The Battle: Tactics for Biblical Manhood Learned from the 7th Cavalry in Vietnam

By David Dusek

If you've seen the movie, We Were Soldiers, then you're familiar with the story of the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion/7th US Cavalry (Airmobile) and the Battle of the Ia Drang. Under the leadership of then-Lt. Colonel Hal Moore. Drastically outnumbered by the enemy, the men from "Garryowen" clawed their way to victory in the first major clash of the Vietnam War. Combining dialogue from the movie, personal interviews, and Biblical truth, The Battle will walk you through the techniques, tactics, and procedures of any successful campaign—including winning the battle as a father, husband, and man of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fidelis Publishing
• Release date: Feb 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781735428574

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Front Cover of The Battle

ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE BATTLE—DAVID DUSEK

"Perfectly titled, The Battle by David Dusek goes straight to the heart of issues facing today’s Christian men. Illustrating the precepts of biblical manhood in the context of a legendary battle during the Vietnam war, makes this book appealing and powerful. After reading it, you’ll want to give a copy to all the men and boys in your life. This book is a keeper."

—LtCol Oliver L. North USMC (Ret), bestselling author of The Rifleman and host of the Real American Heroes podcast.

"Great stories often teach great life lessons. Such is the case in David Dusek’s book, The Battle, detailing the fight at Ia Drang, Vietnam. Riveting and compelling, David has done a masterful job of using this story to open our eyes as men to the spiritual fight we are in. But even more important, he shows us through military metaphors, how to win at manhood. Highly practical; I highly recommend it."

—Dr. Robert Lewis, author, Men’s Fraternity Founding Partner, BetterMan

"The Battle is an incredible book with great content. David Dusek does an exceptional job of capturing what it looks like to tackle life involving multiple aspects. He puts his wisdom to paper as he enlightens his readers on how to succeed at life. This book will leave a lasting impression on the reader and equip them with the necessary tools to continue in their journey."

—Joe White, president, Kanakuk Kamps, PromiseKeepers keynote speaker

"Custer could have used this book and would likely have lived longer and better. His 20th century successor, Hal Moore, did use its principles when commanding the same 7th Cavalry in Vietnam. This book is something of a pre-fight battle brief written by one rough cut man to other rough cut guys—how to survive on a planet at war against everything you hold dear.

"No matter where you look, life is a battle. From the first pages of Genesis thru the final chapters of Revelation, the Bible is replete with the vocabulary of war. War is probably the single greatest constant in earth history. So how does a guy survive? David Dusek provides some direction: Know your enemy; keep your kit at the ready; Stay together; Never quit.

Our God loves manly warriors. His Bible is full of them and His own Son is the best who ever lived! Jesus defeated the devil on the high ground of Calvary. And the apostle Paul summarized his own Christian life as a ‘good fight.’ So kit up, guys, and get in the fight, to win.

—Stu Weber. pastor and author of Tender Warriors and Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart

Book Title of The Battle

FIDELIS PUBLISHING

ISBN: 978-1-7354285-6-7

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-7354285-7-4

The Battle

Tactics for Biblical Manhood Learned from the 7th Cavalry in Vietnam

© 2021 David Dusek

Cover Design by Diana Lawrence

Interior Design by Xcel Graphic

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: A Quick History Lesson—Very Quick

Chapter 2: War

Chapter 3: We Are the Target

Chapter 4: On Enemy Ground

Chapter 5: It’s All About the Fireteam

Chapter 6: Know Your Enemy and Your Resources

Chapter 7: Let the Past Go

Chapter 8: Never Pay Attention to The Odds

Chapter 9: Resiliency Is Everything

Chapter 10: Establish Suppressive Fire Support

Chapter 11: Maintaining Your Headquarters

Chapter 12: Managing Multiple Fronts

Chapter 13: Developing Solid TTP (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures)

Chapter 14: Stay Connected to the Command Chopper

Chapter 15: Brotherhood

Chapter 16: Writing the AAR (After Action Review)

Chapter 17: Deployment Readiness—The Back Brief

21-DAY DEVOTIONAL

This book is dedicated to the memory of LTG Harold G. Moore, CSM Basil Plumley and to the men of the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion of the 7th U.S. Cavalry (Airmobile), who fought valiantly in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnam on 14–17 November 1965.

For the families of those Troopers who didn’t make it home, and for the men who did, thank you. It is an honor to know you and a privilege to call many of you my friends.

Garryowen!

