Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
name	We Were Soldiers
director	Randall Wallace
writer	Hal MooreJoseph L. Galloway (book)Randall Wallace (screenplay)
starring	Mel GibsonMadeleine StoweSam ElliottGreg KinnearChris KleinKeri RussellBarry Pepper
producer	Arne L. SchmidtJim LemleyRandall Wallace
music	Nick Glennie-Smith
studio	Icon Productions
distributor	Paramount Pictures (US)Icon Film Distribution (International)
released
runtime	138 minutes
country
language	English
budget	$75 million
gross	$114,660,784 }}

''We Were Soldiers'' is a 2002 American war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965 — the first major engagement of the United States Army in the Vietnam War. The film 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, both of whom were at the battle.

Plot

A French Foreign Legion unit is on patrol in Vietnam in 1954 during the First Indochina War. The captain of the patrol curses the land when they see nothing. Then, the unit is suddenly ambushed by Vietminh forces who kill the officers and, although the unit kills many enemies it is soon overrun. Nguyen Huu An (Don Duong), hypothesising that if they take no prisoners the French will eventually stop sending troops, orders the execution of all surviving French soldiers.

Eleven years later, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson), a dedicated U.S. soldier, is deeply committed to training his troops, troopers of 7th Cavalry Regiment, who are preparing to be sent to Vietnam. He is disquieted because the 7th Cavalry regiment was the unit commanded by General George Custer in the 19th Century when he and his men were slaughtered at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Moore is also dismayed because President Lyndon B. Johnson has decreed that the war would be fought "on the cheap," without declaring it a national emergency. As a result, Moore believes he will be deprived 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 out for Vietnam. Before leaving for Vietnam, Moore delivers a touching speech to his unit:

"Look around you. In the 7th Cavalry, we got a Captain from the Ukraine. Another from Puerto Rico. We got Japanese, Chinese, Blacks, Hispanics, Cherokee Indian, Jews and Gentiles -- all American. Now here in the States some men in this unit may experience discrimination because of race or creed, but for you and me now, all that is gone. We're moving into the valley of the shadow of death, where you will watch the back of the man next to you, as he will watch yours, and you won't care what color he is or by what name he calls God. Let us understand the situation; we're going into battle against a tough and determined enemy. I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive, but this I swear, before you and before Almighty God: when we go into battle, 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 will all come home together. So help me God."

After arriving in Vietnam, he learns that an American base has been attacked, and is ordered to take his 400 men after the enemy and eliminate them, despite the fact that intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. He leads a newly created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. After landing in the "Valley of Death", the soldiers capture a North Vietnamese Army lookout who informs them that the location they were sent to is actually the Base camp of an entire North Vietnamese Army division over 4,000 men.

Upon arrival, 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick spots a scout, and runs after him, ordering his reluctant soldiers to follow. The scout lures them into an ambush, resulting in the majority of the platoon members' deaths, including Herrick's. The platoon becomes surrounded with no chance of retreat. Sgt. Savage assumes command of the platoon and by calling in artillery and using the cover of darkness, holds off the Vietnamese from their small defensive position. With helicopters constantly dropping off the Calvary units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the Vietnamese can take advantage of it. An emotional toll is taken back home, where Moore's wife Julie (Madeleine Stowe) and another Lieutenant's wife, Barbara Geoghegan (Keri Russell), take over the job of delivering telegrams that inform families (mainly wives like themselves) living at Fort Benning, Georgia, the unit's base of operation, of soldiers' deaths.

On the second day, despite being trapped near the landing zone, and desperately outnumbered, the main force manages to hold off the Vietnamese with artillery, mortars, and helicopter lifts of supplies and reinforcements. Eventually, enemy commander Nguyen Huu An orders a large scale attack to completely overrun the American position. At the point of breaking, Moore calls in the last resort "Broken Arrow" (an air-strike on their own position), killing some of their own soldiers but eliminating most of the Vietnamese offensive force. The stranded platoon led by Savage are eventually rescued after the Vietnamese forces are repelled. The American troops regroup, secure the area and charge up the mountain where the Vietnamese division headquarters is located. The Vietnamese have set up strong defense emplacements near the hidden entrance of the underground passage to the command post spoken of by the scout. Hal and his men charge right at them, into a seemingly impending massacre, but before the Vietnamese can fire, Major Bruce "Snakeshit" Crandall (Greg Kinnear) flies in with his helicopter and strafes the Vietnamese, destroying the bulk of the enemy defense.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Huu An the Vietnamese Commander is alerted that the Americans have broken through the lines, and since head mobilized all his remaining forces for the planned attack, the Base camp has no troops to call upon. He orders the headquarters evacuated. Later, Nguyen Huu An and some remaining soldiers collect the dead remains of his men. Moore, having completed his objective, returns to the L.Z. to be picked up, and, after all of his men, dead or alive, are removed from the battlefield, steps on to a helicopter and flies out of the valley. At the end of the movie it is revealed that the Landing Zone immediately reverted to North Vietnamese hands after the American troops were airlifted out. Hal Moore continued part two of the battle in a different landing zone, and after nearly a year he returned home safely. His superiors congratulated him for killing over 1800 NVA& Viet Cong soldiers. The film ends with an elderly Moore visiting the Vietnam war memorial, and a listing of the soldiers who fell at Ia Drang.

