Bud Alley and fellow members of the 7th Cavalry will share stories of the infamous battle that left hundreds dead
June 30, 2015: We Were Soldiers, the Mel Gibson movie based on a book by LTG (Ret) Hal Moore and war correspondent Joe Galloway, focused on the first part of the 1965 battle at Landing Zone X-Ray in Vietnam’s Ia Drang valley. The second part happened at LZ Albany, and that is the story told in The Ghosts of the Green Grass. Author Bud Alley, a survivor of that battle, will be selling and signing books in the lobby of the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center Wednesday, July 1, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. A reception, open to the public, will follow.
The Ghosts of the Green Grass tells the story of 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, as they were led to LZ Albany on November 17, 1965. What they did not know was that North Vietnamese soldiers were in hiding, waiting to ambush them. By sunrise the next day, 155 members of the unit lay dead and many more were wounded.
Bud Alley spent years collecting first-hand stories from the men he served with, as well as their wives and widows. The Ghosts of the Green Grass tells of the bravery, humor, foibles, and grief of the men and their leaders. Joining Alley at the Museum Wednesday will be other veterans of the battle, including Michael Pearson, who illustrated the book’s cover, and Jim Lawrence, who has written his own account of the events.
The 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry was formed at Fort Benning, Georgia, in July 1965 as part of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Airmobile was a new concept in combat, and was deemed successful by the end of the war.
