[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 105 (Monday, June 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9098-S9100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LOTT (for himself, Mr. Smith, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Bingaman, 
        Mr. Helms, Mr. Hollings, Mr. Kempthorne, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. 
        Faircloth, Mr. Dole, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Warner, and Mr. McCain):
  S. 967. A bill to provide a fair and full opportunity for recognizing 
with awards of military decorations the meritorious and valorous acts, 
achievements, and service performed by members of the Army in the Ia 
Drang Valley (Pleiku) campaign in Vietnam in 1965; to the Committee on 
Armed Services.


                  ia drang valley military awards act

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, at 10:48 in the morning on November 14, 
1965, 450 men from the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry hit the ground 
at Landing Zone X-Ray, Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. Over the 
next 96 hours, the fighting men of the 1st Battalion joined by men from 
the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry, would engage the enemy--over 
2,000 strong. At the conclusion of these 4 days of battle more than 230 
Americans were dead and 240 more were wounded.
  This engagement marked the first battalion-sized engagement of United 
States Army personnel with North Vietnamese regulars. It was a hellish 
battle. Ground was seized. Ground was lost. Positions were overtaken, 
and counterattacks repulsed. The men who fought on that morning were 
stronger than the ground on which they fought. Theirs is a story of 
gallantry, victory, sacrifice--an example of human strength in the face 
of overwhelming odds and a numerically superior enemy.
  But unlike most significant military engagements, this time the 
military recognition for the numerous acts of bravery, sacrifice and 
dignified service to the flag of the United States has largely gone 
unrecognized. It is a

[[Page S9099]]

wrongful shame which should--and must--be undone, corrected and made 
right.
  Only 25 months before Lt. Col. Harold Moore led his troops into the 
teeth of battle at Landing Zone X-Ray, then-President Kennedy addressed 
the students of Amherst College with these words:

       A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, 
     but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.

  Just 2 years after the President spoke these words, the fallen 
Americans of the Ia Drang Valley, Pleiku campaign, and the men who 
served there in November 1965, discovered a void of silence and 
inaction from their government. It was a government which failed to 
heed the words of their President. The Nation's leadership had failed 
to reveal itself--by remembering the men who served--by honoring the 
men who sacrificed.
  But nations also learn from history, and in learning are reminded. 
Now is such a time. From the pages of a book documenting the service of 
those who sacrificed in the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965--a book 
entitled ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young''--our Nation is 
reminded. Through this account we are now able to remember those who 
fought, who died, who gave and served. Once again, history reminds us 
of our obligation and responsibility. And as we recognize this 
responsibility, the nation can go back and correct the failures of the 
past by honoring those very men who served.
  Today, I am introducing legislation directly aimed to honor the men 
who served, sacrificed, and in many cases died, in the Ia Drang Valley 
in the Republic of Vietnam in November 1965. Joining me as cosponsors 
in this effort are Senators Smith, Shelby, Bingaman, Helms, Hollings, 
Kempthorne, Lieberman, Faircloth, Inhofe, Dole, Warner, and McCain.
  The bill we collectively introduce today has one singular goal: to 
ensure that the men who served in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 
are not forgotten. Over the past 5 years, it has become clear that many 
who fought, sacrificed and died in the Pleiku campaign in the Ia Drang 
were not recognized for their deeds. In some instances individuals 
killed even failed to receive recognition for their sacrifice through 
the award of Purple Hearts. Our Nation can and should do better.
  Under existing law and regulation, the Department of Army refuses all 
award recommendations submitted after 2 calendar years. It is a 
restriction callously enforced without regard to the very confluence of 
circumstances which precluded the assembly of facts in the case of the 
men who led the first of the 7th into battle in the Ia Drang almost 30 
years ago.
  After almost continuous fighting for the better part of 4 days, unit 
commanders lost hundreds of men. Exhausted, they huddled under lanterns 
each night writing letters to parents and wives explaining the loss of 
their sons and husbands who died in battle. In many cases the only 
witnesses to the valor and sacrifice of Americans felled by combat were 
either dead or severely wounded--neither of which were available to 
document the acts which justify recognition.
  Over the intervening years, former commander in the Ia Drang and now 
retired Gen. Harold Moore, USA and Joseph Galloway, a UPI war 
correspondent who was in the Ia Drang in November 1965, conspired to 
write the history of the men served in the Pleiku campaign. After 
conducting hundreds of interviews to research their book, they 
discovered that numerous acts of heroism, sacrifice, and valor went 
unrecognized. Over the years efforts were made to convince the 
Department of Army to reconsider these men for military awards. In each 
instance, these efforts failed.
  On July 6, 1994, the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army wrote Brig. 
Gen. Henry Thorpe, USA, (retired)--himself commander of Delta Company, 
2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry in the Ia Drang in November 1965--to say:

       The Department of the Army has rigidly adhered to the rules 
     pertaining to the two-year time limit and the only recourse 
     available to recognize these soldiers is special legislation 
     by Congress.'' [emphasis added.]

