Bennett received his fixed-wing rating and soon was sent on temporary duty back to helicopter school. After qualifying in helicopters, he was assigned to Korea and, later, Japan. Much to his surprise, both Bennett and his wife, Vonnie, fell in love with military life.

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After he returned from the Far East, Bennett’s talents as a helicopter pilot were tapped to try out the Army’s new concept of air mobility. He was assigned to the 11th Air Assault Test Division at Fort Benning, Ga., in 1964 for 18 months of crucial trials. The purpose was to examine and test theories in helicopter warfare. Satisfied with the evaluations of the 11th Air Assault Division, renamed the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the Army mobilized the unit for war. Major Willard Bennett was assigned command of the 229th’s Charlie Company and deployed with the division to Vietnam.

Although Charlie Company had been thoroughly trained in the Army’s brand-new airmobile tactics, no training could completely prepare a pilot for the murderous skies over Vietnam. Bennett’s role over the Ia Drang Valley may be considered a minor one in the grand scheme of the campaign, but to the severely wounded who were desperate for medical attention, and to the beleaguered troops surrounded and running low on ammo, a fearless chopper pilot was the answer to many prayers. The genesis of Bennett’s mission occurred when Lt. Col. Harold Moore brazenly took his understrength battalion and confronted the enemy deep in his own territory.

The ball began rolling on November 14, 1965, when Moore, a hard-charging Kentuckian and West Point graduate (class of ‘45), mobilized the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), and moved them to a position at the foot of Chu Pong, a 2,400-foot mountain in the Ia Drang Valley, deep in NVA-held territory. There, dense tropical forests gave way to tall grass and red clay. Intelligence reports of a large enemy base camp in that area had Moore and his boss, 3rd Brigade Commander Colonel Thomas Brown, eager to seek out the enemy.

The 7th Cavalry, perhaps best known for its ‘Last Stand’ at the Little Bighorn River, was about to fight against a vastly superior enemy force in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, much the same way Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer had made war in 1876 in Montana Territory against disproportionate odds.

As in much of the Vietnam War, geography played a major role in the battle. Due to the physical features of the area, the best possible landing zone–designated LZ X-ray–was a large clearing located at the base of the mountain. The LZ offered inviting open fields of fire to any NVA entrenched in the high ground overlooking the LZ. Although it was a gamble to land troops in such a place, Moore decided to chance it.

On the morning of November 14, Boeing-Vertol UH-34 Chinooks positioned 12 guns–two batteries of 105mm howitzers–6.2 miles east of LZ X-ray. The artillery began firing on the LZ as well as two other clearings to help create a diversion. As soon as the barrage was lifted, helicopter gunships further prepped the site with .30-caliber machine guns and 2.75-inch rockets.

Thirty-one minutes later, it was show time. Moore’s battalion of 28 officers and 429 enlisted men began to land at X-ray eight Hueys at a time. Moore alighted from the first wave of choppers with Bravo, or B, Company, commanded by Captain John D. Herrin, who took his company north and west up a ridgeline toward Chu Pong. The choppers continued to rattle in, dropping troops, ammunition and rations until C, D, E and A companies were on the ground and dispersed. Herrin’s Bravo Company, moving up the heavily jungled ridgeline, was the first to make contact. Hearing frantic calls over the command net, the deafening sounds of RPG-2 shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades, Chicom hand grenades and a cacophony of AK-47 small-arms fire, Moore quickly realized he had found what he came looking for–in spades.

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