Reception

The movie received mixed to fairly positive reviews. Roger Ebert from the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 4 and praised the movie's battle scenes and how the movie follows the characters.

''"Black Hawk Down" was criticized because the characters seemed hard to tell apart. "We Were Soldiers" doesn't have that problem; in the Hollywood tradition it identifies a few key players, casts them with stars, and follows their stories.''

Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a B and noted the film's fair treatment of both sides.

"''The writer-director bestows honor -- generously, apolitically -- not only on the dead and still living American veterans who fought in Ia Drang, but also on their families, on their Vietnamese adversaries, and on the families of their adversaries too. Rarely has a foe been portrayed with such measured respect for a separate reality, which should come as a relief to critics (I'm one) of the enemy's facelessness in ''Black Hawk Down''; vignettes of gallantry among Vietnamese soldiers and such humanizing visual details as a Vietnamese sweetheart's photograph left behind in no way interfere with the primary, rousing saga of a fine American leader who kept his promise to his men to "leave no one behind dead or alive."''

David Sterritt from the ''Christian Science Monitor'' criticized the movie for giving a more positive image of the Vietnam War that, in his opinion, did not concur with reality.

''"The films about Vietnam that most Americans remember are positively soaked in physical and emotional torment - from "Platoon," with its grunt's-eye view of combat, to "Apocalypse Now," with its exploration of war's dehumanizing insanity. Today, the pendulum has swung back again. If filmmakers with politically twisted knives once sliced away guts-and-glory clichés, their current equivalents hack away all meaningful concern with moral and political questions. We Were Soldiers" is shameless in this regard, filling the screen with square-jawed officers who weep at carnage and fresh-faced GIs who use their last breaths to intone things like, "I'm glad I died for my country."''

Todd McCarthy from ''Variety'' said the film ''"presents the fighting realistically, violently and relatively coherently given the chaotic circumstances...".'' McCarthy further said ''"Mel Gibson has the closest thing to a John Wayne part that anyone's played since the Duke himself rode into the sunset, and he plays it damn well."'' He summarized with ''"Gibson's performance anchors the film with commanding star power to burn. This officer truly loves his men, and the credibility with which the actor is able to express Moore's leadership qualities as well as his sensitive side is genuinely impressive."''

Hal Moore, who had long been critical of many Vietnam War films for their negative portrayals of American servicemen, publicly expressed approval of the film and is featured in segments of the DVD. Some soldiers were less pleased: Retired Col Rick Rescorla, who plays an important role in the book, and whose photo is on the cover, was disappointed after reading the script to learn that he and his unit had been written out of the movie. In one key incident, the finding of a vintage French bugle on a dying Vietnamese soldier, Rescorla is replaced by a nameless ''Welsh''—not Cornish—platoon leader. Rescorla would not live to see the release of the movie however as he was killed during the September 11 attacks.

Cast

Mel Gibson - Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel Hal Moore

Madeleine Stowe - Julia Moore

Taylor Momsen - Julie Moore

Luke Benward - David Moore

Greg Kinnear - Major Bruce "Snakeshit" Crandall

Sam Elliott - Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley

Chris Klein - 2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan

Keri Russell - Barbara Geoghegan

Barry Pepper - Joe Galloway

Don Duong - Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huu An

Ryan Hurst - Sergeant Ernie Savage

Robert Bagnell - 1st Lieutenant Charlie Hastings

Marc Blucas - 2nd Lieutenant Henry Herrick

Josh Daugherty - Sp4. Robert Ouellette

Jsu Garcia - Captain Tony Nadal

Jon Hamm - Captain Matt Dillon

Desmond Harrington - Sp4. Bill Beck

Blake Heron - Sp4. Galen Bungum

Clark Gregg - Captain Tom Metsker

Erik MacArthur - Sp4. Russell Adams

Dylan Walsh - Captain Robert Edwards

Mark McCracken - Captain Ed "Too Tall" Freeman

Edwin Morrow - Private First Class Willie Godboldt

Brian Tee - Private First Class Jimmy Nakayama

Sloane Momsen - Cecile Moore

Bellamy Young - Catherine Metsker

Simbi Khali - Alma Givens

See also

Battle of Ia Drang

''We Were Soldiers Once… And Young''

