He trained us to be the best," Hansen said. Sergeant Ernie Savage Ernie Savage Robert Bagnell 1st Lt. Charlie Hastings Marc Blucas 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick Josh Daugherty Sp4 Robert Ouellette Jsu Garcia Capt. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them. The situation on that ground was very difficult. Major Basil Plumley and his wife Deurice. How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? He was one of only 324 Soldiers to claim that honor. 
"You'd hear him up front yelling, 'Awright dammit, pick it up back there,'" Savage said. : Plumley's bravery in Vietnam was probably a mixture of inherent character and confidence gained on the battle field. After Deurice died in May, Plumley said his time was short, he'd be joining her soon. There were the murmurs of a dozen other conversations at the small tables, and the clatter of dishes in the nearby kitchen, which gave off the enticing scents of the next course. His troops were ordered to keep digging the trenches ever nearer the French lines. WebSergeant Ernie Savage assumed command after Sergeant's Palmer and Stokes were killed. We have had your book translated into Vietnamese and I have read it twice already and will read it again, Phuong told the two of us. Giap greeted Joe and me as old friends in token of our two previous meetings and shook hands with the rest of our traveling squad during a brief stop in a museum reception room. (He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping rescue wounded American Soldiers under fire at Landing Zone X-Ray.). "When we left there, Sam said 'Joe, I think I'm going to try to talk like the sergeant major.' Savage didn't frighten easily, but he tended to be overly deferential to anyone "above" him. Ernie Savage (left) and Dennis Deal talked about their time in the Ia Drang Valley as members of the 7th Cavalry Medal of Honor Recipient retired Col. Walter Joseph Joe Marm, Jr. shared his recollections of the battle and how he continued to battle despite being shot through the jaw. After a good Vietnamese meal of spring rolls, fish, chicken and rice washed down by cold beers, we turned to the obligatory preliminary conversations about families and work and life in general as the hot tea was poured. He became "almost loquacious -- a chatterbox," swapping old Army stories (but never war stories!) WebSgt. "I think he came to regret that decision, but once he made it, he stuck with it, and no one could talk him off it, not me and not Hal Moore.". Ho Chi Minh, had built an army out of an unarmed gaggle of peasant boys and girls and led them with great skill against the Japanese, the French colonialists, the United States and, more recently, against their former ally and neighbor, Communist China. How could we pass them by when they were still armed and might shoot us? asked one of the enemy generals. These were all crippled war veterans, men missing arms, legs, eyes. The airportstill surrounded by the big water-filled craters that American bombs had dug in the rice paddieshad been expanded and was jam-packed with humanity, where just months before it had been smaller and much sleepier. WebSergeant Ernie Savage's precise placement of artillery throughout the siege of the "Lost Platoon" enabled the platoon to survive the long ordeal. Shortly after publication of We Were Soldiers Onceand Young in the fall of 1992, we were approached by a producer at ABC Televisions Day One program. We had asked for this briefing because of the importance of Dien Bien Phu and the defeat of the French in setting the stage for Americas beginning involvement in the affairs of the two Vietnams. "I carried the bucket in that conversation. Nov 15, 1992 WASHINGTON Ernie Savage, sergeant 1st class, U.S. Army, retired, was having a hard time of it. The meeting was held outdoors on the shores of one of Hanois seven lakes. Savage assumes command, calls in the artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. There I was with the two most monosyllabic men in the world in the same room, and I sat there between them. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. Terry Wrong told us he would like to make a documentary on the battles and the veterans that would involve taking a group of us back to Vietnam and to the battlefields. He drew a quick map sketch on a paper napkin. WebSelect this result to view Ernie Roy Savage's phone number, address, and more. Command passed to Sergeant Ernie Savage who called in multiple air strikes around the platoons position. (ret.) I had nothing to worry about. | "He didn't have to say a lot -- he just had to show up, and people paid attention. Earnie Savage was a young buck sergeant, an E5, when he met Plumley in 1964. For us this was research, capturing the words and thoughts of these men for history. General Giap is waiting for you at the museum, one of them explained. It was hard to square the image of this small, amiable gray-haired former schoolteacher with the fact that this was the man who, along with the former waiter Nguyen Ai Quoc, a.k.a. WebSergeant Ernie Savage's precise placement of artillery throughout the siege of the "Lost Platoon" enabled the platoon to survive the long ordeal. Ernie Savage, after retiring from the Army, had remained at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a civilian employee helping train Army Reserve soldiers. