In 1965, 450 US soldiers including a media personnel named Joe Galloway, who was reporting for United Press International, were sent to the region of Plateau Kontum which had dense forest. The assignment of those soldiers was to invade into Viet Cong region and keep their enemy engaged.
The soldiers were dropped by helicopter in a place called la Drang valley which was filled with many tall grasses. But before landing in the valley, American troops were completely unaware of the incident which was going to be happened with them. They didn’t know who were awaiting them in la Drang valley.
Those incidents were later shared by Joe Galloway through a video interview:
We were in a struggle for survival...and they were determined to kill us all. In a situation like that, where people are falling over dead beside you, shot through the head, you have some obligation to be of use beyond taking pictures and writing down your notes of what’s going on...
In the middle of this battle an Air Force jet unloaded two cans of napalm right over our heads, right in the middle of our perimeter...I’d been talking to four or five demolition team guys...I look over and they’re dancing in the fire. They’re burning up. A medic and I jumped to our feet and ran toward them and the medic was shot through the head and killed by a sniper and I went in there and helped drag a man out...
You come out of something like that alive and you feel that every day after that is a bonus.
To be continued......
