The Army Historical Foundation (AHF) is pleased to announce two new complementary facets of the Registry of the American Soldier—the Registry of the Army Community and the Registry of the Animals in Service to the Army. Both registries will eventually be enshrined in the National Museum of the United States Army.
Joseph Lee “Joe” Galloway, noted war correspondent and co-author of the 1992 best-selling Vietnam war narrative We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, is the first civilian to be honored in the Registry of the Army Community, which is the civilian complement to AHF’s web-based Soldier’s Registry.
“Individuals like Joe Galloway perfectly represent why we are launching the Registry of the Army Community,” said Emmy French, AHF’s Digital Marketing Manager.
“There’s such an extensive, vibrant support system built around the Army and its Soldiers made up of spouses, Army Brats, Department of the Army civilians, Red Cross and USO workers, embedded journalists, and many others who, though not serving themselves, provide crucial support to the Army and its Soldiers,” French noted. “We felt these people should be recognized for how they serve the Army and our country in their own way.”
Galloway began his journalistic career at the Victoria Advocate in Texas and advanced to United Press International’s (UPI’s) bureaus in Kansas City and Topeka before serving overseas as bureau chief or regional manager in Tokyo, Jakarta, New Delhi, Singapore, Moscow, and Vietnam.
He served the first of four assignments in Vietnam for UPI beginning in 1965.
In November of that year, Galloway found himself with 500 troops of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in the midst of the first major and one of the most savage battles of the Vietnam War—the Battle of Ia Drang.
Outnumbered 7 to 1 by North Vietnamese regular forces, the unit fought almost non-stop from November 14 to November 16, suffering 79 KIA and 121 WIA.
Although a non-combatant, Galloway repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to aid and rescue wounded Soldiers. He is the only American civilian to have been awarded the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for heroism during the Vietnam War.
Following Vietnam Galloway covered the India-Pakistan War of 1971, half a dozen other regional conflicts, and later joined U.S. News & World Report as a writer and senior editor. He also teamed with LTG Hal Moore, who commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry at Ia Drang, to write We Were Soldiers Once…and Young. In 1990-91 he returned to duty as a war correspondent in the Persian Gulf, accompanying the Army’s 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) on its charge through the western Iraq desert.
Galloway retired as McClatchy newspapers’ senior military correspondent in 2010 and currently serves as a consultant for the Vietnam War 50thAnniversary Commemoration Project.
AHF looks forward to supporters contributing new entries into these additional registries. They serve as further ways to ensure that the full story of the Army is preserved for future generations.