Hal Moore

Basil L. Plumley

John Geoghegan

1st Cavalry Division

Bruce Crandall

Ed Freeman

Footnotes

External links

Category:2002 films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:2000s drama films Category:Battle of Ia Drang Category:Epic films Category:Films based on non-fiction books Category:Films set in the 1960s Category:Films shot anamorphically Category:Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Icon Productions films Category:Paramount Pictures films Category:Vietnam War films Category:War drama films Category:War epic films Category:War films based on actual events

bg:Бяхме войници de:Wir waren Helden es:We Were Soldiers fr:Nous étions soldats hr:Bili smo vojnici it:We Were Soldiers - Fino all'ultimo uomo he:חיילים היינו nl:We Were Soldiers ja:ワンス・アンド・フォーエバー no:We Were Soldiers pl:Byliśmy żołnierzami pt:We Were Soldiers ru:Мы были солдатами (фильм) sr:Били смо војници sh:We Were Soldiers fi:Olimme sotilaita sv:We Were Soldiers vi:Chúng tôi từng là lính zh:勇士們

Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
Name	Harold G. Moore
Birth date	February 13, 1922
Placeofburial label	Place of burial
Nickname	Hal
Allegiance
Branch
Serviceyears	1945-1977
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment 7th Infantry Division Fort Ord Army Training Center Military Personnel Records Center
Battles	World War IIKorean WarVietnam War*Battle of Ia Drang
Awards	Distinguished Service CrossArmy Distinguished Service MedalLegion of MeritBronze Star (4, of which 2 for valor)Air Medal (9)
Relations	Julia Compton Moore
Laterwork	AuthorExecutive Vice-President of the Crested Butte Ski Area, Colorado}}

Harold Gregory "Hal" Moore, Jr. (born February 13, 1922) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army and author. Moore is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, which is the second highest military decoration of the United States Army, and was the first of his West Point class (1945) to be promoted to brigadier general, major general, and lieutenant general.

He is best known as the Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, at the Battle of Ia Drang, in 1965 during the Vietnam War; today, he is the "honorary colonel" of the Regiment.

Biography

In Bardstown, Kentucky, Moore's chances of obtaining an appointment to West Point were reduced due to the demographics of the area. Moore therefore moved to Washington, D.C., where he completed his high school education, and attended George Washington University for two years before receiving his appointment from a Georgia congressman in 1942 (despite having never before been to Georgia). He graduated from West Point in 1945 and attended graduate studies at George Washington and Harvard universities, obtaining a master's degree in international relations from the latter.

Moore was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1945. He served with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment in Japan from 1945 until 1948. In 1948 he was re-assigned to Fort Bragg. While with the 82nd Airborne Division, he volunteered to join the Airborne Test Section, a special unit testing experimental parachutes, and he made some 150 jumps with the Section over the next two years.

In 1952 Moore was assigned to the 17th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division as a Captain in the Korean War. While in Korea, he commanded both a rifle company and a heavy mortar company in combat. He next served as Regimental and then Divisional Assistant Chief-of-Staff, Operations and Plans.

In 1954, Moore returned to West Point, this time as a Major, and served for three years as an instructor in infantry tactics. While serving as an instructor at West Point, Moore taught then-Cadet Norman Schwarzkopf, who called Moore one of his "heroes," and cites Moore as the reason he chose the infantry branch upon graduation. Schwarzkopf later became a general and led the UN Coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War against the Ba'athist Iraq.

Moore next attended the Command and General Staff College, followed by a three-year tour in the Office, Chief of Research and Development where his initiative and insights were key to the development of new airborne equipment and airborne/air assault tactics. Following graduation from the Armed Forces Staff College in 1960 Moore served a three-year tour with Headquarters, Allied Forces Northern Europe in Oslo, Norway.

In 1964, Lieutenant Colonel Moore completed the course of study at the National War College, while earning a master's degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. Moore was transferred to Fort Benning and commanded a battalion in the 11th Air Assault Division, undergoing air assault and air mobility training and tests until July 1965, when the Division was redesignated the 1st Cavalry Division.

Lieutenant Colonel Moore then took his unit: the 1st Battalion, 7th U.S. Cavalry (then in the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division) to South Vietnam, and led it in the famous Battle of Ia Drang. Encircled by enemy soldiers with no clear landing zone (LZ) that would allow them to leave, Moore managed to persevere despite overwhelming odds that led to a sister battalion only two-and-a-half miles away being massacred the next day. Moore's dictum that "there is always one more thing you can do to increase your odds of success" and the courage of his entire command are credited with this astounding outcome. Importantly, despite the fact that Moore's spirited defense led to more than a 4-to-1 ratio between North Vietnamese casualties and U.S. casualties in their first major engagement of the war, Moore considers the battle a draw because the U.S. forces left the area, allowing the North Vietnamese to reassert control. Many consider this early battle a microcosm of the later war. Moore was known as "Yellow Hair" to his troops at the battle at Ia Drang, for his blonde hair, and as a tongue-in-cheek homage referencing George Armstrong Custer, commander of the same unit (7th Cavalry) at the Battle of the Little Bighorn just under a century before.