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. I asked him, 'What's the story about you and a German tank and he just grunted and said, 'Obviously I won.' Sergeant Savage, the 3d Squad leader, now took command. Joining us would be the Day One crew, including anchor Forrest Sawyer and producer Terry Wrong. He was a lot like his reputation; he was gruff and he could be tough, but he wasn't mean. When everything was ready, then, and only thenon March 13, 1954Giap signaled the attack, and this time he would use his tactics, designed for a Vietnamese army, first cutting French supply and reinforcement lines and the vital airstrip with his artillery while the Viet Minh troops closed in on and overran the surrounding French hilltop strongpoints one by one. "He's a real hero, not an actor," I said. Savage assumed command by virtue of being close to the radio and began the process of calling in repeated bombardments of artillery support around the platoon's position. Joe and I were seated with the Vietnamese generals, Man, An and Phuong, whom we now felt we knew well from our previous trips and interviews. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The legendary war correspondent met Plumley in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam -- a place neither thought they would survive. Savage assumes command, calls in the artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. The lights of Hanoi sparkled around the dark lake. Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Sgt. : Our new book, We Are Soldiers Still, tells the story of that journey across the years and miles and a long night spent stranded on a battlefield known as Landing Zone XRay, amid Khmer Rouge guerrillas from nearby Cambodia, tigers and the spirits of those who had fallen there in desperate hand-to-hand fighting in that long-ago November. By early November 1965 three PAVN regiments the 32nd, 33rd and 66th and the H15 Local Force Battalion had been assembled in the area. All this he told us quietly, matter-of-factly, with no hint of bragging or boasting. That support had evaporated and Vietnam was now cautiously searching for another way forward that involved some of the benefits of capitalism, especially foreign investment. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. He attended events at the National Infantry Museum and seemed to fairly tolerate the limelight, such as it was. For all of us the greatest revelations and emotions came that evening, in a floating restaurant built on a barge on Hanois West Lake. Specialist Galen Bungum Dead bodies smell, Bungum. Former helicopter commander Lt. Col. -Excerpt from We Are Soldiers Still by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (USA Ret.) These and the firm stand made by the remaining men pinned down on the knoll, lead to the death of scores of North Vietnamese troops, who never managed to wipe out the platoon. But he said he had grown increasingly worried that such an attack would play into the hands of the French; that his artillery was vulnerable to the big guns of the French, and to launch human-wave attacks would destroy much of the force so carefully built and trained over the last 10 years, with no hope of replacements for the terrible losses he would suffer in such an attack. Command Sergeant Major (ret.) After being refused permission to journey to our old battlefields in the Ia Drang on two previous visits to Vietnam, suddenly in the spring of 1993 the official government objections on grounds of safety and security vanished. The girls, of their own volition, approached the sergeant major to ask for his autograph. To subscribe, click here. You wrote in your book that our men killed your wounded on the battlefield and this is true. "I am so blessed to have had two such men as best friends, as mentors and as role models for almost half a century," said Galloway, who has done more than any other to inspire new generations of Soldiers with the stories of old Soldiers, like Moore and Plumley. Savage assumed command by virtue of being close to the radio and began the process of calling in repeated bombardments of artillery support around the platoon's position. It was a winner-take-all game, and Vo Nguyen Giap would win using Vietnamese tactics, not Chinese tactics. "I don't do interviews. These and the firm stand made by the remaining men pinned down on the knoll, lead to the death of scores of North Vietnamese troops, who never managed to wipe out the platoon. (ret.) Savage didn't frighten easily, but he tended to be overly deferential to anyone "above" him. Ernie is related to Mitchell Ernest Sawasy and Ernie Orest Sawasy as well as 2 additional people. Even more puzzling was the fact that we Americans had paid the tuitionby the end of the French war in Indochina, the United States was financing about 70 percent of the cost of that warbut had not learned the right lessons. Plumley growled. The highway to the capital had been widened, potholes had been repaired, and new homes and shops were being built along the roadside. For his "gallantry under relentless enemy fire on an otherwise insignificant knoll in the valley of the Ia Drang," Ernie Savage received the Distinguished Service Cross. The Vietnamese officer gasped and turned pale: You and your machine gun killed my battalion! Hal Moore, told me that we had to return to Vietnam and to the Ia Drang battlefields. Plumley believed in training to standard, then raising the standard, said Steve Hansen, who served with Plumley in the Ia Drang. Perhaps it wasn't believable enough to pass muster with the masses. WebSgt. WebThe President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Clyde E. Savage (RA14746198), Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. George Forrest helpfully reached over and added the symbol for machine gun to Bills X marking his position. