We Were Soldiers Once and Young

Odin & Aesop

In November 1965, roughly 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry flew by helicopter into Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley. They were attacked by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers almost immediately. Three days later, one of their sister battalions was unexpectedly attacked a short distance away. The U.S. lost 237 killed. These two fights at landing zones X-Ray and Albany came on the front end of America’s build up in Vietnam and were a portent of things to come. The two authors of this book were there. One, Hal Moore, commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry and the other, Joe Galloway, was a war correspondent.