Jesse "Bud" Alley earned his U.S. Army commission via the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) at Furman University in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. He was selected as one of 1,000 ROTC graduates in 1964 to participate in the Army’s experimental “U2” program, whereby he was assigned as a platoon leader without attending an Officer Basic Course.
in 1965, at 23-years-old, Alley would find himself a Communications Officer in South Vietnam gearing up for what would become the first major battle between American and NVA forces, The Battle of Ia Drang.
After the pivotal battle at LZ X-Ray, Alley and his men found themselves marching towards LZ Albany, what they did not know was that North Vietnamese soldiers were in hiding, waiting to ambush them. By sunrise the next day, 155 members of the unit lay dead and 124 wounded. It would become one of the deadliest single days in the Vietnam War.
Interview recorded on November 7, 2024
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Video Credits:
Interviewer - Greg Corombos
Director of Photography - Jon Hambacker
Editor - Daniel Taksas
