The Official Voice of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ®
An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress
September/October 2002
LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEHey Joe, Where You Going With That Pen In Your Hand?
BY RALPH A. GARCIA
Joe Galloway is someone many would call a “big shot.” However, as soon as you meet this award-winning author, you realize that Joe is a fellow who truly understands and someone with whom you are able to talk with candor. He is a brother to every Vietnam veteran. He and Gen. Hal Moore co-authored the acclaimed book, We Were Soldiers Once and Young, based on their experiences during the 1965 Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Galloway said that the war did not stop at the end of the battle for the men and women back home, and that he felt it was his duty to tell the story.Galloway was born November 13, 1941, in Refugio, Texas. “I grew up in a house full of frightened women who were looking out the window waiting for that telegraph messenger,” he said of his family during World War II. “I didn’t meet my dad until I was 4 or 5 years old when he returned from service.”
More than 25 men who served with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley came from around Refugio. Vincente Cantu graduated from high school with Galloway. “On the worst day of the battle, I looked up and I saw this guy pop out from a mortar pit and zigzag across the corner from the LZ and he dove under this bush and says, `Joe Galloway, Joe Galloway. Don’t you know me, man? It’s Vince Cantu from Refugio.’ I thought to myself, it is Vince, right in the middle of the fight. All of the guys there, most of them had two weeks left on their terms of service. We had guys killed that should have been on a plane home. They didn’t get out when they should have.”
Galloway is a family man. He married a hometown woman and they had two sons. His wife passed away more than seven years ago following a fight with cancer. He later married Karen Metsker, the daughter of Captain Tom C. Metsker, who was killed during the first day of battle in the Ia Drang in 1965. Galloway said: “Metsker was wounded in the shoulder and was boarding a chopper when he spotted another man who was wounded worse than he was. As he was getting back off the helicopter, he was shot in the back and was killed falling forward back onto the chopper with his legs hanging out the door, and that’s exactly how it happened.”
After he wrote the 25-year anniversary cover story on the battle for U.S. News & World Report, Galloway said, “Her uncle read it. Her family, like most families, had never known any of the details of how their love one died.” Her mother called Karen. The family later came to Washington, D.C., for a family reunion, and that’s when Karen and Joe first met. They became good friends and were married in October 1998.
Galloway has raised two grown sons and now has a family with an 8-, 10-, and 12-year old. “It’s like retiring as a colonel and reenlisting as a private,” he quipped.
Galloway retired from U.S. News in June 2001 and immediately went to work for Secretary of State Colin Powell. Then the Galloways went on the speaking circuit. In July, he addressed the 1,500-member plebe class at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Making Peace is the working title of a book Galloway is writing in collaboration with San Diego Tribune columnist Richard Louv. The book will attempt to answer some of the lingering questions about Vietnam. Louv was a conscientious objector.
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