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We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang which took place in November 1965, the first major engagement of American troops in the Vietnam War. It was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, who were at the battle. Although the book is a documentary work, the film takes extensive dramatic licence in the portrayal of the battle's conclusion. While the book has a wider focus on other units and battles, the film only focuses on the actions of Moore's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry.
Plot SummarySpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The story also talks about the minor plot back at home where Moore's wife (Madeleine Stowe) along with another wife take over the job of delivering telegrams informing relatives of soldiers deaths to relatives that live at Fort Benning, the units base of operation. Before leaving for service in Vietnam, Moore delivers a touching speech to his unit. "I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive, but this I swear : I will be the first one to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead, or alive, we all come home together." The night before their departure for Vietnam a sort of a party for the officers assigned to the mission is celebrated. In this passage LTC Moore learns from a superior officer that his unit will be known as the 7th regiment, he is disquieted because the 7th Cavalry regiment was the regiment commanded by General Custer which was slaughtered at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and because Lyndon B. Johnson decreed that the war would be fought "on the cheap" without declaring it a national emergency, hence depriving Moore of his oldest, best-trained soldiers (a formal declaration of war would have meant mobilization and extension of the terms of enlistment for volunteer soldiers) -about 25% of his battalion- just prior to shipping for Vietnam. The story then goes to the battle and switches between the Vietnamese and American forces view. In the movie, the Vietnamese troops were treated with respect (see below in Debates). At the end of the three days of fighting, the seemingly victorious G.I.'s leave. The movie puts a strong emphasis that Moore is the last one to set foot off the field of battle, once he's been assured that all his men dead or alive have been recovered from the battlefield. Debate
The bereavement of the dead soldiers' families are also emphasized, particularly that of 2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan's family, and also that of an un-named NVA soldier (actually a Chinese advisor for the NVA, an incident that actually happened in the battle, but contrary to what is depicted in the movie, the body was not recovered in the aftermath of the battle -the NVA had probably taken great pains to recover it and carry it away before it could be recovered by US forces, as it was a matter of pride for them to officially have no foreign advisors in the field (while in reality they had both Chinese advisors -in north and south, mostly for infantry training- and soviet advisors in the north -mostly for setting up SAM and AAA sites and train the Vietnamese to man them)). The film also showed how political strife at home crept into the war. Moore detested this and even disregarded orders from his superiors when they were politically motivated. Certain aspects of the film are heavily dramatized and edited. The final bayonet charge by the American troops on the North Vietnamese base camp is somewhat over-dramatized, and was supported by fixed-wing aircraft rather than by Hueys flown by Bruce P. Crandall and Ed Freeman. (Their own Hueys were configured as troop carriers and could not have been reconfigured as gunships in the time frame depicted.) Historically, the battle ended with the withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces and subsequent extraction of 1/7 by helicopter after they were relieved by 2nd/7thCav which had marched overland from LZ Falcon to LZ X-Ray. The presence of this other 7th Cavalry battalion, 2nd Battalion (2/7) (as well as that of a platoon from the 2nd/5thCav which happened to be there "on loan" to the 2nd/7th), is ignored during the movie, as well as the battle of LZ Albany which took place barely 2 miles from X-Ray, while the 2nd/7th left LZ X-Ray (B-52 strikes were planned on the Chu Pong slopes, and X-Ray was considered "danger-close" to these strikes, so the LZ had to be cleared first) and marched overland to LZ Albany in what was to be the least airmobile operation in the war (raising much controversy, for the documents pertaining to the chain of command who issued this order were apparently lost), only to stumble on the 66th NVA regiment which happened to be bivouacking in their path, resulting in a much bloodier battle than that of X-Ray (a battle resembling X-Ray's likely outcome had the US been caught completely by surprise, in grass 2 m tall, mostly without radios (HQ squad was destroyed first in the ambush), and with little air and artillery support). The omission of 2nd/7th's battle, combined with the fictitious bayonet charge at the end of the first battle, creates an air of revisionism in the film, or amateurism at the least. Experts may also recognize national guard uniforms in figurative roles instead of genuine Cavalry uniforms. The movie also hints that the first meeting between Moore and Galloway happened during the battle of LZ X-Ray, while in fact Galloway had been following the 7th Cav on operations (remaining with the troops even through mud and rain, contrary to most other field reporters' choice to ride back to base on a resupply chopper for a hot supper and shower) for the better part of a month before the battle actually took place. Aviation experts may also notice a gaff at the end of the movie (at the time of the bayonet charge): before Moore leads the charge, a Huey Gunship is seen assaulting the NVA base camp with twin-mounted M134 gatling guns ("miniguns"). This is an anachronism: while in late 1965 Hueys were already equipped with the 2.75" rockets shown in the movie, the XM134 minigun hadn't been issued to ARA (Aerial Rocket Artillery) helicopters yet. At this time they were still equipped with a twin M-60 "flex-gun" on each side (M-60s capable of 70° rotation aimed by the copilot via a suspended cockpit joystick). XM134 (7,62mm) guns were not fitted to Hueys until 1966. Strangely, the Huey gunship appears to be flown by Crandall, who actually was assigned to an AHC (Assault Helicopter Company), while Huey gunships were commanded by ARA pilots (in the case of X-Ray, by the famous "Black Bart", later KIA in 1968). The movie also depicts the crash of one "slick" (troop transport chopper), its pilot and copilot killed, while in fact two helicopters were damaged during the battle and forced to stay grounded, but none actually crashed. The crewmen were evacuated on a troop transport Huey, and as the 1st/7th was being evacuated from X-Ray the crippled Hueys were airlifted back to Pleiku for repair. The film also does not depict the loss of a US Navy A1 Skyraider, "Spad", which was downed presumably by fragments of his own ordnance, killing the pilot. (Bombs and napalm have very different safe separation altitudes. The pilot, probably meaning to drop a napalm canister, may have instead dropped a 250-lb bomb causing shrapnel damage to his aircraft which flew too close to the ground.) CastImage:LTC-Hal.jpg Gibson as LTC Hal Moore
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