FOREWORD

Activated in 1861, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment has an incredible history of service to the nation. Most Americans remember it as the unit George A. Custer commanded at the Battle of Little Bighorn River during the fight against Sitting Bull and his Sioux warriors in June 1876. Also known as Custer’s Last Stand, this battle has been immortalized in movies and numerous books. Young lads have enjoyed recreating the battle in make-believe fights against hostile Indians for over a century. The 7th Cavalry Regiment also served during the Philippine-American war, as well as in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. World War II and Korea found the 7th Cavalry fighting in the Pacific Theater, where it once again produced a distinguished combat record.

Less than a century after the battle of Little Bighorn and Custer’s demise, the 7th Cavalry was thrust into an incredible fight where they were severely outnumbered by the enemy. The battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Viet Nam on November 14,1965 would become another legendary fight for the 7th Cavalry. It is remembered as the first major encounter by U.S. Forces in Viet Nam with the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

Commanding the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment during this three-day battle was LTC Harold G. Moore. Moore was a U.S. Military Academy graduate (1945) where he prepared for a life of leading men in the U.S. Army. West Point taught Hal Moore discipline and commitment. There he developed into a fine soldier and an outstanding leader. As the battle of the Ia Drang Valley unfolded, it was the leadership skills of Hal Moore that prevented this from being a total annihilation of the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

One evening in 2006, I met with LTG Moore for dinner in Washington, DC. It was a great honor just to be in his presence. At the time, he was eighty-four years old but looked and spoke like a much younger man. He was impressive as he shared bits and pieces of his life as a soldier with me and a couple of friends. What became clear very quickly was Hal Moore was a man of faith. His love of God and his reliance upon the Creator throughout his career was a theme of his discussion that night.

I found myself wondering what it would have been like to have served under this great man, particularly in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Given that LTG (Ret.) Moore was a soldier for over three decades and led men in combat in some of the toughest fights in the last half of the Twentieth Century, it should be obvious his knowledge, wisdom, and life lessons must be passed from generation to generation and shared with as many men as possible. And that is exactly what David Dusek has done.

As Christians, we should know warfare is a constant in our lives. We are at war but it is not always a physical war. Rather, it is generally spiritual warfare. But how many Christians really understand spiritual warfare? Few pastors discuss spiritual warfare or preach about it. It is not a popular topic to speak about, so it is often avoided, leaving Christians rather unprepared for what they face every day as a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ. Exodus 15:3 is very clear, the Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name (NIV). Furthermore, Revelation 19 describes Jesus as a warrior returning to earth with the weapons of warfare and leading a mighty army into battle against His enemies. So it makes sense that God’s expectation of every Christian is they are warriors in His Kingdom here on earth and they are engaged every day with the evil inhabiting our world.

Yet how many of us are prepared for battle? How many of us know how the enemy of God operates, or better stated, how many of us know his tactics? Hal Moore knew the tactics of the NVA regulars and therefore was able to achieve victory against them. Today, most men are conflicted and confused over what a man is supposed to be because we live in a society that does not value moral courage or the warrior ethos the way one would expect. When a man steps into battle against the forces of evil, it requires knowledge, skill, and courage to be victorious. Like Hal Moore, a man must be adequately prepared for all the tricks and deception a wily enemy can throw at him.

In this book, The Manhood Battle, David Dusek uses the battle experiences of then-LTC Moore and the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry as a guide to understanding spiritual warfare and to preparing for and engaging in it. This is a How-To handbook to knowing the enemy and knowing how to be on the winning side of every engagement with the devil.

David Dusek spent many hours before writing The Manhood Battle interviewing the men under Moore’s command in the Ia Drang Valley. His interviews are almost mesmerizing. David shares the lessons learned by the men who were there with the reader as he compares the tenets of spiritual warfare with those of physical combat like that experienced by Moore and his men. The tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP’s) used by the men of the 7th Cavalry apply in the spiritual realm as well. David has done a masterful job here showing how men can and should use the same TTPs in their daily walk with Christ.

Take a journey with Hal Moore and the men of the 7th Cavalry and experience the Ia Drang fight from a spiritual perspective.

LTG (Ret.) William G. Boykin, U.S. Army (Retired)

Delta Force, U.S. Army Special Operations Command

Executive Director–Family Research Council

INTRODUCTION

If you’ve read my first book, Rough Cut Men, my passion for movies isn’t a shocker. Nor is my love for everything and anything We Were Soldiers. There’s something so compelling about an outnumbered unit of soldiers facing an unknown enemy and beating the odds. It’s in every guy’s DNA to root for the underdog, even when we don’t realize we’re the underdog until the battle starts. I know this first hand. I’m a Florida Gators football fan.

