Hal Moore's comment re medals was an interesting one.
Along the lines of "many people performed heroic acts but died
and those who witnessed them also died".
I'll go and look up the exact quote.
"Although many notable decorations have been awarded to veterans of the Battle of Ia Drang, in his book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, Harold Moore writes: "We had problems on the awards... Too many men had died bravely and heroically, while the men who had witnessed their deeds had also been killed... Acts of valor that, on other fields, on other days, would have been rewarded with the Medal of Honor or Distinguished Service Cross or a Silver Star were recognized only with a telegram saying, 'The Secretary of the Army regrets...' The same was true of our sister battalion, the 2nd of the 7th."
Interesting that he mentions the 2/7 who were of course massacred at or on the way to LZ Albany.
Last edited by 500N; 18th Jul 2013 at 13:31.