These pictures are relevant to today's award of the Medal of Honor to LTC(R) Bruce

Crandall for the actions of the 229th Assault Helicopter Bn elements who

participated in the battle and also our artillery classmates, Don Davis and

Ollie Langford, who fired round the clock supporting fires around LZ XRay

and LZ Albany from LZ Falcon. Also to Buse Tully who was CO Bravo Company

1/5th Cav that came to the relief of the Cav elements in LZ Albany after

they were ambushed by the NVA..

1st photo: This view that I took from the air shows LZ XRay full of smoke

from protective artillery fires fired around our troops at LZ XRay, from a

firebase at LZ Falcon. The mountain in the rear is Chu Pong mountain on

the Cambodian border where the NV Army (PAVN) was dug-in in caves. It is

shown being struck by a stick of 500 lb bombs from a B-52 at 30,000 ft

altitude. The B-52 crisscrossed the mountain with bombs several times.

My flight was orbiting outside the bomb drop area waiting to land in the LZ

with fresh troops and ammo after the B-52 attack & artillery fires were

finished. This was probably the first B-52 (arc light) strike of the VN

war. You can see the silhouettes of some of the adjoining flight of our

orbiting 16 mission helicopters on the smoke of the LZ. Unfortunately I was

using black and white film that was overdeveloped by Vietnamese in the

little town of An Khe.

2nd photo: I took this photo in LZ Falcon, the firebase from which we began

operating after the initial assaults into LZ XRay from Plei Me Special

Forces Camp. The smoke surrounds the artillery pieces from their continuous

day and night fire. Classmate Don Davis was the artillery battery commander

and Ollie Langford was the fire support coordinator. Ollie said they fired

everything they had including WP. Chinooks delivered resupply rounds to

Falcon as quickly as possible including during the night, rolling the ammo

rounds in tubes from the back of the aircraft by liifting the nose.

Maintenance crews were also brought in to repair recoil springs and

barrels, as needed, during the night. I watched much of this between

missions.

3rd photo: This is me with my aircraft at LZ Falcon, with some wounded NVA

prisoners from LZ XRay. On one sortie, after inserting fresh troops into

LZ XRay with my 2 aircraft flight section, I picked up the crew of the

downed aircraft from the flight ahead of me, as well as wounded and KIA

infantry that were placed aboard my aircraft. We took the wounded and KIAs

to the MASH hospital at Pleiku and returned to Falcon for further tasking.

At the end of the battle of both XRay and Albany we carried out all the

remaining dead and wounded. At that time there were no body bags available

and bodies were wrapped in ponchos making for much blood in the aircraft.

As wounded and KIAs were delivered to Pleiku, medics rushed out to meet us

with large pots of water and brushes to scrub out the floor before the next

sortie. At this early stage of the war our helicopters were not yet

equipped with the XM23 machine gun door mounts, so crewchief and gunner's

armament consisted of either an M-16 or a M-60 Machined gun strung from a

bungee chord in the doorway. We were not yet fully prepared for battle.

4th photo: This is a section of a photo taken at and by the Smithsonian at

the November 1965 40th anniversary of the Ia Drang battle. The subjects are

the flight crews and pathfinders from the Ia Drang battle's LZ XRay and

Albany. Bruce Crandall and I are standing next to each other in Cav

Stetsons. Bruce was formally presented the Medal of Honor by President Bush

on 26 February 2007 for actions at LZ XRay. Bruce's wingman then Captain

Ed Freeman, a Korean War vet, was awarded the Medal of Honor by President

Bush in 2001. Infantry Lt. Joe Marm was also awarded the Medal of Honor for

LZ XRay early in the war. Heroism was rife on the bloody battlefields of

the Ia Drang and more could have been recognized.

The story of the Ia Drang battle of LZ XRay and LZ Albany is told in the

best selling book, "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," by LTG Hal Moore and

Joe Galloway. The follow-on movie, "We Were Soldiers," depicts the Battle

of LZ XRay and the events leading up to it.