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. He was huge, and when you saw him, you knew you better get your stuff straight," said Savage, who spent the better part of Monday standing post at Plumley's casket at a funeral home in Columbus. More than 300 American troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and thousands of North Vietnamese Army regulars had perished on that ground in November 1965 in the battles that opened a war that would drag on for 10 long years. "He was the very essence of a command sergeant major. Tucked between pages 220 and 221 of a dog-eared copy of "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" is a receipt from the Fort Benning commissary dated 2001. Any apprehensions we had at such a chance meeting of old enemies were quickly laid to rest as the Vietnamese veterans smiled and held up a hand-lettered sign that read, in English: Welcome American Veterans. I can smell them creeping up on us. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Joe and I had talked through our feelings about these meetings with our old enemies on the earlier trips. Instead he ordered his artillery pieces pulled back to the reverse slopes of the mountaintops, and the laborers began burrowing through the earth and rock to construct impregnable gun positions where they could fire on the French below and then swiftly pull the guns back into the mountain itself. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. Change was in the air. Ernie is related to Mitchell Ernest Sawasy and Ernie Orest Sawasy as well as 2 additional people. | Ernie Savage : Good morning, Sergeant Major. I am glad I did not kill you. Stunned, all I could do was nod and think to myself: Me, too, colonel. Copyright 2008 by Joseph Galloway and General Hal Moore. They were agitated and rushed us through the formalities in a matter of minutes. "We all thought he was hatched a sergeant major, and here he was in black and white, a first sergeant. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. WebSgt. | Ernie Savage, after retiring from the Army, had remained at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a civilian employee helping train Army Reserve soldiers. "He was the very essence of a command sergeant major. The actor "under played" the sergeant major, said Galloway, who introduced the two after Elliott had been cast as Plumley. Published by arrangement with Harper Collins Publishers. Their wheelchairs were crude and decrepit, as were the prosthetics replacing their missing arms and legs. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. Oddly enough, that scene never made it into the movie. Former B Company 1-7 Cavalry Sgt. At the outset of the Peloponnesian War the Athenian-allied city-state came under attack from the same Greek forces that a half century earlier had driven off Persian invaders. You killed my best friend. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. : We landed at Hanois airport on October 13, 1993, an hour behind schedule, and were met by our Vietnamese minders as we stepped off the plane. Giap led the way to a large room in back where a huge 20-by-30-foot sand-table exhibit depicted in full detail the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, the scene of his greatest victory over the French in 1954. The girls bounded back smiling, with Plumley's signature scrawled across the back of my register receipt. On the sidewalk in front, four new businesses were in operation selling trinkets, tea and cakes, tins of Russian caviar, and bottles of brandy. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them. The second best result is Ernie Sawasy age 80+ in Woodland Hills, CA in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. Matt Dillon Clark Gregg Capt. Giap had told us earlier that if we Americans had studied the lessons clear for all to see in the wake of Dien Bien Phu, we would never have come here. For his "gallantry under relentless enemy fire on an otherwise insignificant knoll in the valley of the Ia Drang," Ernie Savage received the Distinguished Service Cross. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. WebSergeant Savage was serving as squad leader in the 2d Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), on 14 November 1965, when it was attacked by a hostile force which consisted of approximately two companies. We always knew the value of prisoners. Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? It was quiet on the bus as each of us turned to his own thoughts about the dinner and our trip south to the Ia Drang in the morning. It was clear to us that our book about the battles had opened the hearts of these Vietnamese generals and it was that, and our determination to get and tell their side of the story as honestly as we could, that had opened the door to this journey back to our old battlefields. Tony Nadal Jon Hamm Capt. Others listened quietly but tensely to the explanations of the North Vietnamese officers that their troops had no choice but to kill wounded Americans they found as they searched the battlefield at night for their own wounded and dead. You wrote that our soldiers fought and died bravely in battle, and for that we thank you. Snatching the artilleryman's radio, he began calling in and adjusting artillery fire. Snatching the artilleryman's radio, he began calling in and adjusting artillery fire. I never knew him to be mean.". | Army Organic Industrial Base Modernization Implementation Plan, Army leadership meets with privatized housing partner CEOs, October 2017 Nominative Sergeants Major Assignments, May 2017 Nominative Sergeants Major Assignments, Pentagon Hall of Heroes Induction Ceremony for Lt. Col. Charles S. Kettles, Signal regiment honors Hollywood director. , with no hint of bragging or boasting can take advantage sergeant ernie savage vietnam them Forrest helpfully reached and. 