  This bill seeks to fulfill the casual advice of the Adjutant General 
of the Army. While it is unfortunate that legislative action is 
required to correct an oversight of the past 30 years, it should not be 
an insurmountable obstacle. The bill we introduce today removes the 
barricade erected by the Army, not by dictating the award of specific 
medals to individuals, but by directing the Army to waive the 2-year 
restriction and consider awards recommendations under existing Army 
criteria.
  Should my colleagues question the wisdom of this legislation, I 
recommend you read two letters I have received from veterans of Ia 
Drang Valley, Pleiku campaign. At this point, I request unanimous 
consent that two letters supporting this bill be inserted in the 
Record. The first letter is from Joseph Galloway and the other is from 
Jack Smith.
  Joseph Galloway was a 23-year-old war correspondent for United Press 
International when he accompanied elements of the 7th Cavalry into the 
Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. Thirty years later, his words ring in 
reverent tones as he describes the sacrifice of men lost, fallen 
comrades who served yet received no recognition.
  Jack Smith was an enlisted specialist in Charlie Company, 2d 
Battalion, 7th Cavalry. Today, Jack Smith is an accomplished journalist 
with ABC News. His account is perhaps more personal as the book 
describes his experiences on the afternoon of November 17, 1965, on a 
trail to Landing Zone Albany--the extraction point for a tired group of 
soldiers who had already faced the dangers of battle and were weary 
from it.
  As you read these letters, I urge you to envision the faces of the 
hundreds of young men who fought, not so much out of fear, but out of 
duty, honor, and commitment to the men with whom they served. This is a 
history which deserves recognition. And this legislation deserves 
passage, so that our Nation can once again reveal itself by the men it 
honors and the men it remembers.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this legislation and 
I yield the floor.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                     U.S. News & World Report,

                                   Washington, DC, March 30, 1995.
     Hon. Trent Lott,
     U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Lott: This letter is to advise that I fully 
     and completely support the Bill which you are introducing to 
     permit U.S. Army consideration of delayed awards 
     recommendations for some individuals who fought in the Pleiku 
     (Ia Drang) Campaign in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam 
     in October and November, 1965.
       I was present on a number of those battlefields as a 
     civilian war correspondent for United Press International, in 
     the campaign which begin with the siege of Plei Me Special 
     Forces Camp on 23 October, 1965, and ended with the tragic 
     clash at Landing Zone Albany, 17-18 November, 1965.
       I personally witnessed repeated acts of valor and sacrifice 
     in three days and nights at Landing Zone X-Ray, 14-16 
     November, 1965, and at that time assumed that such acts would 
     in due course be recognized by the Army by appropriate awards 
     of valor.
       It was not until Lt. Gen. (ret.) Hal Moore and I had begun 
     the detailed interviews and research that would lead to 
     publication of our book, ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . and 
     Young,'' that we realized how many men had been completely 
     overlooked, and why.
       There is, for instance, the tale of the two Charlie 
     Companies, 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry. At 
     LZ X-Ray on the terrible morning of 15 November, 1965, 
     Charlie Company 1/7 Cavalry held the line for all of us 
     against a full battalion of the 66th North Vietnamese Army 
     Regiment, reinforced by another battalion of Main Force Viet 
     Cong. The company began that morning with 5 officers and 107 
     men on its roster. By noon it had no officers and only 49 men 
     left standing. A total of 42 officers and men had died and 20 
     more had been wounded in two and one-half hours of hand-to-
     hand combat. Yet they held the line and saved the rest of the 
     battalion.
       Two days later, two and a half miles away at LZ Albany, 
     Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry began the day with 
     112 officers and men. By the following morning, 18 November, 
     there were only eight officers and men present and accounted 
     for. All the others were either dead, wounded or missing in 
     action. The battalion had been ambushed in thick jungle 
     and tall elephant grass; the company commanders had all 
     been called to the head of the column and were not with 
     their men. Of all the companies present, Charlie Company 
     2/7 died on its feet in a desperate charge into the 
     muzzles of the machine guns trying to save the battalion. 
     They died following the bravest of the brave, company 
     executive officer Lt. Don C. Cornett, who died leading 
     them.
       Who knows their stories? Who writes their award 
     recommendations in the shock and immediacy of the moment when 
     battalions are being loaded down with replacements and

