Operation Gratitude honors Army officer with National Freedom Award

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Operation Gratitude honors Army officer and author with National Freedom Award
by NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, who was depicted by Mel Gibson in the 2002 film We Were Soldiers, received Operation Gratitude’s first annual National Freedom Award presented at the California Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys on December 1.

“I didn’t earn it, my troopers earned it for me,” said Moore, who led troops in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and whose New York Times #1 bestseller, We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, written with war journalist and friend Joseph Galloway, was the inspiration for the movie. Randall Wallace, the film’s director, as well as many Vietnam veterans who served under Moore were present at the Armory for the award ceremony.

“In the final analysis, let me tell you who the American soldier fights for – the American soldier fights for the man beside him,” said Moore, who recently turned 84. “The American soldier seldom thinks, if ever, about what some president says on television. The American soldier fights for his buddy. The American soldier grieves for his buddy.”

Moore shared stories from his years in combat, most notably during the November 1965 battle of Ia Drang at Landing Zone X Ray near the Cambodian border – an event he called a “battle for survival” and which was one of the first serious episodes against the North Vietnamese. Moore recounted a heartbreaking moment losing a sergeant who died in his arms, a young man next to whom he buried his wife at Fort Benning Cemetery in Georgia, and where he hopes to lay, “the sooner the better,” he joked.

The award was presented between two Operation Gratitude volunteer shifts, for which locals gathered to prepare care packages for shipment to deployed men and women in military service. Volunteer groups included the West San Fernando Valley CVS stores, Boy Scout troops 22 and 139, and the American Legion.

Congressman Brad Sherman of District 27 presented Moore with a flag that was flown over the United States Capitol, along with its certificate of authenticity. Moore said he would fly it proudly on holidays at his home in Auburn, Alabama.