So when God prompted me to write a book about this Army cultural phenomenon known as the Battle of Ia Drang, I was pumped! After all, I use action movie sequences in the live Rough Cut Men events and thought it would be great to incorporate more We Were Soldiers into it. You’d be hard-pressed to find a soldier on the planet who isn’t familiar with the likes of then-LTC Hal Moore, CSM Basil Plumley or the cast of characters of the 1st Battalion of the 7th U.S. Cavalry (Airmobile), circa 1965. And you’d be equally hard-pressed to find regular guys like me who haven’t seen the movie or read the book We Were Soldiers Once … And Young, the official recount of the battle co-authored by Moore and UPI reporter Joseph Galloway.

November 14, 2012. Ironically, the 47th anniversary of the commencement of the three-day battle that left seventy-nine troopers from the 1/7 dead and another 121 wounded, I was in the bathroom (too much information?), where most of us guys do our best thinking. While contemplating putting up a commemorative Facebook post about the anniversary, God clearly told me to write about it. And not just blog about it but write a book about it. I thought to myself, That’s a great idea!

Precisely eight seconds later, I thought, Really, God? You want me to write a book about a movie based on a book? I think that’s plagiarism. Dismissing the whole deal, I hit the laptop for my usual work. Find Joe Galloway I hear in my head. Excuse me? I mean, one doesn’t simply find Joe Galloway. He’s a journalistic and photographic icon and a personal hero of mine. Find Joe Galloway I hear again. So I Googled Joe and found the usual plethora of articles about him. Then, deep into the far reaches of cyberspace, I find his agent’s name and number and I make the call. After all, if God’s behind it, maybe it’ll work, right?

Long story short, within an hour, I was on the phone with the Joe Galloway. After overcoming being acutely star-struck, we set a time to meet when I was in his home town. Shortly thereafter, I was given now-LTG Hal Moore’s address and wrote him a letter. On fire now, I wrote letters to all the actors in the movie to find out just what Moore was like as a man.

Then the voice of reason, aka my accountability partner, chimed in. He said, You can’t write a book about a man based on the opinion of the man himself. You need to find out what his subordinates thought about him. Great. Now I have to track down everybody?

I quickly got to work, connecting with a friend at West Point and soon garnered the contact information of Moore’s Company commanders. And just to show you how God works, one of the men, Alpha Company Commander Tony Nadal invited my wife and me to the reunion of Landing Zone X-Ray to meet everyone!

Finally, after several months, I received word from one of Hal Moore’s sons, The General (as most called him) wasn’t doing well physically at ninety-plus years old. While that may seem disappointing on the surface, I gained the unique opportunity to interview several of Moore’s children and even his granddaughter.

In February of 2017, LTG Harold G. Moore moved on to Glory with Jesus and I was privileged to attend both his Funeral Mass in his hometown of Auburn, Alabama, as well as his Memorial Celebration held at the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning.

What you hold in your hand is a compilation of several years of hard labor. You’re going to find movie references—of course, given I talk in movie quotes all the time—interviews from the aforementioned folks, and principles learned on the battlefield.

In a nutshell, this is a handbook designed to equip you to be the absolute best leader you can be, learned from both the Army career and the personal life of Hal Moore, the men who served under him in combat, and the strategies used in one three-day battle in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Bottom line up front, we are leaders. We are the men of God’s army. And we are soldiers, too.

Let’s get in the fight! It’s time to engage!

CHAPTER

A QUICK HISTORY LESSON—VERY QUICK

The Vietnam War has always received a really bad rap, whether from the kind folks who spit on soldiers returning home back in the 1970’s or even more recently from Hollywood, who often depicts soldiers from the Vietnam era as crazy, psychotic stoners who killed babies. Just take a look at Apocalypse Now or Hamburger Hill if you don’t believe me.

However, the men of the 1st Battalion of the 7th U.S. Cavalry (Airmobile) were, and are, anything but how cinema portrays Vietnam, and the mere thought of anyone spitting on these men brings me to a rolling boil in about thirty seconds. I know them, I know their families, and I know the battle. And I’d like to introduce you to some of them, starting with the genesis of how they all ended up together in that South Vietnamese river valley in 1965.

By the way, I speak in bullets most