WebSergeant Ernie Savage assumed command after Sergeant's Palmer and Stokes were killed. Former C Company 2-7 Cavalry clerk Jack Smith, after his two years as an Army draftee, went back to college and drifted into television news as an on-air correspondent for ABC, a job that his father, the broadcast pioneer Howard K. Smith, had held. General Giap is waiting for you at the museum, one of them explained. For us this was research, capturing the words and thoughts of these men for history. So was he. "He's a real hero, not an actor," I said. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. That evening, I tucked it into the book for safe keeping, and there it stayed until last week, when I learned that Plumley died Oct. 10 at the Columbus Hospice after a short battle with cancer. Nov 15, 1992 WASHINGTON Ernie Savage, sergeant 1st class, U.S. Army, retired, was having a hard time of it. Former A Company 1-7 Cavalry assistant machine gunner Bill Beck, after completing his two-year tour as a draftee, went back to being a commercial artist. They have also lived in Altadena, CA and Pasadena, CA. Ours was not the only fascinating talk going on that evening. 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. I am godfather of his daughter and only last month I married her off. Twelve were wounded. Specialist Galen Bungum His voice kept choking up and the words just wouldn't come. Ernie is related to Mitchell Ernest Sawasy and Ernie Orest Sawasy as well as 2 additional people. 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. Command ultimately fell to Ernie Savage, who led the platoon through the rest of the battle. George Forrest retired from the Army, coached basketball at his alma mater in Maryland for a time and then became director of a program designed to keep disadvantaged minority youngsters in high school. Ernie Savage He knew that the French commander was betting everything he had on a victory at Dien Bien Phu. "It wasn't just his reputation, the sergeant major was literally bigger than life. "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. Change was in the air. Command had fallen to a 21-year-old buck sergeant, Ernie Savage of Birmingham, Alabama. Joseph L. Galloway. By early November 1965 three PAVN regiments the 32nd, 33rd and 66th and the H15 Local Force Battalion had been assembled in the area. He welcomed them as fellow soldiers to a Vietnam now at peace. "It had too much Hollywood in it. This ancient Red River Delta capital was bustling and busy where it had been quiet and somnolent on our previous two trips. Some, like former-soldier-turned-journalist Jack Smith, expressed their feelings in the early discussions with the enemy commanders. Command ultimately fell to Ernie Savage, who led the platoon through the rest of the battle. He fought with then-Lt Col. Hal Moore in the Battle of Ia Drang, which was the first major Battle of the Vietnam War involving US Troops. And at 6 feet, 6 inches, Plumley towered over the young Soldier. WebSergeant Ernie Savage's precise placement of artillery throughout the siege of the "Lost Platoon" enabled the platoon to survive the long ordeal. 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. It was clear that there had been major changes since our last two visits to Hanoi. Savage didn't frighten easily, but he tended to be overly deferential to anyone "above" him. This is not very easy for me. Beck, whose memory of those terrible hours alone on that machine gun mowing down waves of attacking North Vietnamese is photographic, and whose nightmares linger to this day, responded simply and quietly: It isnt very easy for me either.. 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. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. "He was all about PT and conditioning, but he'd do everything he expected us to do. The legendary war correspondent met Plumley in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam -- a place neither thought they would survive. "You'd hear him up front yelling, 'Awright dammit, pick it up back there,'" Savage said. with old Army buddies. 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. But we want you to know that we never gave such orders. How could we pass them by when they were still armed and might shoot us? asked one of the enemy generals. He was laid to rest with Deurice in the Main Post Cemetery. The men chosen to make this trip were all old friends and comrades. Command passed to Sergeant Ernie Savage who called in multiple air strikes around the platoons position. I had nothing to worry about. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Without hesitation, Sergeant Major Plumley ran to the stacks and with his bare hands reached into the grenade boxes and grabbed the flare. "When we left there, Sam said 'Joe, I think I'm going to try to talk like the sergeant major.' ", https://www.historynet.com/back-ia-drang/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot. Bill explained that he had been way out front, guarding the American flank next to the dry creek bed. WebSelect this result to view Ernie Roy Savage's phone number, address, and more. Any serious study of our war in Vietnam has to begin with the French war; and those were the books I read on the troopship that brought my battalion to South Vietnam in the summer of 1965. Copyright 2008 by Joseph Galloway and General Hal Moore. | | : Ernie Savage : Good morning, Sergeant Major. Former helicopter commander Lt. Col.
