On November 16, after the battle had ended, the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry, led by Lt. Col. Robert McDade, landed at LZ Columbus, three miles away. McDade led three companies–Charlie, Delta and a headquarters company. Tully’s and McDade’s battalions were sent to relieve Moore at X-ray. Before handing over his position, Moore made good on the promise he had made to his battalion back at Fort Benning to never leave a man on the battlefield and never permit a single man to be listed as ‘missing in action.’

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Lieutenant Rick Rescorla, 2nd Battalion’s Bravo Company commander, recalled that a few hours earlier, after beating down a last attack: ‘Colonel Moore, in our sector, was rushing up to clumps of bodies, pulling them apart. ‘What the hell is the colonel doing up there?’ Sergeant Thompson asked. I shook my head. Later we saw him coming back at the head of men carrying ponchos. By 10:30 a.m. Colonel Moore had found what he was looking for. Three dead American troops were no longer missing in action; now they were on their way home to their loved ones.’

With the battle at X-ray seemingly finished, McDade and Tully settled in for a long, uneasy night with their companies on 100-percent alert. Sporadic gunfire from around the perimeter ensured that no one slept. McDade and Tully received orders to pull out of X-ray at 9 the next morning. Twenty-four B-52s from Guam had been ordered to bomb the sides of Chu Pong–American troops would have to put two miles between themselves and the impact area.

Both battalions set out on November 17, with Tully in the lead. McDade would follow Tully to a point, then break away toward a different clearing, designated YA 945043 on the map–LZ Albany.

While Colonel Tully had been in command of his battalion for 18 months and knew the personalities and capabilities of his men intimately, Colonel McDade, a veteran of WWII and the Korean War with three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars, had had his command for less than three weeks. It had been a decade since he last commanded troops. Most of his men hoped the march would be little more than a stroll in the sun, but the specter of Custer was about to revisit the 7th Cavalry.

Tully moved out in the lead with two companies up and one back. ‘We used artillery to plunk a round out 400 yards or so every half-hour,’ said Tully,’so we could have a concentration plotted. That way, if we ran into problems we could immediately call for fire.’

About 2,000 meters into the march, as planned, McDade’s battalion turned northwest while Tully’s continued on toward LZ Columbus, reaching the objective just before noon. The terrain McDade found himself traversing was mostly knee-high grass and felled trees, which did not offer the overheated, exhausted battalions much visibility–25 yards at most. Soon the terrain got much worse, with chest-high elephant grass and thick vegetation. Several huts along the way were searched and fired. In retrospect, it may have been the thick smoke that alerted the enemy. The triple-canopy jungle forced the battalion together and pushed the flankers closer toward the sides of the column.

As Alpha Company, with McDade, was moving into the Albany clearing and the rest of the companies were stretched thin for 1,000 yards behind, enemy rifle fire erupted. The 2nd Battalion had run smack into the enemy–soldiers from the NVA’s 8th Battalion, 66th Regiment; 1st Battalion, 33rd Regiment; and headquarters of the 3rd Battalion, 33rd Regiment. Lieutenant Larry Gwin, of Alpha Company, recalled: ‘I was out in the grass away from the trees when it started. The rounds were so fast and furious overhead they were knocking the bark off the trees. I ran to them. One round struck the tree I was crouched next to, about an inch over my head….Then I heard the sickening whump of mortar fire landing where I had seen our 2nd Platoon disappear.’

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