After Vietnam, Moore served as Assistant Chief-of-Staff, Operations and Plans of the Eighth Army in South Korea, and Commanding General of the 7th Infantry Division, before rotating back stateside. As Commanding General of the Army Training Center at Fort Ord, California in 1971-1973, he oversaw extensive experimentation in adapting basic and advanced individual training under Project VOLAR in preparation for the end of conscription and the institution of the Modern Volunteer Army. His final assignments took him to the East Coast, as Commanding General of the Military Personnel Records Center, and finally, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Department of the Army.

After his retirement in 1977, Moore served as the Executive President of the Crested Butte Ski Area, Colorado. In June 2009, the 87-year-old Moore attended the formal opening of the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia. One of the featured exhibits of the museum is a life-size diorama of LZ X-Ray from the Battle of Ia Drang. In 2010 Moore was a signatory to the "1000+ Flag & General Officers Affirm Law on Gays," which opposes proposed changes in rules concerning gays serving in the US military.

Family

Hal Moore and his late wife, Julia Compton Moore, have five children and numerous grandchildren. Two of their sons are career Army officers: one a retired Lieutenant Colonel and another an active duty Colonel.

Books

In 1975, the United States Army Center of Military History published ''Building a Volunteer Army: The Fort Ord Contribution'', by Moore and Lieutenant Colonel Jeff M. Tuten. The 139-page paperback is a monograph concerning the Project VOLAR experiments during Moore's tenure in command of Fort Ord in 1971-1973 in preparation for the end of the draft and the implementation of the Modern Volunteer Army.

In 1992 Hal wrote ''We Were Soldiers Once… And Young'' with co-author Joseph L. Galloway. The book was adapted into the 2002 film ''We Were Soldiers'', which was filmed at Forts Benning and Hunter Liggett, depicting Moore's command of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, at Fort Benning and in the Battle of Ia Drang. In the film, Moore was played by Mel Gibson, while Galloway was portrayed by Barry Pepper.

Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway have co-authored another book together, a follow-up to their highly successful first collaboration. ''We Are Soldiers Still; A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam'' was highly anticipated and published in 2008.

Major awards, decorations and badges

{| |- | align=center | |Combat Infantryman Badge (2 awards) |- | align=center | |Basic Army Aviator Badge |- | align=center | |Master Parachutist Badge (United States) |- | align=center | |Original Air Assault Badge |- | align=center | |Vietnam Parachutist Badge |- | |Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge |- | align=center | |Army Staff Identification Badge |- | align=center | |1st Cavalry Division Shoulder Sleeve Insignia |- |} {| |- | |Distinguished Service Cross |- | |Army Distinguished Service Medal |- | |Legion of Merit (with two bronze oak leaf clusters) |- | |Bronze Star (four awards, including two for valor) |- | |Air Medal with one silver and three bronze Oak Leaf Clusters in lieu of Numeral 9 |- | |Joint Service Commendation Medal |- | |Army Commendation Medal (with two bronze oak leaf clusters) |- | |American Campaign Medal |- | |Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal |- | |World War II Victory Medal |- | |Army of Occupation Medal |- | |National Defense Service Medal with one Service Star |- | |Korean Service Medal with three bronze campaign stars |- | |Vietnam Service Medal with three bronze campaign stars |- | |Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal |- | |Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm (three awards) |- | |United Nations Service Medal for Korea |- | |Vietnam Campaign Medal |- | |Republic of Korea War Service Medal |- | |Army Presidential Unit Citation |- | |Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation |- | |Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm (two awards) |- {| Order of Saint Maurice by the National Infantry Association Distinguished Graduate Award from the West Point Association of Graduates

Hal Moore is a 2007 recipient of the Joe Ronnie Hooper Award.

|}

References

External links

Interview on ''We Were Soldiers Once...And Young''

Interview on ''We Are Soldiers Still''

Gathering of Eagles biography

Category:1923 births Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American military personnel of the Korean War Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American military writers Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Battle of Ia Drang Category:George Washington University alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Nelson County, Kentucky Category:Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal Category:Recipients of the Combat Infantryman Badge Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Recipients of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:United States Army generals Category:United States Military Academy alumni

bg:Харолд Мур de:Harold G. Moore es:Hal Moore it:Harold Gregory Moore he:הרולד מור no:Harold G. Moore pt:Hal Moore ru:Мур, Гарольд Грегори sl:Hal Moore sv:Hal Moore vi:Harold G. Moore