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Two weeks ago, a senior commander with the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, serving in battle-hardened Afghanistan, sent a letter to Auburn, Alabama.

It was addressed to a national hero.

“You are a true legend…and continue to inspire the troops of today, all across the globe,” he wrote. “We hold one of your edicts close to our hearts – ‘No second-place trophies.’ The winning spirit is alive and well.”

A few months earlier, movie stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn made a special trip to Auburn for the sole purpose of seeing this same hero.

He and Gibson had met several times before and had become good friends. Gibson portrayed him in the lead role of the film, “We Were Soldiers.”

Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore passed away late Friday night. He would have turned 95 years old on Monday, and the Army hero known for saving most of his men and surviving a fierce standoff despite being outnumbered 10-to-1 in the first major battle of the Vietnam War proved to be a ferocious fighter to the very end.

“He had another stroke last week,” one of his children said Thursday evening. “He’s still hanging tough.”

Moore’s family already was in town this weekend to celebrate his 95th birthday with a reunion of all five children here at their Auburn home that has been in the extended family since 1950.

Hal Moore known as "Captain Fun" by his family Hal Moore’s children remember their father as a man who took time out to make their childhoo…

They held a private family celebration with birthday cake Thursday evening, with longtime family friend Mayor Bill Ham invited to join them.

Ham brought with him a framed proclamation that he presented to Moore and his children soon after the traditional singing of “Happy Birthday” and the siblings’ united effort in blowing out two candles carved into waxed infantrymen.

Ham later pondered, however, where it might hang as he surveyed the memorabilia-covered walls in Moore’s study, including another proclamation or two Ham had presented Moore in years past.

It mattered little. “Any mayor anywhere would be honored to have him as a cherished resident and cherished member of the community,” Ham said of his friend.

Tensions in Vietnam

America’s military involvement in Vietnam began by sending advisers.

Then, more combat troops.

“We intend to convince the communists that we cannot be defeated by a force of arms,” then President Lyndon B. Johnson told the world while trying to convince an American public frightened of communism that such an evil must be stopped from spreading.

The escalation of the U.S military role in Southeast Asia came in the early 1960s not long after a threat of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis and less than two decades since World War II and the Korean War.

Much of the nation was skeptical about fighting another so soon, but American soldiers nonetheless trained and prepared in the proud tradition of those who fought before them.

Moore, a colonel at the time, began training elements of the famous 7th Cavalry at nearby Fort Benning, Georgia, in a new concept of warfare that involved helicopters flying deep into enemy territory and finding landing zones to deploy troops.

It would be one such landing zone where a battle soon would erupt and cast striking parallels between Moore and another commander of the 7th Cavalry less than a century earlier – Gen. George Armstrong Custer, infamously known for Custer’s Last Stand before he and his men were all killed.

Fort Benning’s role

The North Vietnamese Army, referred to as NVA, wanted to engage and kill Americans to demonstrate its determination in evicting yet another invader, as it had done years earlier with the French.

However, it knew it would be costly to engage the American military where it was strongest, so it tried to lure the fight into jungle warfare far from central bases. The U.S. Army, on the other hand, issued orders to Moore and his troops to “seek and destroy” the enemy.

A small open field was found near where enemy activity was suspected, and it was designated Landing Zone X-ray, or LZ X-ray for short. However, only a few helicopters at a time could land in the LZ.

Moore was the first to step foot on what quickly would become a bloody battlefield.

“When I took command of that battalion, I stood in front of my troops and made a short speech,” Moore recalled in later interviews, referring to the unit’s training at Fort Benning. “Get rid of second-place trophies, because we’re going to be the best.

“And I promise you, when we go into combat, and I think we shall because the Vietnam War is heating up,” he said, “When we go into combat, I will be the first man on the ground, and the last man out, and I will leave no man behind.”

That day came on Nov. 14, 1965.

The Battle of la Drang Valley

During a 1993 documentary feature filmed by ABC television, Moore was asked if he had any idea what awaited him and his men when they first arrived at LZ X-ray.

“No, none whatsoever,” Moore replied.

