Michael’s Reviews > We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam > Status Update

The U.S. Army won the main Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, but there was some more fighting afterward, and the results weren’t as good. And, both were at a heavy price for both sides.

Getting lost in a battle zone is not a good thing, but it happens, anyway. And some survive. A soldier from South Carolina got lost for a few days and nights keyed on every sound and movement around him. He also battled all those creepy crawly things that bite in the night when you can’t see them.

Very intense. One can easily understand that no one not trained cannot stomach such grizzly combat, and even those with the training are likely to have nightmares for years to come.

Very different from most others in format.

Quite active in content, and descriptions from the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Too many casualties, but credit is due to the soldiers and their efforts in this very hard-fought battle.

The battle begins. Action, and page turning picks up dramatically.
I wasn't in Vietnam, but going back to that time isn't easy. I still vividly remember a young man's face shortly before he shipped out for the war on the other side of the then nearby Pacific. He later drowned in the Mekong Delta. There were others I knew much less, but this one was a friend of the family. Years later I found his name on the wall.

Both sides of the battle are presented here, and that’s something not always seen in this genre.

It reads differently from most other books, written in first-person. Co-Author Joe Galloway explains how he wound up with a gun in his hand. Abnormal for a journalist, and still controversial in many journalism schools still. I was asked in grad school in London if I would. I had to think about my answer first. I would certainly rather not, but I haven’t been in combat.

I like the battlefield graphics found at the front of the book. Right away, you get a sense of the scale for most of the central story.