War Correspondent and journalist. He is best remembered for his book "We Were Soldiers Once….And Young" documenting the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in 1965, the first major engagement for U.S. forces in Vietnam. He is the only civilian ever awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Born in a small town north of Corpus Christi, Texas his journalism career started as a reporter for the newspaper in Victoria, Texas and he later joined United Press International based in Kansas City, Topeka and Los Angeles. He was the United Press International Bureau Chief in several foreign cities including Jakarta, Singapore, Moscow and New Dehli; as a reporter, he covered the early part of the Vietnam War and accompanied the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment lead by Lieutenant Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Hal Moore into the Ia Drang Valley in November, 1965 where they battled a superior North Vietnamese Army force. He later covered the Persian Gulf War for U.S. News and served as a columnist for the McClatchey Newspapers, in 1992 he and Hal Moore wrote "We Were Soldiers Once…And Young" which documented the Battle of Ia Drang Valley; it was made into a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott and Madeleine Stowe. A sequel entitled "We Were Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam" was published in 2008. He was the recipient of numerous accolades including a National Magazine Award and the Vietnam Veterans of America Excellence in the Arts Award. He married his first wife Theresa Null in 1964 with whom he had 2 sons. After her death he was married to the daughter of Captain Thomas Metsker who had been Hal Moore's Intelligence Officer and was killed at Ia Drang. In 2012 he married Dr. Grace Tzu.