"Ordered to Vietnam. . ." Part III

by W. Michael McMunn
(Copyright 1996, All Rights Reserved)

While the fight at LZ X-Ray could be described as a United States victory the battle at LZ Albany was a debacle. If measured in terms of casualties inflicted on the enemy then the Ia Drang campaign was surely a victory for the Americans. General Westmoreland quickly flew to Pleiku, received a briefing and described the battles in the Ia Drang to the American people in those terms. The North Vietnamese acknowledged later that they had suffered over three thousand soldiers killed during the campaign. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McDade would continue to lead the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry until March 1966.

The battles of Landing Zones X-Ray and Albany were but preludes to the type of war that the Unites States military would continue to wage in Vietnam. Over and over the military used the infantry as bait to lure the enemy into a fight where they could then employ the overwhelming strength of American artillery and air support to become the deciding factor between victory and defeat and inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. General Westmoreland continued to believe that his strategy of killing more VC and NVA than the Revolutionary Forces could replenish would eventually result in an Allied victory. The United States would use this strategy repeatedly throughout the duration of the Second Indochina War against a determined enemy whose convictions would not allow defeat in a war of attrition. The North Vietnamese also learned some valuable lessons during their fight with the Americans in the Ia Drang. One of those lessons was that overwhelming American air and artillery superiority could be effectively countered by engaging the Americans at close range and controlling when contact would be broken.

As for the 1st Cavalry Division, it would go on to be the only division to operate in all four tactical zones of Vietnam, plus Cambodia, and to have elements assigned in-country for an unprecedented 2,056 days, longer than any other American division. Among its other campaigns would be Masher/White Wing, Paul Revere II, Irving Thayer II, Pershing and Pershing II and Jeb Stuart.

Back home in North Central Pennsylvania most families were busy making preparations for the coming Thanksgiving holiday and the upcoming hunting season. The beautiful, bright colors of autumn were gone, replaced by the monochrome of leafless trees on the hillsides. Now the farmers began to relax, check for signs of deer, choose a good site for their tree stands and, overall, get ready to go into those same woods for white-tailed deer. They had already harvested and put most of the corn crops into corn cribs; silage had been put into the tall silos next to the barns. However, because of the battle of the Ia Drang Valley, hundreds of families throughout the nation were beginning to receive news of the horrible events that had taken place in Vietnam and would soon overtake their lives. Holidays, work and hunting would become the least of their interests in the coming weeks and years. Americans would now turn their attention to burying their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers of their children. Hundreds of shiny aluminum coffins were beginning to arrive and be unloaded at Travis Air Force Base in northern California. Hundreds of telegrams were being sent to the families of the dead notifying them that "The Secretary of the Army regrets. . ." Vicki Mae Brown, who lived with her mother in nearby Orangeville, received her telegram after midnight. According to the Berwick Enterprise the telegram had arrived in Bloomsburg before midnight and there had been some difficulty in finding her home. The paper also reported that she was near collapse when informed of her husband's death.

For the first time since the Korean War Americans were seeing the crumpled bodies of young men on the front pages of their newspapers and on their television screens at supper time. The hometown newspapers of the day (locally The Bloomsburg Morning Press and the Berwick Enterprise) carried news of the deaths of Ralph Brown and Donald Crane on their front pages. This was early in the war when combat deaths were regularly reported in newspapers of all size but in small towns, such as these, news of local young men dying in Vietnam remained front page news throughout the duration of the war. In November 1965 Brown was only the second Columbia County soldier to die in action, the first having perished only one month before. Interestingly, although both men were from a small geographical area neither newspaper linked the fact that they had served together in the same unit and had died together on the same small plot of ground in the Ia Drang Valley. The story of Ralph Brown's death appeared in the November 19 edition of the Berwick Enterprise and the November 20 issue of the Morning Press featured a large front page photograph of him. The Berwick newspaper did not report Donald Crane's death until November 22. Sadly, Crane's name was misspelled "Craine" in the caption beneath his picture when it appeared on the front page of the Bloomsburg Morning Press and the article was inaccurate in the date of his entry onto active duty. Small articles appeared (again days apart) in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and the Grit, a weekly newspaper published in Williamsport. Articles reporting their funerals appeared a column apart in the Berwick Enterprise, yet no connection was made of their being in the same military unit when they were killed.

In yet another rite, one that was being carried out with increasing frequency throughout the United States, the bodies of both men were returned to Pennsylvania by airplane and train accompanied by a uniformed escort of the United States Army. On the cold and windy afternoon of Sunday, December 5, 1965 Ralph W. Brown was buried with full military honors following a service at the Salem E.U.B. Church in Unityville, Pennsylvania. The Bloomsburg Morning Press estimated that about 200 persons attended the funeral and that many automobiles passing by on the adjoining road stopped to observe the ceremony. Members of the Millville American Legion Post carried Brown's casket. An honor guard from the Army's Indiantown Gap Military Reservation rendered an eighteen-gun salute and "Taps." He was buried in the hilltop cemetery about 100 yards from the simple white country church. A large tombstone marks his grave noting the fact that he had been killed in action in Vietnam. Having sold their farm in Columbia County, Ralph's family had moved to Essington, Pennsylvania shortly before he entered the service. His wife, Vicki, would later remarry but in 1980 she would die of a heart attack at the young age of thirty-five. She was buried next to Ralph.

Ralph Brown was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, The Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with "V" device, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Vietnamese Military Merit Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm.

