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Friday, September 03, 2021

A Vietnam War Story

I'm going to do something a little bit different this week: Instead of a video, I'm posting a very good article about one man's experience at the Battle of Ia Drang.

Jack Smith’s First Person Account Of LZ Albany

After the battle of LZ X-Ray which was depicted in Hal Moore & Joe Galloway’s book, “We were Soldiers,” the survivors moved toward LZ Albany for withdraw and were ambushed. Jack Smith, the famous ABC reporter, was a Private First Class (PFC) in C Company 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry and wrote his first person account of the massacre at LZ Albany. It was published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1967 and is a chilling account of the events. WARNING: THIS STORY IS QUITE GRAPHIC. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
-Alemaster


8 comments:

  1. War is NEVER pretty when you are boots on the ground.

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  2. NFO so true. I remember one day or days in Dodge City, 69. We heard we were up against a batt. of NVA. They were some kind of dug in. We could see their heads and Phantoms would pass over and drop their load. The heads would disappear, the fire would fly and all sudden the heads would pop back up again. As I said, some kind a dug in. Afterwards there wasn't a man that had eyebrows and all our faces arms and hands had minor burns from the napalm. Shit was close. I was in Dodge City three or four times. Not a cool place to be.

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  3. Thanks for the difference in dialog vs video WC.
    Having a rolling montage of still pictures while some narerater speak causes me lose interest, while the written word will hold me, let me refer back.

    daddy-o

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    Replies
    1. I prefer written word myself. My imagination's much more vivid that any video could ever hope to be. Might be why TV holds no interest at all for me.

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  4. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway did in fact write about LZ Albany in their book We Were Soldiers, but it wasn't covered in the movie.

    Jack Smith's father was the famous reporter Howard K. Smith, who was also in Viet Nam at the time and interviewed his son after the battle.

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  5. Kenny: Thanks for the written account, vs a post video. This just sickens me.... time and time again, for what purpose? Nooses and cottonwood trees, my friends.

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  6. Started to say something, but -- nothing.

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