Played by Mel Gibson in “We Were Soldiers.”

Lt. Gen. Hal Moore dies at 94

I have a tenuous connection here. The movie depicts one hell of a battle between US Army forces and NVA forces in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. The NVA had been dug in to that valley for a long while, with considerable stores of supplies and troops underground in tunnels. The NVA *owned* that valley. And several days before the battle, my fathers platoon just… wandered right on through the valley. Never saw the enemy, never engaged them, never had any indication they were there. But most assuredly, the NVA was aware of the small group of American GIs. But they let them pass unmolested; presumably in order to keep their presence secret. Had a slightly different course of events happened, Mel Gibson wouldn’t have been in that movie and you wouldn’t be reading this blog.