The second best result is Ernie Sawasy age 80+ in Woodland Hills, CA in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. Sgt.
Earnie Savage was a young buck sergeant, an E5, when he met Plumley in 1964. "Who made you the (expletive) weatherman?" No one should have survived all that," said Joe Galloway, who co-authored the book with retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore in 1992. Now the Vietnamese generals pulled closer to the table. General Phuong, the historian, spoke for them all. He fought in more than 20 military operations during his 32-year military career, having enlisted on March 31, 1942, as a private after two years of high school. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. Maj. Plumley, but he isn't nearly as tough on sins small or large," or some version there of, is commonly used in any discussion involving the man, and it was so long before his death and long before the movie. '", Elliot and Plumley were "two peas in a pod," Galloway said, but "the sergeant major, in life, was bigger than Sam Elliott. In April 2001, the smoke had finally settled from the exodus of the film crew, the stars and cameras and hangers on who descended on Fort Benning earlier that year to film Hollywood's adaptation of We Were Soldiers. 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. But when I approached him in person, after the screening of We Were Soldiers at the theater on Main Post, he offered this much. It lodged in a box of hand grenades, burning fiercely. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. Plumley was witty without effort and never long-winded, Savage said. (ret.) Sergeant Major Basil Plumley : How do you know what kind of goddamn day it is? leaving Sgt. As an offensive measure, Sergeant Savage led his squad and attacked one of the hostile squads. During WWII, he fought in the Allied invasion at Salerno and the D Day invasion at Normandy, and he made four combat jumps with the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion. 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. "He was a man of few words and a humble man; a lot of people don't realize that about him. Sgt. Savage assumes command, calls in the artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. He then stomped out the grass fires touched off by the flares in and around the ammo crates.". Change did not end there. WebBy 1964 North Vietnam had established the B3 Front in the central highlands of South Vietnam. That's all I want to say.". He was there; the Politburo was not. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. You wrote that our soldiers fought and died bravely in battle, and for that we thank you. WebSergeant Ernie Savage assumed command after Sergeant's Palmer and Stokes were killed. At the end of that first day, eight of the platoons 27 men were dead. Sergeant Ernie Savage : Dead bodies smell, Bungum. 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. The death of Communism and the old Soviet Union had clearly had a salutary effect on a nation that had once been an important client state and the recipient of much Soviet assistance. Just one paragraph out of 430 pages -- a succinct account, unembellished, that encapsulates the character of a man who was larger than life long before his character hit the big screen. "He said the (1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment) was the best unit he'd ever been in, the best trained," Savage said. Former A Company 1-7 Cavalry assistant machine gunner Bill Beck, after completing his two-year tour as a draftee, went back to being a commercial artist. 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. By early November 1965 three PAVN regiments the 32nd, 33rd and 66th and the H15 Local Force Battalion had been assembled in the area. The fighting was hand-to-hand, and our wounded and your wounded were mixed together. (ret.) Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them.
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Stunned, all I could do was nod and think to myself: Me, too, colonel. Tom Metsker Desmond Harrington Sp4 Bill Beck Blake Heron Sp4 Galen Bungum Erik MacArthur Sp4 Russell Adams Director Randall Wallace Writers (ret.) Official Sites (ret.) 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 : Good morning, Sergeant Major. 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. The three became fast friends and remained close for nearly 50 years. At the museum, with its welcoming array of gray-and-green-painted cannons, antiaircraft guns, and old Russian tanks, we were welcomed by a smiling General Giap. 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