Valor Friday

A couple weeks back we discussed the anniversary of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. One of the heroes, among the many heroes, of that battle had his name brought up. Let’s learn a bit more about Don Carlos Faith Jr.

Don Carlos Faith Jr. was born in 1918 to career US Army officer Don Carlos Faith Sr. (b. 1896 d. 1963). The elder Faith was a young officer in the wartime Army, having been commissioned a second lieutenant after enlisting for the conflict in 1917. He would later serve in the Philippines and China. During World War II he would rise to brigadier general and was in command of training the Women’s Army Corps.

Growing up as a military brat, it’s no surprise that the younger Faith would follow in his father’s footsteps. He aspired to attend West Point, but was found medically unfit due to a major dental issue of some sort. Instead he attended Georgetown University.

In 1940, with the passing of the Selective Service Act, he was called in for his draft physical. Due to the previously found dental problem, he was classified as unfit for military service. He successfully appealed the board’s decision, enlisting on 25 June 1941, immediately after his graduation from college.

After completing Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch. He volunteered for the fledgling airborne troops and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.

The 82nd “All American” Division had seen extensive combat during the First World War. Most famously, Sergeant Alvin York earned the Medal of Honor for charging an enemy machine gun position alone after all his comrades were dead or wounded. Fending off a German countercharge single-handedly (and exhausting his rifle and sidearm to do so), he secured the surrender of more than 100 Germans.

The 82nd Division was selected to become America’s first parachute infantry division in mid-1942. Initially commanded by then-Major General Omar Bradley, it would soon fall to the command of then-Major General Matthew Ridgway. Both men would later become Chiefs of Staff of the US Army, with the former being the last American officer to be elevated to the five-star rank General of the Army.

After training, the division was moved to the European Theater in the spring of 1943. They made their first combat jump in Operation Husky, the Allied Invasion of Sicily, in July 1943. Faith was assigned to the staff of General Ridgway. During the course of the war he’d serve in that post and as a staff officer in the division.

After the success in Sicily, the Allies turned their attention to the Italian peninsula. On 9 August, the 82nd made another combat jump. This time they landed in Salerno as part of Operation Avalanche.

After fighting in the Italian Campaign, the 82nd (having lost the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was detached from the division, and receiving the 507th PIR, a fresh, inexperienced unit) was sent to England. There they started the training and preparation for Operation Overlord, the Allied Invasion of Normandy. This is better known as D-Day.

Faith was with the division when they made that combat drop in the early hours of 6 June 1944. From there, the division pressed into the Normandy Campaign. The paratroopers were supposed to help open the beachhead to allow the main invasion force to break out from the English Channel. They were only supposed to be engaged for a few days.

As is said in the military, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” And so it was for the men of the All American Division in France. They were involved in heavy fighting for more than D+1 or D+2. They spent 33 days straight in combat. With no relief or replacements.

Despite the weeks of hard combat, the division completed all of their objectives. In his after actions report, Ridgway said, “No ground gained was ever relinquished.” They paid a major toll for their performance however. The division lost more than 5,200 troopers dead, wounded, or missing in action. That was a 46% casualty rate.

As the Allies pushed the Germans back from the coast, the 82nd Airborne was pulled back for rest and replenishment. They weren’t out of the action long though. They jumped again into the Netherlands as part of the massive airborne assault called Operation Market Garden on 17 September.

Up to mid-December the Germans had been steadily defeated, and were pushed back nearly to their own borders. It was then that the Nazis decided to unleash an enormous counter-offensive against the Allies. This last gasp of the German war machine became known as the Battle of the Bulge.

The 82nd Airborne fought in the Bulge. The location of the battle was the Ardennes Forest. The very same forests that the 82nd had fought in during World War I 26 years before. Due to the very poor weather (cold, overcast), the airborne troops of the 82nd (and 17th and 101st Airborne Divisions) were utilized as light infantry, commonly known as “leg” infantry.

Unprepared for the extreme cold, the men of the Allies fought valiantly. Outnumbered, many of them fell back, including the 82nd Division for the first time in its history. After weeks of fighting, in which the 101st Airborne famously held out at Bastogne despite being surrounded and cut off, the Allies pushed back on the Germans.

Seizing the initiative, the Allies then continued a relentless onslaught against the Germans for the next five months. The German Army wasn’t again able to do anything more than delay the Allies. With inconceivably large day and night bombing raids, the Allies steadily pressed forward mile by mile.

