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RIP Joe Galloway

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RIP to a great Texan.  I met him once, but it was before I read the book or saw the movie "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young".  His significance in regard to the Vietnam War was lost on me and I didn't know why all of the Vets I knew held him in such regard.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vietnam-war-correspondent-author-joe-galloway-passes-away-veteran-confirms/ar-AANsMjy

American newspaper columnist, war correspondent and author Joe Galloway has died at the age of 79.

Galloway wrote the book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" about the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam in the fall of 1965, one of the first major battles of that war. 

Bud Alley, a Signal Mountain veteran who fought in that battle and a close friend of Galloway's, confirmed the news of his death to us Wednesday morning.

We had a chance to speak with Galloway back in 2017, when he visited Chattanooga to pay tribute to Vietnam veterans. 

He told us of his 1992 book,

"It came out at exactly the right time for the Vietnam veterans to give the American people a different look at what these young men who were sent over there, a lot of them draftees they didn't volunteer, what they went through. There wasn't enough trees in the forest to write the history of the entire war, but we could write a book about four days that would be so intense that could stand for every veteran."

Galloway leaves behind a wife and two sons.

We are working to learn more about Galloway's funeral arrangements, and we'll update this story as we learn more.

 

Here is a link to his Wiki if you want to learn more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_L._Galloway

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Brisketexan

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5 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I've read a lot of Vietnam War books, but not that one yet.  And my dad, a Marine Corps infantry officer who served in Vietnam in 1968-69, says its one of the better books about the war.

It really was damned good.  In high school, I took a deep dive into a lot of the books written on the war.  The other one that stood out to me was this one:

51KOh08LPCL._SX303_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21477

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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

It really was damned good.  In high school, I took a deep dive into a lot of the books written on the war.  The other one that stood out to me was this one:

51KOh08LPCL._SX303_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

 Try Crips if you want the story from the other side.

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AUS-97HORN

AUS-97HORN 11991

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RIP to a really good writer.

 

I think Mel Gibson (as crazy as hes become), did everything in his power to portray that movie as accurately to the book as possible.

 

and Galloway is also one of a very, very few civilian non-combatants who received a bronze star (not awarded until 1998) for his bravery in helping get a wounded soldier to the choppa.

 

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Hook1997

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Another great Vietnam read about a Texas hero that I’ve never understood how they haven’t made a movie out of his story yet, he’s the definition of bravery.  Roy Benavidez from Cuero, Texas.   How he arrived at the hospital after a crazy fight for his and his fellow soldiers lives below, this was his second tour after he was told he wouldn’t walk again after stepping on a landmine during his first tour.  
 

He was then taken into the hospital where the doctors began to treat his myriad of injuries. He had seven gunshot wounds, one of them went thru his back, destroying his right lung and exited just beneath his heart. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in his back, neck, head, legs, feet, and buttocks. Both arms were pierced by a bayonet as well as his hand. His jaw was broken and the back of his head smashed by the enemy’s rifle butt. None of the doctors expected Benavidez to survive. They were wrong.

81591DF4-3FCE-48C5-946F-D524A0089E9C.png

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Brisketexan

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1 minute ago, Hook1997 said:

Another great Texas hero that I’ve never understood how they haven’t made a movie out of his story yet, he’s the definition of bravery.  Roy Benavidez from Cuero, Texas.   How he arrived at the hospital after a crazy fight for his and his fellow soldiers lives below, this was his second tour after he was told he wouldn’t walk again after stepping on a landmine during his first tour.  
 

He was then taken into the hospital where the doctors began to treat his myriad of injuries. He had seven gunshot wounds, one of them went thru his back, destroying his right lung and exited just beneath his heart. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in his back, neck, head, legs, feet, and buttocks. Both arms were pierced by a bayonet as well as his hand. His jaw was broken and the back of his head smashed by the enemy’s rifle butt. None of the doctors expected Benavidez to survive. They were wrong.

81591DF4-3FCE-48C5-946F-D524A0089E9C.png

@MaybeACoordinator has long lobbied to rename Fort Hood after Benavidez.  I have seconded his motion.

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Catpfish

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Have a Vietnam veteran in the office right now and told him of Mr. Galloway's passing.  He said that that book and the movie are the closest he's seen to what it was actually like over there.  Ed served two tours including having only been in country about a month before the Tet offensive.  The quietest spoken man you'll ever meet.

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Guest Lobo

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Really stinks to hear.  What a remarkable life he lead, RIP Mr. Galloway.  

FWIW---my father and I believe between my dad and mom's side of the family---4 of my uncles served in/during Vietnam.  None of them ever talked about Vietnam-era books or movies, except to mention O'Brien's "The Things We Carried" and Joe Galloway.  All else was commentary.  

