LZ X RAY-THE BLEEDING BEGINS

In a very isolated part of Vietnam, the United States truly began its experience in Vietnam. More than a million would serve there and 50,000+ would die there. X Ray was the start and the roof of the embassy, the end. In between, our military was blooded and ultimately, almost destroyed.

The American population changed from supportive to combative and conspiracies, subterfuge and lies became enabling tools of our senior leadership-both civilian and military. America developed a deep well of cynicism regarding motives that remains very much today. At X Ray, we lost our innocence as a Nation as well as the purity of purpose for which Grunts fight.

The point of our then spear was LTC Hal Moore, veteran of WW II and Korea. After examining the intelligence, he chose Grid 13°34′4.6″N 107°42′50.4″E as his landing zone, a flat clearing surrounded by low trees at the eastern base of the Chu Pong Massif and bordered by a dry creek bed on the west. Here, our serious National pain began-first exhilarating, then exhausting and finally hateful.

The decision was to directly challenge the NVA at a point of their strength and to demonstrate the great creativity and force application that was the nascent Army of the 60’s. Moore had the best NCO’s the army produced-tough, skilled and experienced led by an exemplary CSM, Basil Plumley. The troops were unbloodied but the leadership was not.

Moore was extraordinarily competent in the craft of combat and his troops were exceptionally prepared by his training. They were truly the best our Nation had to serve. Their casualties were great but their qualities greater.

On this small patch of land, the Nation first saw the great assumed strength of our effort and awoke to casualties, crying and the reality of what makes the detritus of the battlefield. We gritted our teeth and called upon the deep resolve we have always had in the light of bad news. The troops would be supported as would the President that committed them.

Here, we trusted our leaders and our President and accepted the butcher bill as a necessary price to secure our ideals and fortunes as a Nation. In time, we would say the Soldiers never failed, only their leadership. Despite never losing a battle, we lost because our leadership refused to see the ground truth that every Grunt knew.

The leaders inside Chu Pong used their men as lab rats to examine our tactics and our new air mobility tools. They were cynically dis-interested in the cost of this experiment, only the outcome. They learned that death, over time, was the greatest weapon they possessed-a weapon they wielded with impunity on the International stage as well as within the US.

The people in charge refused to see reality and continued to throw good people against a cause they secretly knew was a lost cause-the ultimate example of treason and immorality of the highest standard.

In the 43-day Ia Drang campaign, 545 Americans were killed. Enemy deaths have been estimated at 3,561. It made no difference to the outcome other than beginning the Wall.

Those that went generally served well and took pride in what they did and the people they did it with. This is Natures anesthesia applied to when the leaders were consummately not worthy of the led.