Harold G. Moore was a United States Army Lieutenant General. He was born in Kentucky in 1922. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1942. He graduated in 1945 with the rank of second lieutenant. He had a pretty interesting career up to the point where he left for Vietnam, which is what this book covers. He led the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in the week-long Battle of Ia Drang. He was very significantly outnumbered by enemies. He led his men through what really seems like impossible odds, and eventually was able to drive them back after three days of heavy fighting. This was the first large scale helicopter assault during wartime, as well as using Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers in a support role. This must have been an absolutely harrowing experience, even reading about it doesn't evoke an appropriate amount of imagination.

I have watched this film a couple of times, but I never really got into it. I will have to watch it again since I have read this book and the second one. I got a bunch of Vietnam books a while back to kind of learn what my grandfather must have experienced, since he doesn't like to discuss his experiences over there. (Beyond complaining about his skin and Agent Orange.) I really appreciate that there are people willing to share their experiences so that others may have some type of idea what goes on. I also appreciated that this book wasn't full of political ideology/excuses/etc. I would recommend this for anyone interested in Vietnam.