We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An: [in Vietnamese] Such a tragedy. They will think this was their victory. So this will become an American war. And the end will be the same, except for the numbers who will die before we get there.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I can hear you laughing you know.
Julie Moore: I'm not laughing, I'm marveling.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: At what?
Julie Moore: That you can find stubbornness in your children and think it comes from anywhere but you...

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[Galloway is on the ground]
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: You can't take any pictures from down there, sonny.
[Galloway gets up and is handed a rifle]
Joseph Galloway: I'm a non-combatant.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Ain't no such thing today.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Colonel Tim Brown: Last night, the enemy hit our Special Forces camp here at Plei Me.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: How many casualties did we sustain?
Colonel Tim Brown: None. The enemy forces withdrew here towards this mountain, Chu Pong, that sits right on the Cambodian border. How many men do you have battle ready at your disposal give

or take?
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: [to Plumley] Sergeant Major?
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: 395 sir... exactly.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: [to Colonel Brown] What do you estimate the enemy strength is?
Sergeant: We appraise their numbers as manageable.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: [grim

tone] You mean... you have no idea?
Colonel Tim Brown: No, sir. We have no idea. But we have our orders. Simple orders from High Command: find the enemy and kill him. Nothing more.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[the Viet Minh look down on wounded French soldiers]
Viet Minh Sergeant: [in Vietnamese; subtitled] Do we take prisoners?
Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An: [in Vietnamese] No. Kill all they send... and they will stop coming.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Diplomatic Spook: I don't like it. First time out a whole battalion gets massacred?
Army Intelligence Officer: You think this is a massacre?
Diplomatic Spook: I call losing a lot of draftees a bad week. Losing a Colonel's a massacre.
Army Intelligence Officer: Moore is still fighting.
Diplomatic

Spook: He's surrounded by the enemy. He's facing more men then he can count. He's even has a whole platoon lost.
Army Intelligence Officer: That platoon is not lost. They are simply cut off.
Diplomatic Spook: Well, then they're lost.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: He died keeping my promise.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan: Barbra and I spent a year in Africa. We helped build a school for orphans. They were orphans because the warlord across the border didn't like their tribe. I know that God has a plan for me, I just hope it's to help protect orphans, not make any.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[after Ouellette takes a NVA prisoner just after landing in Ia Drang, the prisoner talks in Vietnamese to Moore and the rest of the solders]
Mr. Nik: [translating] He say he deserter.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Bullshit, he's a lookout.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Ask him where his friends are.
[Mr. Nik asks the prisoner

in Vietnamese and the North Vietnamese lookout responds in Vietnamese]
Mr. Nik: He say this is basecamp for whole division. 4,000 men.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Where?
[Mr. Nik firmly asks the prisoner in Vietnamese who responds by speaking Vietnamese and points to the nearby Chu Pong Massif]
Mr. Nik: [still translating]

That mountain. He say, it's same army that destroyed French. They want to kill Americans very badly... but they have not been able to find any yet.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Crandall: My men call me Snakeshit, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Why do they call you that?
Crandall: Because I fly "lower than snakeshit," sir.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Joseph Galloway: [narrating] Some had families waiting. For others, their only family would be the men they bled beside. There were no bands, no flags, no Honor Guards to welcome them home. They went to war because their country ordered them to. But in the end, they fought not for their country or their flag, they fought for each other.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Joe Galloway: [Narrating; voice-over] In Saigon, Hal Moore's superiors congratulated him for killing over 1,800 enemy soldiers. Then ordered him to lead the Seventh Cavalry back into the valley of death. He led them and fought beside them for 235 more days. Some had families waiting. For others, their only family would be the men they bled beside. There were no bands, no flags, no

Honor Guards to welcome them home. They went to war because their country ordered them to. But in the end, they fought not for their country or their flag, the fought for each other.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: [Narrating; voice-over] Dear Barbra, I have no words to express to you my sadness at the loss of Jack. The world is a lesser place without him. But I know he is with God and the angels and I know even Heaven is improved by his presence there. I know you too are sure of this and yet this knowledge can't diminish his loss and your grief. With abiding respect

and affection, Hal Moore.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[At night]
Specialist Galen Bungum: I can't see a thing, but I can smell them.
Sergeant Ernie Savage: Dead bodies smell, Bungum.
Specialist Galen Bungum: No it's not the dead ones! I can smell them creeping up on us.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[to Major Crandall]
2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan: Our guys are being killed, sir, you gotta get us in there!

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Maj. General Henry Kinnard: The White House anticipates a buildup and wants a victory over cavemen in black pajamas.
General in Hallway: We wouldn't be there if they hadn't already beaten the French Army.
Maj. General Henry Kinnard: French Army? What's that?

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: You got a death wish, Galloway?
Joe Galloway: No, sir.
Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: Then why are you here?
Joe Galloway: Cause I knew these dead boys would be here, sir.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: To follow your instincts and to inspire your men, by your example, you have to be with 'em. Where the metal meets the meat.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

Joseph Galloway: [narrating] Some had families waiting, for others their only family would be the men they bled beside, there were no bands, flags no honor guards to welcome them home, they went to war because their country ordered them to, but in the end they fought not for country or their flag, they fought for each other
Joseph Galloway: We who have seen

war will never stop seeing it, in the silence of the night we will always hear the screams. So this is our story... For we were soldiers once and young.

We Were Soldiers
We Were Soldiers

[first lines]
Joe Galloway: [Narrating; voice-over] These are the true events of November, 1965, the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, a place our country does not remember, in a war it does not understand. This story's a testament to the young Americans who died in the valley of death, and a tribute to the young men of the People's Army of Vietnam who died by our hand in that

place. To tell this story, I must start at the beginning. But where does it begin? Maybe in June of 1954 when French Group Mobile 100 moved into the same central highlands of Vietnam where we would go 11 years later.