Donald E. Crane's wake was held on the same evening as Ralph Brown's burial. Donald's burial took place on the afternoon of Monday, December 6. They held services at the Zofcin Funeral Home in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania about 20 miles from the location of Ralph Brown's grave. The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War Posts from Shickshinny provided the color guard. A firing squad and a bugler from the tiny, nearby Red Rock Air Force Base participated in rendering full military honors. He was laid to rest in the small Sorber Cemetery at Reyburn, outside Shickshinny. During his time in the United States Army he had been awarded the following medals and decorations: the Bronze Star with "V" device, the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnamese Military Merit Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm and a number of weapons qualifications awards. His father was presented with the flag which draped his coffin.

For the Crane family 1965 had been a particularly tragic year. Earlier in the year Donald's mother died at the age of forty-four. Donald had been unable to attend his mother's funeral due to the buildup of forces for Vietnam. Now he joined her in death: Donald was buried next to the grave of his mother. His grave is marked by a simple, flat, white government marker noting that he died in Vietnam, had been a member of "CO D, 7 CAV, 1 CAV DIV" and that he had received the Purple Heart.

Before serious research began on this story the author believed that (given the fact that the men were about a year apart in age and their addresses were close to one another) they might have been boyhood friends who had joined the Army together on the "buddy" system. In the end the facts were that, although they had lived near to each other before going to war, it is unlikely that Brown and Crane knew each other before they became members of the mortar platoon of Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Division. Ironically, they left Pennsylvania for military service within weeks of one another and, tragically, they had returned home to the peaceful valley within days of one another.

The casualties at LZ's X-Ray and Albany would not be the first nor the last of the Vietnam War. Tragically, they would only foretell the deaths of over 56,000 more American men and women in southeast Asia.

The names of the men who died in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965 can be found etched on the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Panel 3-East. Casualties whose names appear on "The Wall" are listed alphabetically by their date of death. Ralph Wayne Brown's name is on Line 71; Donald Ellis Crane's name is on Line 73. We remember them, along with the other men of the 1st Cavalry Division, for their courage, their dedication and their devotion to their families and country.

EPILOGUE

In the spring of 2002 a major motion picture "We Were Soldiers", based upon the Moore-Galloway book was released in theatres. The story depicted in the film centered on the battle at LZ X-Ray. It ended right where the tragic story of D Company, 2nd of the 7th Cavalry begins: when they relieved the troops who had fought at X-Ray the day before their fateful march to LX Albany.

Seeking to have Ralph Brown and Donald Crane remembered in their own community efforts were made to contact the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise newspaper. On March 31, 2002, Easter Sunday, a front page story appeared recounting their stories. The article was well received in the community.

In the background James Bowen, a boyhood friend of Ralph Brown, was laboring on an effort of his own. Jim had served a pre-deployment tour with the 1st Cav. He had already been discharged from the Army when he received word of the death of his friend. He had never forgotten Ralph or the other Cavalrymen over the intervening years and contacted local school officials about an appropriate memorial. Along with the Military Order of the Purple Heart a beautiful plaque was fashioned to pay honor to both Ralph Brown and Donald Crane. Bowen credited Chic Thackara, a wounded World War II combat veteran from Bloomsburg with initiating the project.

On Saturday, July 6, 2002, under a warm sun, with the plaque standing on a flag-draped table, a short memorial ceremony was held at the Bloomsburg Fair Grounds. The ceremony was attended by members of the public and several surviving members of the Brown family, including his children Kelley Brown Hamilton and John Brown. Michael Slease of the Augusta Regiment of Pennsylvania's Provincial 3rd Battalion, a French and Indian War re-enactor group, spoke movingly of the lives and deaths of Ralph Brown and Donald Crane. At the conclusion the Augusta Regiment was joined by members of Cooper's Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, a Civil War re-enactor group, in firing a 21-gun salute.

The plaque was placed in a display case at Bloomsburg High School to remind future generations of youth of the sacrifices of men from a earlier era.

"Garryowen"


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The story of Donald E. Crane and Ralph W. Brown would not be complete without acknowledging those individuals who contributed to this effort to remember them. I first became interested in the men while researching data for a visit of the "Moving Wall." The sponsoring organization sought out biographies of local men who had been killed in action or who remain missing in action from the Vietnam War. While doing research on the names, I discovered that two men from the same rural area had died on the same date. At the time no biographies were found or submitted. Not knowing the true story of the men I remained intrigued by this coincidence and kept the names in the back of my head.

Six months later my wife, Diane, presented me with a copy of "We Were Soldiers Once. . .and Young", Hal Moore's and Joseph L. Galloway's history of the battles at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. For the first time I realized that, not only had Brown and Crane died on the same day, they had died at Ia Drang and had been assigned to the same mortar platoon. A note to Hal Moore's e-mail address provided me with a gracious response and the names and addresses of two excellent sources, former Cavalrymen Robert Towles and James Shadden. Robert Towles had served in the recoilless rifle platoon of D 2/7 and James Shadden was in the same mortar platoon as Brown and Crane. Both Towles and Shadden had been severely wounded in the battle at LZ Albany. The value of the information they provided and their willingness to share their memories cannot be overestimated. Also providing valuable information were: Henry Thorpe, Peter C. Cole, a First Cav veteran, who is compiling a history of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), Dick Ackerman of Reconnaissance Platoon, 2/7, and the staffs of Bloomsburg Area High School and Northwest Area High School. Thanks also for the encouragement provided by Joseph L. Galloway.

FOR FURTHER READING


Coleman, MAJ J.D., editor. The First Air Cavalry Division, Vietnam: Volume I, 1965-1969. San Francisco: The 1st Cavalry Divison (Airmobile), 1970.

____________. Pleiku. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1989.

Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G. & Galloway, Joseph L. We Were Soldiers Once. . .and Young. New York: Random House, 1992.

Scott, Leonard B. The Expendables. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

Stanton, Shelby L. Anatomy of a Division: 1st Cav in Vietnam. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987.

History of the 7th Cavalry Regiment


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