Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/03

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Subject: RE: [Leica] MOVIE LEICA SIGHTING - 'We Were Soldiers"
From: Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net>
Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 12:53:37 -0500
References: <3.0.2.32.20020303005556.0171ed20@roanoke.infi.net>

At 08:37 AM 3/3/02 -0500, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Marc- I do not want to get in a huge to-do here - but there were TWO
>consecutive battles fought in the Ia Drang in Nov. '65, from, I believe, the
>14th through the 17th. The first, at landing zone X-ray, the battle depicted
>in the movie, was indeed fought by the 1st battalion of the 7th Cavalry -
>Col. Hal Moore's outfit - and Custer's old outfit. The second, at landing
>zone Albany, was, as you note, fought by the 2nd of the 7th. So the movie
>DID get it right, and, in essence, so did you. For sources, which I know you
>demand ;-), I would refer you to "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young" by Hal
>Moore and Joseph Galloway.(sp?)
>

BD

You completely missed my point.  The review stated that the unit in
question was the "second regiment of the 7th Cavalry (Airmobile).  That is
wrong on two counts -- it was the second BATTALION of the 7th Cavalry
(REGIMENT), which was part of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).  The
review misidentified a battalion as a regiment, and got the Airmobile
designator with the wrong level -- this goes with the division title, not
the regiment title.

A battalion has approximately 800 men and is commanded by a lieutenant
colonel.  A regiment traditionally has three battalions and includes
slightly under 3,000 men, and is commanded by a full colonel.  In the US
Army, we've had very few true "regiments" since ROAD was adopted in 1958;
in a line division, battalions are lumped together into brigades, and the
regiment only survives on paper as a lineage item.  A brigade is now
commanded, as was the regiment, by a full colonel but is more readily
adapted to task organization.

And, to be really picky, the unit in question might have been the second
SQUADRON of the 7th Cavalry Regiment -- normally, cavalry units have
"squadrons", the same unit as a battalion, but the name is different.  But
I recall that the 1st AirCav used "battalion" as the troops were infantry
despite the fancy cavalry titles.  The CMH web site would probably have
this information.

None of this stuff is hard to get right, and old soldiers DO note the
difference.  The reliability of a movie reviewer who hacks up the
terminology collapses, precisely as would a photographer who wrote an
article in which he spoke of setting his shutter speed by adjusting the
aperture.  It's just sad when someone who was there in a senior position
and should have, as part of his job, known these differences gets it wrong.
 But, then, the US media in Viet-Nam often didn't pay much attention to
what the Army was doing and how they were trying to do it.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!

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Replies: Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net> (RE: [Leica] MOVIE LEICA SIGHTING - 'We Were Soldiers")
Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net> (RE: [Leica] MOVIE LEICA SIGHTING - 'We Were Soldiers")
Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net> (RE: [Leica] MOVIE LEICA SIGHTING - 'We Were Soldiers")
In reply to: Message from Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net> (RE: [Leica] MOVIE LEICA SIGHTING - 'We Were Soldiers")