By In honor of Memorial Day Greyhawk has a great posting up about 9/11 hero Rick Rescorla that I knew was at the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, but I had now idea he was also the same person on the cover of the book of the battle, We Were Soldiers Once, and Young
Have you seen the movie We were Soldiers?
A good one, in my opinion. Given just a couple hours to tell a tale I think all in all the folks involved did a commendable job.
Perhaps it’s hard to go wrong, given the source material. We Were Soldiers Once, And Young is an account of the battle at Ia Drang Valley, fought in the still early phases of the war in Viet Nam. The book was written by Hal Moore, who was then a Lt Col and commander of the American troops in the valley, and Joe Galloway, a reporter who was at the battle. Their collaboration is a truly human account of men at war- including the enemy viewpoint, as Galloway and Moore’s efforts at capturing the battle on paper were thorough enough to include interviews with survivors from the other side.
Take a look at the cover. The prominent figure is Rick Rescorla, described thusly on the LZ Xray web page:
Click here to read the rest about Rick Rescorla.
I had watched a History Channel program about Rick Rescorla that showed what an incredible life he lived as well as his 9/11 heroics. What an amazing coincidence he was on the cover of such a legendary book such as We Were Soldiers Once, and Young
9:45 am on May 26th, 2008 1
Hey Gi Korea could you send me an email, judopilotmathew@yahoo.com, I have some Korean War questions for you.
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11:34 pm on May 26th, 2008 2
Posted before, a long one, but me thinks I screwed the pooch.
Try again.
Rick Rescola was a dude. Did some research on the Cornish fellow from England. Fascinating.
The movie does no justice to the 2nd half of the book where the relief group, strung out in a line, gets whoomped by the NVA. Horrific stuff in the book.
Interestingly,
Jack P. Smith, heavily mentioned in the book (http://www.mishalov.com/death_ia_drang_valley.html)
son of the famous Howard K. Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_K_Smith) did a retrospective in 1994 with many of the major characters from the book/movie and returned to the site of the battle.
I ordered the video via ABC 4 years ago. I remember seeing it when it came out on Dateline or 20/20 or something like that. Very emotional to say the least. Jack’s rememberance of what happened to him was horrid. As well as the other members.
I wish I had the tech to post the vid here. I don’t. My pc is 8 years old.
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1:34 am on May 27th, 2008 3
BTW, many have signed a petition to have him considered for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The man saved a huge number of people on 9/11, and made the ultimate sacrifice. When combined with a record of service such as he had, one would think adding him to the roll of Medal of Freedom award winners should be regarded as a privilege, but instead they seem content with the latest trend of adding fashion designers, actors, and political kiss asses to the list.
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4:23 am on May 27th, 2008 4
That Vietnam Vet who saved hundreds of lives, deserves the highest honor. The man was brave and his country should be proud of him. A salute from me, and a “Rest in peace”.
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