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"You'd hear him up front yelling, 'Awright dammit, pick it up back there,'" Savage said. : Plumley's bravery in Vietnam was probably a mixture of inherent character and confidence gained on the battle field. After Deurice died in May, Plumley said his time was short, he'd be joining her soon. There were the murmurs of a dozen other conversations at the small tables, and the clatter of dishes in the nearby kitchen, which gave off the enticing scents of the next course. His troops were ordered to keep digging the trenches ever nearer the French lines. WebSergeant Ernie Savage assumed command after Sergeant's Palmer and Stokes were killed. We have had your book translated into Vietnamese and I have read it twice already and will read it again, Phuong told the two of us. Giap greeted Joe and me as old friends in token of our two previous meetings and shook hands with the rest of our traveling squad during a brief stop in a museum reception room. (He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping rescue wounded American Soldiers under fire at Landing Zone X-Ray.). "When we left there, Sam said 'Joe, I think I'm going to try to talk like the sergeant major.' Savage didn't frighten easily, but he tended to be overly deferential to anyone "above" him. Ernie Savage (left) and Dennis Deal talked about their time in the Ia Drang Valley as members of the 7th Cavalry Medal of Honor Recipient retired Col. Walter Joseph Joe Marm, Jr. shared his recollections of the battle and how he continued to battle despite being shot through the jaw. After a good Vietnamese meal of spring rolls, fish, chicken and rice washed down by cold beers, we turned to the obligatory preliminary conversations about families and work and life in general as the hot tea was poured. He became "almost loquacious -- a chatterbox," swapping old Army stories (but never war stories!) WebSgt. "I think he came to regret that decision, but once he made it, he stuck with it, and no one could talk him off it, not me and not Hal Moore.". Ho Chi Minh, had built an army out of an unarmed gaggle of peasant boys and girls and led them with great skill against the Japanese, the French colonialists, the United States and, more recently, against their former ally and neighbor, Communist China. How could we pass them by when they were still armed and might shoot us? asked one of the enemy generals. These were all crippled war veterans, men missing arms, legs, eyes. The airportstill surrounded by the big water-filled craters that American bombs had dug in the rice paddieshad been expanded and was jam-packed with humanity, where just months before it had been smaller and much sleepier. WebSergeant Ernie Savage's precise placement of artillery throughout the siege of the "Lost Platoon" enabled the platoon to survive the long ordeal. Shortly after publication of We Were Soldiers Onceand Young in the fall of 1992, we were approached by a producer at ABC Televisions Day One program. We had asked for this briefing because of the importance of Dien Bien Phu and the defeat of the French in setting the stage for Americas beginning involvement in the affairs of the two Vietnams. "I carried the bucket in that conversation. Nov 15, 1992 WASHINGTON Ernie Savage, sergeant 1st class, U.S. Army, retired, was having a hard time of it. The meeting was held outdoors on the shores of one of Hanois seven lakes. Savage assumes command, calls in the artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. There I was with the two most monosyllabic men in the world in the same room, and I sat there between them. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. Terry Wrong told us he would like to make a documentary on the battles and the veterans that would involve taking a group of us back to Vietnam and to the battlefields. He drew a quick map sketch on a paper napkin. WebSelect this result to view Ernie Roy Savage's phone number, address, and more. Command passed to Sergeant Ernie Savage who called in multiple air strikes around the platoons position. (ret.) I had nothing to worry about. | "He didn't have to say a lot -- he just had to show up, and people paid attention. Earnie Savage was a young buck sergeant, an E5, when he met Plumley in 1964. For us this was research, capturing the words and thoughts of these men for history. General Giap is waiting for you at the museum, one of them explained. It was hard to square the image of this small, amiable gray-haired former schoolteacher with the fact that this was the man who, along with the former waiter Nguyen Ai Quoc, a.k.a. WebSergeant Ernie Savage's precise placement of artillery throughout the siege of the "Lost Platoon" enabled the platoon to survive the long ordeal. Ernie Savage, after retiring from the Army, had remained at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a civilian employee helping train Army Reserve soldiers. