We Were Soldiers

Sergeant Ernie Savage:
Beautiful morning, Sergeant!

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
What are you a f***ing weatherman now?

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
That's a nice day, Sergeant Savage.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
I can hear you laughing you know.

Julie Moore:
I'm not laughing, I'm marveling.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
At what?

Julie Moore:
That you can find stubbornness in your children and think it comes from anywhere but you...

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
They attack us; no casualties. They retreat into the mountains and, naturally, we follow them. Smell like an ambush to you?

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
I wonder what was going through Custer's mind when he realized that he'd led his men into a slaughter?

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Sir, Custer was a p*ssy. You ain't.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
I'll never forgive myself.

Joseph Galloway:
For what, sir?

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
That my men... that my men died and I didn't.

Joe Galloway:
Sir, I don't know how to tell this story.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Well you have to, Joe. You tell the American people what happened here. You tell them how my troopers died.

Joe Galloway:
Yes sir.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Any one of you pussies call me grandpa, I'll kill ya.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
You can't take any pictures from down there, son.

Joseph Galloway:
I'm a non-combatant.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Ain't no such thing today.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Can't take no pictures laying down there sonny!

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Where you from, son?

Joseph Galloway:
Refugia, Texas, sir.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Well, that's the first thing I've heard today that makes any sense.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
You want to know how Custer felt? Why don't you ask him?

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Gentlemen, prepare to defend yourselves!

Cecile Moore:
Daddy, What's a war?

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Well a war is when people hurt other people, and people like daddy try to stop them.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Our Father in Heaven, before we go into battle, every soldier among us will approach you each in his own way. Our enemies too, according to their own understanding, will ask for protection and for victory. And so, we bow before your infinite wisdom. We offer our prayers as best we can. I pray you watch over the young Jack Geoghegan. That I lead into battle. You use me as your instrument in this awful hell of war to watch over them. Especially if they're men like this one beside me, deserving of a future in your blessing and goodwill. Amen.

2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan:
Amen.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Oh, yes, and one more thing, dear Lord, about our enemies, ignore their heathen prayers and help us blow those little bastards straight to Hell. Amen.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
I will leave no one behind. Dead, or alive, we will all come home together.

Colonel Tim Brown:
Colonel, what's the situation down there?

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
It's getting pretty sporty down here, sir!

Specialist Galen Bungum:
I can't see a thing, but I can smell them.

Sergeant Ernie Savage:
Dead bodies smell, Bungum.

Specialist Galen Bungum:
No it's not the dead ones! I can smell them creeping up on us.

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
If any of you sons of b*tches calls me grandpa, I'll kill you.

2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan:
Our guys are being killed, sir, you gotta get us in there!

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
He died keeping my promise.

Crandall:
My men call me Snakeshit, sir.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Why do they call you that?

Crandall:
Because I fly "lower than snakeshit," sir.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Nothing's wrong except there's nothing wrong!

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Broken Arrow!

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Pass this along; tell your men to fire three shots at anything that looks suspicious, on my order.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
So what do you think of these new M-16's?

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
Too much goddamn plastic in it.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Not gonna use it, then?

Sergeant Major Basil Plumley:
I'm afraid that when we get in there, there'll be plenty on the ground.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Yeah.

Maj. General Henry Kinnard:
The White House anticipates a buildup and wants a victory over cavemen in black pajamas.

General in Hallway:
We wouldn't be there if they hadn't already beaten the French Army.

Maj. General Henry Kinnard:
French Army? What's that?

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
I got a problem, Snake Sh*t, and I think you're the solution.

Maj. Bruce Crandall:
I've been called a lot of things, Colonel, never a solution.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
You know what Air Cavalry really means? You fly into hostile territory, outnumbered, 10,000 miles from home. Sometimes the battleground is no bigger than a football field, and if the choppers stop coming, we all get slaughtered. Now, I figure chopper pilots won't fly into Hell for strangers, so, I'm Hal Moore.

Sgt. Ernie Savage:
Good morning, Sergeant Major.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
You got a death wish, Galloway?

Joe Galloway:
No, sir.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore:
Then why are you here?

Joe Galloway:
Cause I knew these dead boys would be here, sir.

Diplomatic Spook:
I don't like it. First time out a whole battalion gets massacred?

Army Intelligence Officer:
You think this is a massacre?

Diplomatic Spook:
I call losing a lot of draftees a bad week. Losing a Colonel's a massacre.

[In a flashback sequence:
after ambushing a French column, Viet Minh troops stand over the wounded survivors.]

Viet Minh soldier:
[in subtitles] Do we take prisoners?

Lt. Nguyen Huu An:
[in subtitles] No. Kill all they send, and they will stop coming.

[The Viet Minh troops proceed to execute the surviving French soldiers.]

Hal:
When Crazy Horse was a baby, he nursed at the breast of every woman in the tribe. The Sioux raised their children that way. Every warrior called every woman in the tribe "Mother". Every older warrior, they called him "Grandfather". Now, the point here is that they fought as a family. Take care of your men. Teach them to take care of each other. 'Cause when this starts... each other is all we're gonna have. [Moore goes aside with new radio operator]

Plumley:
Any of you sons-of-b*tches calls me "Grandpa"... I'll kill ya.

[Julie Moore is hosting a meeting of officers' wives.]

