February 11, 2017 8:48 PM


Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, left, and Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley, who served together with the 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, talk at the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center in Columbus, Ga., in March 2009. Moore died Friday at age 94. Robin Trimarchi - rtrimarchi@ledger-enquirer.com

By Ben Wright

Retired Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, the commander at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965 that led him to co-author the book, “We Were Soldiers Once, and Young,” died Friday at his home in Auburn, Ala. He was 94.

Joe Galloway, an award-winning journalist, former McClatchy columnist and co-author of the best-selling book with Moore, said news of his death hit him hard on Saturday.

“I just lost my best friend,” Galloway said from his home in Concord, N.C. “I remember that none of us would have come out of there alive if it weren’t for Hal Moore and his brilliance as a combat commander.”

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Galloway said he now must keep a promise he and Moore made to each other years ago.

“I’ve got to tell you that he is having the last laugh on me, because 20 years ago he insisted that we shake hands on a deal that whichever died first, the other one had to preach his funeral,” Galloway said. “I will get in my car Thursday and drive down to Auburn, Ala., from Concord, N.C., and on Friday afternoon at the National Infantry Museum at the memorial service for my best friend, I have the honor and duty of standing up and preaching his funeral. He lasted almost to 95. I was beginning to think he was going to outlive all of us.”

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