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. I asked him, 'What's the story about you and a German tank and he just grunted and said, 'Obviously I won.' Sergeant Savage, the 3d Squad leader, now took command. Joining us would be the Day One crew, including anchor Forrest Sawyer and producer Terry Wrong. He was a lot like his reputation; he was gruff and he could be tough, but he wasn't mean. When everything was ready, then, and only thenon March 13, 1954Giap signaled the attack, and this time he would use his tactics, designed for a Vietnamese army, first cutting French supply and reinforcement lines and the vital airstrip with his artillery while the Viet Minh troops closed in on and overran the surrounding French hilltop strongpoints one by one. "He's a real hero, not an actor," I said. Savage assumed command by virtue of being close to the radio and began the process of calling in repeated bombardments of artillery support around the platoon's position. Joe and I were seated with the Vietnamese generals, Man, An and Phuong, whom we now felt we knew well from our previous trips and interviews. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The legendary war correspondent met Plumley in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam -- a place neither thought they would survive. Savage assumes command, calls in the artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. The lights of Hanoi sparkled around the dark lake. Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Sgt. : Our new book, We Are Soldiers Still, tells the story of that journey across the years and miles and a long night spent stranded on a battlefield known as Landing Zone XRay, amid Khmer Rouge guerrillas from nearby Cambodia, tigers and the spirits of those who had fallen there in desperate hand-to-hand fighting in that long-ago November. By early November 1965 three PAVN regiments the 32nd, 33rd and 66th and the H15 Local Force Battalion had been assembled in the area. All this he told us quietly, matter-of-factly, with no hint of bragging or boasting. That support had evaporated and Vietnam was now cautiously searching for another way forward that involved some of the benefits of capitalism, especially foreign investment. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. He attended events at the National Infantry Museum and seemed to fairly tolerate the limelight, such as it was. For all of us the greatest revelations and emotions came that evening, in a floating restaurant built on a barge on Hanois West Lake. Specialist Galen Bungum Dead bodies smell, Bungum. Former helicopter commander Lt. Col. -Excerpt from We Are Soldiers Still by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (USA Ret.) These and the firm stand made by the remaining men pinned down on the knoll, lead to the death of scores of North Vietnamese troops, who never managed to wipe out the platoon. But he said he had grown increasingly worried that such an attack would play into the hands of the French; that his artillery was vulnerable to the big guns of the French, and to launch human-wave attacks would destroy much of the force so carefully built and trained over the last 10 years, with no hope of replacements for the terrible losses he would suffer in such an attack. Command Sergeant Major (ret.) After being refused permission to journey to our old battlefields in the Ia Drang on two previous visits to Vietnam, suddenly in the spring of 1993 the official government objections on grounds of safety and security vanished. The girls, of their own volition, approached the sergeant major to ask for his autograph. To subscribe, click here. You wrote in your book that our men killed your wounded on the battlefield and this is true. "I am so blessed to have had two such men as best friends, as mentors and as role models for almost half a century," said Galloway, who has done more than any other to inspire new generations of Soldiers with the stories of old Soldiers, like Moore and Plumley. Savage assumed command by virtue of being close to the radio and began the process of calling in repeated bombardments of artillery support around the platoon's position. It was a winner-take-all game, and Vo Nguyen Giap would win using Vietnamese tactics, not Chinese tactics. "I don't do interviews. These and the firm stand made by the remaining men pinned down on the knoll, lead to the death of scores of North Vietnamese troops, who never managed to wipe out the platoon. (ret.) Savage didn't frighten easily, but he tended to be overly deferential to anyone "above" him. Ernie is related to Mitchell Ernest Sawasy and Ernie Orest Sawasy as well as 2 additional people. Even more puzzling was the fact that we Americans had paid the tuitionby the end of the French war in Indochina, the United States was financing about 70 percent of the cost of that warbut had not learned the right lessons. Plumley growled. The highway to the capital had been widened, potholes had been repaired, and new homes and shops were being built along the roadside. For his "gallantry under relentless enemy fire on an otherwise insignificant knoll in the valley of the Ia Drang," Ernie Savage received the Distinguished Service Cross. The Vietnamese officer gasped and turned pale: You and your machine gun killed my battalion! Hal Moore, told me that we had to return to Vietnam and to the Ia Drang battlefields. Plumley believed in training to standard, then raising the standard, said Steve Hansen, who served with Plumley in the Ia Drang. Perhaps it wasn't believable enough to pass muster with the masses. WebSgt. WebThe President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Clyde E. Savage (RA14746198), Sergeant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. George Forrest helpfully reached over and added the symbol for machine gun to Bills X marking his position. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. He was huge, and when you saw him, you knew you better get your stuff straight," said Savage, who spent the better part of Monday standing post at Plumley's casket at a funeral home in Columbus. More than 300 American troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and thousands of North Vietnamese Army regulars had perished on that ground in November 1965 in the battles that opened a war that would drag on for 10 long years. "He was the very essence of a command sergeant major. Tucked between pages 220 and 221 of a dog-eared copy of "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" is a receipt from the Fort Benning commissary dated 2001. Any apprehensions we had at such a chance meeting of old enemies were quickly laid to rest as the Vietnamese veterans smiled and held up a hand-lettered sign that read, in English: Welcome American Veterans. I can smell them creeping up on us. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Joe and I had talked through our feelings about these meetings with our old enemies on the earlier trips. Instead he ordered his artillery pieces pulled back to the reverse slopes of the mountaintops, and the laborers began burrowing through the earth and rock to construct impregnable gun positions where they could fire on the French below and then swiftly pull the guns back into the mountain itself. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. Change was in the air. Ernie is related to Mitchell Ernest Sawasy and Ernie Orest Sawasy as well as 2 additional people. | Ernie Savage : Good morning, Sergeant Major. I am glad I did not kill you. Stunned, all I could do was nod and think to myself: Me, too, colonel. Copyright 2008 by Joseph Galloway and General Hal Moore. They were agitated and rushed us through the formalities in a matter of minutes. "We all thought he was hatched a sergeant major, and here he was in black and white, a first sergeant. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. WebSgt. | Ernie Savage, after retiring from the Army, had remained at Fort Benning, Georgia, as a civilian employee helping train Army Reserve soldiers. "He was the very essence of a command sergeant major. The actor "under played" the sergeant major, said Galloway, who introduced the two after Elliott had been cast as Plumley. Published by arrangement with Harper Collins Publishers. Their wheelchairs were crude and decrepit, as were the prosthetics replacing their missing arms and legs. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. Oddly enough, that scene never made it into the movie. Former B Company 1-7 Cavalry Sgt. At the outset of the Peloponnesian War the Athenian-allied city-state came under attack from the same Greek forces that a half century earlier had driven off Persian invaders. You killed my best friend. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. : We landed at Hanois airport on October 13, 1993, an hour behind schedule, and were met by our Vietnamese minders as we stepped off the plane. Giap led the way to a large room in back where a huge 20-by-30-foot sand-table exhibit depicted in full detail the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, the scene of his greatest victory over the French in 1954. The girls bounded back smiling, with Plumley's signature scrawled across the back of my register receipt. On the sidewalk in front, four new businesses were in operation selling trinkets, tea and cakes, tins of Russian caviar, and bottles of brandy. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them. The second best result is Ernie Sawasy age 80+ in Woodland Hills, CA in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. Matt Dillon Clark Gregg Capt. Giap had told us earlier that if we Americans had studied the lessons clear for all to see in the wake of Dien Bien Phu, we would never have come here. For his "gallantry under relentless enemy fire on an otherwise insignificant knoll in the valley of the Ia Drang," Ernie Savage received the Distinguished Service Cross. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. WebSergeant Savage was serving as squad leader in the 2d Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), on 14 November 1965, when it was attacked by a hostile force which consisted of approximately two companies. We always knew the value of prisoners. Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? It was quiet on the bus as each of us turned to his own thoughts about the dinner and our trip south to the Ia Drang in the morning. It was clear to us that our book about the battles had opened the hearts of these Vietnamese generals and it was that, and our determination to get and tell their side of the story as honestly as we could, that had opened the door to this journey back to our old battlefields. Tony Nadal Jon Hamm Capt. Others listened quietly but tensely to the explanations of the North Vietnamese officers that their troops had no choice but to kill wounded Americans they found as they searched the battlefield at night for their own wounded and dead. You wrote that our soldiers fought and died bravely in battle, and for that we thank you. Snatching the artilleryman's radio, he began calling in and adjusting artillery fire. Snatching the artilleryman's radio, he began calling in and adjusting artillery fire. I never knew him to be mean.". | Army Organic Industrial Base Modernization Implementation Plan, Army leadership meets with privatized housing partner CEOs, October 2017 Nominative Sergeants Major Assignments, May 2017 Nominative Sergeants Major Assignments, Pentagon Hall of Heroes Induction Ceremony for Lt. Col. Charles S. Kettles, Signal regiment honors Hollywood director. , with no hint of bragging or boasting can take advantage sergeant ernie savage vietnam them Forrest helpfully reached and. 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