When the Vietnam Wall model was hosted at the LBJ Library a few years back, I volunteered at it to help vets, and Galloway's name came up a few times.  /csb

He really carried a lot of gravitas for a community that often felt voiceless for many years.  

 

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F250

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52 minutes ago, Parliament said:

The best Vietnam book I read, and best Vietnam movie I've seen.

Great book. My college roommate had a copy laying around and I started reading it one day without any knowledge of the book and ended up binge reading it.

 

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Judge Roybeanbag

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4 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

That is also a great book.  He was born in Cuero, but grew up in El Campo where my dad's family is from.  Gross injustice that he didn't get his MOH awarded until 1981.  I drive by a small monument to him every Sunday.

Didn’t know your dads family was from there.  My wife’s family is from there and I grew up in Garwood.  

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Scheiss Meister

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Combination motel and gun shop may be the most Texas thing I've read all day.

I used to work with a guy who went to high school with Galloway.  He said that Galloway was the biggest asshole he ever knew, and best writer he ever read.  I, too, highly recommend "We Were Soldiers..."  Every Vietnam vet I served with said that it was exactly right on every detail.

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conVINCEd

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31 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Combination motel and gun shop may be the most Texas thing I've read all day.

I used to work with a guy who went to high school with Galloway.  He said that Galloway was the biggest asshole he ever knew, and best writer he ever read.  I, too, highly recommend "We Were Soldiers..."  Every Vietnam vet I served with said that it was exactly right on every detail.

Need a bait shop to seal the deal.

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39 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Combination motel and gun shop may be the most Texas thing I've read all day.

I used to work with a guy who went to high school with Galloway.  He said that Galloway was the biggest asshole he ever knew, and best writer he ever read.  I, too, highly recommend "We Were Soldiers..."  Every Vietnam vet I served with said that it was exactly right on every detail.

I met Galloway at a Vietnam Veteran's Reunion at Fort Rucker, Alabama.  My dad and the guys from his unit all had their final flight school training there before going to Vietnam.  He gave the speech at the big dinner at the end of the weekend.  He was great and was held in very high esteem by every single vet there that I met, and it was 100 plus.  They all said the movie was by far the best depiction of Vietnam.  I hadn't heard of the book or the movie, this was 2004, so in hindsight I felt a little embarrassed that I didn't know what he had done.  I wish I had been able to engage him as he was very approachable but I didn't really know anything about him at the time.  Thanks to people like Joe Galloway that showed the people back home what our service men were going through.  RIP

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Macanudo

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19 hours ago, Parliament said:

The best Vietnam book I read, and best Vietnam movie I've seen.

I agree as well.  The scenes where the death notices start showing up are tough to watch.    The military really screwed the pooch on death notifications for a while.   Hal Moore said this:

"We had problems on the awards... Too many men had died bravely and heroically, while the men who had witnessed their deeds had also been killed... Acts of valor that, on other fields, on other days, would have been rewarded with the Medal of Honor or Distinguished Service Cross or a Silver Star were recognized only with a telegram saying, 'The Secretary of the Army regrets...' The same was true of our sister battalion, the 2nd of the 7th."[3]:

The U.S. Army had not set up casualty-notification teams this early in the war. The notification telegrams at this time were handed over to taxi cab drivers for delivery to the next of kin. Moore's wife, Julia Compton Moore, followed in the wake of the deliveries to widows in the Fort Benning housing complex, grieving with the wives and comforting the children and attended the funerals of all the men killed under her husband's command who were buried at Fort Benning.[46] Her complaints about the notifications prompted the Army to quickly set up two-man teams to deliver them, consisting of an officer and a chaplain.[64] Mrs. Frank Henry, the wife of the battalion executive officer and Mrs. James Scott, wife of the battalion command sergeant major, performed the same duty for the dead of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry.[3]:416

Years ago, I met Bruce Crandall (Huey pilot played by Greg Kinnear) in the movie.   Super nice guy and very unassuming.   The movie had not come out yet but I had read the book and when he was introduced to me I got that "I know that name" look on my face.   He had an ever so sly and small smile on his face and then a few minutes later someone else at the event who knew I'm a military history buff asked me "Did you meet that chopper pilot who flew during Ia Drang?"   BINGO.    I eventually made my way back over to him and told him thank you for being a man of courage.   I didn't linger on it or ask for details.   That man saw horror and death during the battle that didn't need to be discussed or glorified.  But I did need to tell him he was a bad ass.   Crandall made 22 flights  in and out of the LZs under constant ground fire.   His wingman, Ed Freeman, made 16 flights.

Bruce and Ed Freeman got MoHs later in life for their valor.    

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