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Galloway and the Plei
Me Incident
In Joseph Galloway’s article in
the Soldier of Fortune Magazine September of 1983 he
talks in depth about his time in the besieged Plei
Me in South Vietnam. It was
an amazing story as it had a little bit of
everything,
except that he wasn’t there on the ground.
In Galloway’s own Soldier of
Fortune article he
said he left late on October 25, 1965 on foot. The UPI story on October 25,
1965 has Galloway in a
Helicopter flying overhead of Plei Me. In his UPI story he reports in general
terms about what was going on below him. How can
someone who hadn't even left the area have written a
story and had it published? He couldn’t have of
course. He was overhead in the afternoon of October
25, 1965 not in Plei Me as the relief hadn’t gotten
there until dusk of October 25, 1965. This is
his first important Pleiku Campaign story and he had
already lied.
Galloway said he was a machine
gunner there for two days, ordered by Major Beckwith
the head of the Special Forces. Two things wrong
with that, one a Special Forces Commander isn’t
going to order a civilian to do anything and two,
Galloway had never trained as a Machine Gunner. When leaving the area he
said the Major came up to him and gave him a M-16
and ammunition for him. There is no way that
happened as every M-16 had a serial number and they
were tightly controlled and counted by each Army
unit.
There was an earlier article
done in March of 1983 in the Soldier of Fortune
Magazine. This one was written by Robert L. Oles
with a sidebar by Bob Poos. Oles never mentioned
Galloway and Bob Poos went one better and said there
was only one reporter in the Plei Me siege. His
name was
Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams.
When you read the Editor’s note about Galloway’s
article in the 1983 Soldier
of Fortune Magazine they say it was just before the
deadline. That means’ they most likely didn’t have
time to fact check it at all. Poos was the
Executive Editor for Soldier of Fortune Magazine and
only states that Galloway was on the ground at
X-Ray. He never mentioned Plei Me. That
says volumes of course.
Poos had two chances to say Galloway was at Plei Me both in the March and
September
Soldier of Fortune issues and both times said
nothing.
Please read the AP
article November 16, 1965 versus the
Galloway article for November 16,
1965 and compare the detailed AP report vs.
Galloway's. The AP had very specific details
about what became the Lost Platoon and Sergeant
Savage. Galloway is very vague with only Lt Col
Moore and no other name, not even Plumley on the
16th. On the
17th Galloway starts getting more information but still no names
beyond Plumley.
Galloway mentions Plumley for the first time on the
17th but why not before as he claimed he got there
on the 14th. If that's true why wasn't Plumley
mentioned in the November 16th article?
Galloway has built up a cottage
industry over the death of American Soldiers killed
in the Ia Drang Campaign. He started writing fiction back
in September of 1983 with the story “If You Want a
Good Fight…” in Soldier of Fortune Magazine. But
before that, let us go back to his original articles
in November 16, 1965 while working for the United
Press International (UPI).
In Galloway’s first Ia Drang
story he inserts himself into the battle. In the
second paragraph of his story “U.S. Soldiers Grit
Teeth in Viet Hell” November 16, 1965 he stated
“Get
Down You Fool” we shouted instead of “Get Down You
Fool” they shouted” on November 16, 1965
article. Galloway has intertwined
himself into the 1st Cavalry Division
folklore ever since. He has infected both the
1st Cavalry Division history and a segment of the
general public for 51 years now with his lies.
Brian Siddall
June 26, 2016
Updated September 21, 2016
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