Moore made some very good decisions early in the fight and all during the battle maneuvered his Battalion and later a second Battalion in exactly the right way to counter the NVA's attacks.
He was very concerned at the outset about his Battalion being brought in Piecemeal with fairly long delays between Lifts arriving.
Standard tactics called for a 360 degree security perimeter at the LZ....but with only 88 Troops on the first Lift....he knew he could not do that and push contact with any Enemy forces back from his Perimeter. He elected to keep a fair number of troops close to the center of the LZ and send out small squads to seek out the enemy units. He felt that way he could direct what Troops he had towards the point of contact.
He also stayed on the ground in the LZ directing the battle from that location and put his Arty and Air FO's in his Command and Control Helicopter so they would have the best Comms and view of the battlefield to facilitate their coordinating of Fires.
This animation shows how he moved his troops......it is un-canny how he thwarted each move by the NVA.
The sad thing about this battle is each side thought they won. We thought we had proved overwhelming firepower from air units and artillery combined with the helicopter support gave us the winning hand.
The NVA learned they had to get in close and maintain very close contact to prevent us from using that superior firepower against them due to the close proximity of their forces to ours.
Ia Drang and Landing Zone X-Ray
The LZ X-Ray fight resulted in 79 US KIA, 121 WIA, Three Medals of Honor, Two DSC's, and a Bronze Star for a Civilian (Joe Galloway).
The Battalion that relieved Moore's unit was ambushed on the way to LZ Albany and lost 155 KiA and 124 WIA. Their's is a heartbreaking story.