's Kentucky appointment to the Naval Academy for one to West Point. Upon graduation in 1945, he served on occupation duty in Japan; he returned to Fort Bragg where he met and married the great love of his life, Julie Compton. He tested parachutes, surviving multiple malfunctions to include being hung up and towed behind a plane. Deployed to the Korean War in 1952, he commanded an Infantry rifle and heavy mortar company in the 7th Infantry Division and was awarded two Bronze Star Medals for Valor.
Subsequent assignments included teaching tactics at West Point, developing airborne and air assault equipment in the Pentagon, and a tour of duty in Norway where he planned the ground defense of northern Germany, Denmark, and Scandinavia. Upon completion of the course of study at the Naval War College, Hal took command of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry at Fort Benning, GA. Fourteen months later, the unit was designated the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry (Custer's old unit) and deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1965.
Hal is best known for his leadership in the first major battle between the US and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) that occurred in the remote Ia Drang Valley of the Central Highlands in November 1965. Within 20 minutes of the first shot, the 7th Cavalry, vastly outnumbered, was assaulted by hundreds of enemy furiously determined to over-run it. After a three-day bloodbath, the enemy quit the field leaving over six hundred of their dead littering the battleground. Hal was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for valor, for his actions during the fight. Hal then assumed command of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division and led it through several major campaigns in 1966 earning another Bronze Star Medal for Valor for carrying wounded to safety under "withering small and automatic weapons fire."
In 1968, Hal pinned on his first star and led the planning for the Army's withdrawal from Vietnam. He returned to Korea in 1969 and was promoted to Major General and given command of the 7th Infantry Division to "straighten out that Division" after it was fractured with insubordination and riots. Over the next year, Hal rebuilt the Division back into an effective fighting force. In 1971, he took command of the Training Center and Fort Ord, CA in the era of the Vietnam antiwar demonstrations, associated drug problems, continuing racial tensions and the transition to the "modern volunteer Army.&qu