What neither Moore nor any of the senior officers who ordered him on the mission knew was: On the mountain overlooking the valley and LZ was a base camp for the NVA – and three enemy battalions.

Moore and his first small group of helicopters had landed right in the enemy’s lap.

Before Moore had accumulated about 150 men and while waiting for more to come, the North Vietnamese immediately attacked with a force of about 1,600 troops, which later would grow into thousands more.

Gunfire and mortar fire began ripping the ground and the men to shreds. The small and vastly outnumbered American force returned fire with devastating effect, slowing the enemy advance.

Moore, however, made an early tactical move that would carry him into military textbook lore and no doubt saved his command.

Instead of following natural instincts and gathering all his force within a tight perimeter to defend itself, as Custer had done in fighting American Indians in his last stand, Moore immediately recognized that he had to protect his landing zone, or there would be no hope of re-enforcements making it to the ground to join the fight.

Thinking about how his enemy might approach the battle, he quickly ordered a portion of his troops to hustle across the field under fire and establish a defense line on the other side of it.

Almost exactly as Moore had predetermined, the enemy attacked the skirmish line, while also pouring troops into the fight against Moore from all sides.

The battle quickly grew and raged into a bloody fight, much of it hand-to-hand combat.

Helicopters flown by brave pilots did what they could to deliver help, but they were easy pickings for the snipers and machine gunners surrounding Moore and his men, who protected the LZ as long as they could.

Eventually, NVA troops broke through the lines and into the clearing. It was a desperate situation for the outmanned Americans who now had enemy soldiers fighting them within the ranks. There were few options left.

Moore sounded the call of “Broken arrow!”

That was the command given when an American unit was overrun, and it meant that all available air power was to respond and attack the position with everything it could drop.

Immediately fighter jets, helicopters and even heavy bombers joined the fight.

It was the saving grace for Moore and his men, and although Moore knew that the close air support likely killed some of his own soldiers, it also is what saved the American unit from being wiped out.

The air strikes inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy and helped even the fight, as Moore’s men never let up and continued a fierce resistance. The battle dragged on for three days and two nights, non-stop.

Finally, silence.

The enemy, at least for the moment, withdrew. And Moore along with most of his command still stood.

When the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry departed the battlefield, Col. Hal Moore was the last to leave.

A place called home

“In 32 years, we moved 27 times,” daughter Julie said with a smile. Such was life growing up in a military family.

But Auburn was different.

“This was what we called the port in the storm,” she said, pointing to her father’s home around her. “Mom and Dad said we could always come home. Auburn is special to all of us.”

She is here this weekend from Arkansas; Steve from North Carolina; Greg from Dallas; Cecile from Colorado.

Dave Moore lives here and remains an Auburn resident.

It’s clear they’re all proud of their father and his role in American history, but also evident was a family togetherness reunited as they sang to him as he sat quietly in his wheelchair. They broke bread with a chocolate cake they cut and shared.

When questioned, they smiled and recalled Mel Gibson’s recent visit. “He came here just to see Dad,” one of them said. “They wanted to know where was a good place to eat after their visit, so we suggested Hamilton’s.”

Gibson and Vaughn soon made social media and newspaper headlines for being seen at the restaurant, but few knew what their real reason was for coming to Auburn.

Gibson, during his intense work in preparing for and filming “We Were Soldiers,” had gained great respect for retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, the man. Auburn’s mayor understood why.

“Without doubt, he is one of the finest men I’ve ever known,” Ham said during a quiet walk down the driveway as he left the home.

Judging by the signatures of battlefield survivors on a banner of the 7th Cavalry, 1st Battalion, there are many men who owe their lives to Moore and who no doubt agree.

Likewise for countless others serving today and inspired by his courage under fire, including those in harm’s way in Afghanistan.

“God bless as you turn 95 years young,” the officer concluded his recent letter, adding:

“Live the Legend.”

That he did. To the very end.

Editor’s note: Services will be announced for later next week, as the family will plan a local service in Auburn, and there will be a military graveside service at Fort Benning. Troy Turner is editor of the Opelika-Auburn News and may be reached at tturner@oanow.com.

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