[[Page S9100]]

     the few surviving officers sit under gasoline lanterns in 
     base camp tents, night after night, writing letters of 
     condolence to the mothers and fathers, wives and children of 
     those men?
       Three-hundred-six American soldiers and one U.S. Air Force 
     pilot died in the Pleiku Campaign, in the first major battle 
     of the Vietnam War between U.S. and North Vietnamese Army 
     regulars. Ours was a peacetime Army just getting it war legs 
     under it--an Army without even a proper casualty notification 
     system. The families learned news of their loved one's death 
     from telegrams delivered by taxi drivers, often at 2 or 3 
     a.m. This was an Army still operating on peacetime awards 
     policies, miserly and damned proud of being miserly when it 
     came time to recognize the soldier in the ranks.
       All these things conspired to insure that those men, living 
     and dead, who had fought the first and bloodiest battle of a 
     10-year war, would in large measure find that their deeds 
     went unrecognized. And, as for the thanks of a grateful 
     nation, well, we all know how that song went.
       What I found in interviewing the survivors, my battlefield 
     comrades, is that these are the most modest of men. They, 
     each of them, seek nothing for themselves. But each will tell 
     you how his closest buddy sacrificed his life to save another 
     man. Or how the skinny young medic from Washington, D.C., 
     tried to shelter the wounded with his body as enemy guns 
     homed in on them. Or how Charles R. (Doc) Lose, the medic of 
     the Lost Platoon (B Company, 1/7 Cavalry) at LZ X-Ray, used 
     up all his bandages, all his morphine and then used c-ration 
     toilet paper and strips torn off his own tee-shirt and 
     somehow kept 13 badly wounded men alive for 26 harrowing 
     hours under direct enemy fire. Only Doc Lose moved on that 
     tiny knoll surrounded by the enemy, moving ceaselessly from 
     man to man, tending his patients. During that time Doc Lose 
     was himself wounded two times.
       So many of those who would have stepped forward to 
     recommend awards for the heroic actions they had witnessed 
     were wounded and evacuated to hospitals in the United States. 
     Many others had only a few days left on their term of service 
     in the Army when they emerged from the Ia Drang battles. They 
     were processed out and put on planes bound for home and 
     civilian life, beginning one or two days later.
       This legislation seeks no wholesales bemedalling of old 
     soldiers for deeds long forgotten. It simply seeks an 
     opportunity, a window, by which official Army awards channels 
     can legally consider Ia Drang awards recommendations, 
     properly drawn and properly endorsed by witnesses and the 
     officers and non-commissioned officers of the units involved. 
     It is a small opportunity to convey the country's and the 
     Army's thanks and recognition to a few dozen men, living and 
     dead, who did far more than simple duty demanded in the 
     service of the United States.
       These men are America's neighbors. They come from virtually 
     every state in the Union. They are quiet and productive 
     citizens. I was proud to stand beside them in the Ia Drang 
     Valley in 1965, and it is a great honor and privilege to 
     stand up for them and the families who lost loved ones in 
     these battles and urge favorable consideration of this 
     legislation.
           Sincerely,
                                               Joseph L. Galloway,
     Senior Writer.
                                  ____



                                                     ABC News,

                                    Washington, DC, April 3, 1995.
     Hon. Trent Lott,
     Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC.
       Dear Senator Lott: As a decorated veteran of the Battle of 
     the Ia Drang Valley, 14-18 November, 1965, in the Republic of 
     Vietnam, I strongly endorse your efforts to re-open the 
     awards process for the men who fought in that major 
     engagement and in the Pleiku Campaign (October-November, 
     1965) of which it was a part.
       It was at the Ia Drang that US soldiers fought their first 
     pitched battle against North Vietnamese regulars. The 1st 
     Cavalry Division (Airmobile) decisively defeated a North 
     Vietnamese division in one of the fiercest clashes of the 
     war. My company, C company, 2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry 
     Regiment, for instance, suffered 93% casualties. I was 
     wounded twice, and am 20% disabled. (I am now a correspondent 
     for ABC News in Washington, till recently on This Week with 
     David Brinkley, and we have met.)
       The heroism of many deserving friends and fellow-Cav 
     troopers was overlooked in the aftermath of the battle. 
     Partly because of the terrible losses suffered by some US 
     units and the Army's consequent effort to sanitize the battle 
     for public relations purposes, and partly because in many 
     cases there were simply too few survivors to document the 
     heroism that occurred in a timely fashion.
       Even though the Army is now understandably reluctant to re-
     open the awards process for fear of being overwhelmed by a 
     flood of frivolous claims, I believe the fears are 
     groundless. No one is talking about the wholesale revision of 
     awards, rather a long-overdue chance to allow consideration 
     of delayed award recommendations for acts of heroism that 
     went unreported at the time.
       The fighting was so ferocious, the action so important, and 
     the valor of those who fought so exemplary that introducing a 
     bill to do this, as you are doing, is a public service. It is 
     an opportunity to convey the nation's thanks to a few men who 
     answered their country's call and did more than duty 
     demanded, but who afterwards were overlooked.
           Yours sincerely,
                                                       Jack Smith,
     Correspondent.

                          ____________________