Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
10:16 | This isn't going to work. That's what Tony Nadal told his boss, Hal Moore, as they launched a helicopter assault to search for the enemy. He was right. The forces scattered and hid, so new tactics were called for. The next assault was in the Ia Drang Valley and they were perhaps too successful. Part 1 of 5.
Keywords : Tony Nadal Vietnam helicopter (chopper) An Lao Valley Fort Benning Hal Moore Ho Chi Minh Trail Hanoi Pleiku Cambodia Chu Pong Plei Mei Boeing CH-47 Chinook artillery ambush LZ X-Ray Battle of Ia Drang
He didn't have an appointment, but Tony Nadal was the son of an Army officer, so he was able to compete for a spot at West Point. He won that because of his superior academics, although he was unenthusiastic about math. Once there, he discovered one thing, he detested the plebe system.
After West Point, the basic infantry course, jump school and Ranger school, Tony Nadal was getting close to his goal of leading men in combat. The only action in the early sixties that he knew about was Army Special Forces beginning to operate in Laos and Vietnam. After a pleasant first assignment in Germany, he volunteered for the elite group.
The plane that took Tony Nadal to Vietnam was old and slow but the men on it were not. He was part of a Special Forces team that aimed to organize tribal people in the border area into civilian defense groups. It was in rough terrain in the central highlands where he made his way to the camp at Nam Dong.
Along with his Vietnamese counterpart and his ARVN force, Tony Nadal also had a group of Chinese Nung at the Nam Dong Special Forces camp, Nationalists who had fled China after the victory of the Communists. They patrolled the border looking for infiltrators but it was the camp's next American commander who would become part of history.
Tony Nadal wanted to go back to Vietnam but the Army had him on assignment to Korea. He had already shipped his footlocker when he got a 4 AM call. Report to Fort Benning. He didn't know it but LBJ was sending the air mobile cavalry to Vietnam.
Before his second deployment to Vietnam, Tony Nadal did quite a bit of reading on the French experience in Indochina. Shortly after his arrival, he and battalion commander Hal Moore went off to find a monument left by them.
When the 1-7 Cav got to the base camp at An Khe, Tony Nadal was one of only two officers who had been to Vietnam before. The unit had come by ship and the slow journey gave him a chance to loan out his books and teach classes on what to expect. At first he was assigned as intelligence officer but he soon got his wish to command a rifle company.
The men of the 1-7 Cav had unknowingly choppered in to an LZ that was right next to a huge NVA force. The shooting began almost as soon as the first companies landed. Company commander Tony Nadal was in the thick of it as he and his men fought a fierce battle in a creek bed. Part 2 of 5.
There was a platoon that was separated during the fighting on the first day of the Ia Drang battle and Tony Nadal was ordered go find them and bring them back. After a quick pep talk he led his men toward the action. Almost immediately a machine gun opened up and brought down nearly everyone around him. He was miraculously spared but he was making no headway and asked to be withdrawn. Part 3 of 5.
Tony Nadal's company had gone after the "lost" platoon at the Battle of Ia Drang, but they had been driven back by the enemy. The platoon had to spend a long, lonely night hunkered down inside a small ring of artillery fire. The next day brought a major assault before dawn, which was only broken when daylight brought gunships and other air support. It was the end of the fight at LZ X-ray but the Battle of Ia Drang was not over. Part 4 of 5.
They had fought hard for three days and now what was left of Tony Nadal's company was airlifted out of the Ia Drang valley. Other units, however were just beginning another fierce firefight at LZ Albany, where the men were strung out in a long column. They had been hiking to get clear of an impending B-52 strike, which was not usually the preferred form of air support by the men on the ground. Part 5 of 5.
Tony Nadal is most proud of his time commanding A Company of the 1-7 Cav. The battalion was full of first rate officers because, back when the Army and the Air Force were dueling over who would control the helicopters, the Army wanted to make sure they bested the other branch. They wanted full control of the emerging air mobile concept.
Tony Nadal was on a recon flight when it suddenly got real quiet. The helicopter's engine had stopped. The pilot was autorotating down when he spotted what looked like a clearing in the jungle. As the crippled ship came down, it became clear that it wasn't grass down there. It was forty foot tall bamboo.
After his second Vietnam tour, Tony Nadal was sent to graduate school. This led to an interesting exchange with some anti-war students. He would go on to teach at West Point, where he tried to implement lessons he had learned about combat leadership, lessons that the Army had overlooked.
There is nothing in the civilian world as intense as combat. Tony Nadal speaks about the bonds it leads to, and the pain of loss. He still feels it every day.
Most people today just think of riots in the streets when the Vietnam War is mentioned. Tony Nadal fought in two tours and he has been back there twice. The first time he sat and talked with an officer who had opposed him on the battlefield at Ia Drang.