Catherine:
The laundromat in town's okay, but they won't let you wash your colored things in their machines.

Barbara:
At a public laundromat?

Catherine:
Didn't make any sense to me either, but I'm telling you — they have a big sign right in the window, says "Whites Only". [an awkward silence]) What?

Alma:
Honey, they mean white people only.

Catherine:
That's awful. Your husband is wearing the uniform of a country that allows a place to... to say that his laundry's not good enough, when he could die for... I'm sorry, I just —

Alma:
That's all right, honey. I know what my husband's fighting for, and that's why I can smile. My husband will never ask for respect, and he'll give respect to no man who hasn't earned it. The rest of his family's the same way. And anybody who doesn't respect that can keep his goddamn washing machine, 'cause my baby's clothes are gonna be clean anyway!

Julie:
[amid general laughter] Well, I guess that takes care of item number two!

[Lt. Herrick's men, isolated from the rest of the unit, are under heavy fire.]

Lt. Herrick:
Grab the wounded! Break contact! Fall back, get to high ground! Cover fire! Get to high ground, come on! Come on, get up here! Bring the wounded up to the middle! Cover fire, cover fire! (more enemy troops open fire from the rear) Everybody down! DOWN! (after a heavy exchange of gunfire, Herrick jumps to his feet) Come on! I'll get us out of here! AH! (shot, he falls)

Platoon Sergeant:
Grab the wounded! We'll make a run — (shot, he falls)

Senior Sergeant:
We gotta get out of here — (shot, he falls)

Sgt. Savage:
STAY DOWN! Don't anybody move — Bungum, stay down! Form a perimeter, conserve your ammo, and stay down!

[Taxicabs have been delivering death-notice telegrams to military families; when a cab arrives at her house, Julie Moore reluctantly answers the door.]

Driver:
[removes his hat] Mrs. Moore? Colonel Moore's wife?

Julie Moore:
Yes.

Driver:
I need help finding an address. I'm looking for —

Julie:
You JACKASS! Do you know what this is?! Do you know what you just did to me?!

[The driver sheepishly walks toward his cab, but stops at the curb.]

Driver:
I-I don't like this job, Ma'am. I'm just trying to do it. [continues toward cab]

Julie:
Wait. Wait! [runs to the cab] I'll take it to her. [she takes the telegram] And tell the cab company if there are any others, just bring them to me.

Maj. Crandall:
It's the last flight for the night, Colonel — but you need us, you call us.

[Later, after Crandall lands, one of the Medevac pilots from earlier in the day finds him]

Medevac Pilot:
Crandall! You led my men into a hot LZ!

Maj. Crandall:
Yeah, somebody had to fly out the wounded...

Medevac Pilot:
No, no, don't you play hotshot with me! Now, you know the rules. You suckered us in there. You ever do it again, I'm gonna have you busted! [shoves Crandall]

Maj. Crandall:
[pulls out his revolver] You've got the BALLS to face me but not enough balls to face the enemy?!

Capt. Freeman:
Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Whoa! [separates the two and maintains the distance]

Maj. Crandall:
If I ever see you again, I'll kill you. [The Medevac pilot looks at him, then walks away] That's right.

Capt. Freeman:
Hey... what a day, huh?

Maj. Crandall:
Tomorrow will get worse. If they make it to tomorrow.

[Face-down on the ground under a storm of enemy fire, photographer Joe Galloway gets a combat boot in the stomach.]

Sgt.Maj. Plumley:
Can't take no pictures lyin' down there, Sonny!

...

[Plumley hands Galloway an M-16 and several magazines.]

Galloway:
Uh, sir? I-I'm a noncombatant, sir.

Plumley:
Ain't no such thing today, boy.

...

[Vietnamese troops are advancing on the termite mound where casualties have been collected.]

Plumley:
[chambering a round in his .45] Gentlemen — prepare to defend yourselves!

Hal:
I'll never forgive myself.

Galloway:
For what, sir?

Hal:
For the fact that... my men died... and I didn't.

Lt. Col. Hal Moore:
[addressing his troops on the parade ground.] Look around you. In the Seventh Cavalry, we got a captain from the Ukraine. Another from Puerto Rico. We've got Japanese, Chinese, blacks, Hispanics, Cherokee Indians, Jews and gentiles — all Americans. Now, here in the States, some men in this unit may experience discrimination because of race or creed. But for you and me now, all that is gone. We're moving into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where you will watch the back of the man next to you, as he will watch yours. And you won't care what color he is or by what name he calls God. They say we're leaving home. We're going to what home was always supposed to be. I can't promise that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear before you and before Almighty God: that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me God.

Lt. Col. Hal Moore:
Neither the new technology nor your status as officers will keep you above the danger. Sergeant Major Plumley and I come from the paratroopers, where the officer is always the first man out of the plane. Because to follow your instincts and inspire your men by your example, you have to be with them — where the metal meets the meat...Now, I hope you men like training, 'cause me and the Sergeant Major... we love it!

Joe Galloway:
[voice-over] These are the true events of November, 1965. The Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, a place our country does not remember in a war it does not understand. This story is a testament to the young Americans who died in the Valley of Death, and a tribute to the young men of the People's Army of Vietnam who died by our hand in that place.

Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An:
Such a tragedy. They will think this was their victory. So this will become an American war. And the end will be the same... except for the numbers who will die before we get there.