The 82nd Airborne ended the war on 2 May 1945 at Ludwigslust, having gone past the Elbe. The Elbe River was, according to Allied commanding officer British Army Field Marshal Montgomery, something uncrossable. When word arrived that the 82nd Airborne and the British 6th Airborne Division had crossed it, covering 26 miles in a single day, and secured the surrender of more than 100,000 enemy troops, the command staff burst into laughter.

After the war, the division was moved to Berlin for occupation duty. They were relieved in November 1945. They were (along with the other airborne divisions of the US Army) scheduled to have been a major component in Operation Downfall, the Allied Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. Thanks to the Japanese capitulation after the atomic bombings, they were not sent to the Pacific.

Faith had made four combat jumps with the 82nd Airborne during the war. He’d received two Bronze Star Medals as well as a Purple Heart. He’d also risen the ranks rapidly, as happened often in the war due to attrition. He ended the war as a lieutenant colonel. He was only 27.

Towards the end of the war, Faith had been moved to the staff of Major General Maxwell Taylor, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division. Taylor, a former officer of the 82nd Airborne, would later rise to full general and serve as the fifth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1962-1964).

After the war Faith remained in the service. He was with the US Mission in China until it closed during the revolution. He was then assigned as a battalion commander in the 7th Infantry Division stationed in Japan.

June 1950 saw the communist North Korea invade South Korea. The South, allied with the US and the West, immediately sought help from her allies. With few resources in-country, the United Nations forces (predominately the US) of South Korea nearly fell completely in that first thrust.

The US, who had drawn down their massive military after the Second World War, immediately mobilized. The closest units to Korea were the large military occupation force in Japan. Units in Hawaii and the west coast of the US mainland were also mobilized. This was still a time where strategic airlift of huge numbers of troops wasn’t possible. The troops closest to Korea would be alone for at least several days or weeks until the ships with reinforcements could arrive.

Faith was commander of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment. The 32nd Infantry was part of the 7th Infantry Division and immediately started to prepare to join the war. They sailed for the Korea peninsula in September, landing near Seoul on the 16th of that month, just under three months since the war started.

They were immediately met with small arms, mortar, and tank fire from the communists. The 32nd Infantry moved north to the Han River, the last natural barrier to the South Korean capital of Seoul.

US Marine Corps defenders, having held the line here, welcomed their Army brethren into the fight. With the fresh soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division (7th ID), the Marines were finally relieved and the communists started to get pushed back. The 32nd Infantry received a Navy Unit Commendation for their relief of the beleaguered Marines.

The fall of 1950 saw the UN forces, led by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, force a communist retreat. South Korea, which had nearly fallen completely to the surprise attack, was able to fight back. The UN forces had the North Koreans on the run.

The 7th ID was pulled back and prepared for an amphibious landing at Wonson, North Korea. Instead, with the successes of the Allied offensive, this was changed to Iwon. From there, the division was to push north to the Korean-Manchurian border. North Korea was about to fall, having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The 7th ID came ashore on 29 October 1950. From Iwon, they moved to the area of two reservoirs. The 1/32nd Infantry was on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir while the other two battalions held at the nearby Fusan Reservoir.

Students of American military history will be well aware of what happened next. The advance up the Korean peninsula had been stalled. The Chinese, newly communist themselves, joined the war. Unofficially of course, but several divisions of fresh Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops streamed into North Korea, hitting back at the Allies.

What developed would, in the coming months, become a stalemate. Both sides began to dig in and hold their positions. The conflict rapidly evolved from a highly mobile conflict like seen in the Second World War and into something more like the trench warfare seen in the First World War.

On 27 November, when the combined Chinese and North Korean forces attacked the UN troops, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 32nd Infantry held at Fusan. They were able to withstand the heavy enemy onslaught of the next couple days until friendly troops from further north retreated back to the reservoir.

An offensive had been planned by the Americans to take place on the 28th. The massive assault from the communists on the night of the 27th into the 28th put an end to that plan. At least for the men on the ground.

All of these units were part of the X Corps, commanded by then-Major General Edward (Ned) Almond. Almond was a combat veteran of both World Wars. He was perhaps somewhat brash. A close associate of the general’s said, “When it paid to be aggressive, Ned was aggressive. When it paid to be cautious, Ned was aggressive.”

General Almond flew into the perimeter of the besieged 1/32nd Infantry. As the story goes, he passed out Silver Stars to key personnel, including one to Lieutenant Colonel Faith. He renewed his command that the forces at the east side of the Chosin Reservoir press their planned northward attack. Despite the ample evidence by this time that the Chinese were now part of the war and that the Americans were barely holding on, Almond said, “The enemy who is delaying you for the moment is nothing more than remnants of Chinese divisions fleeing north. We’re still attacking and we’re going all the way to the Yalu. Don’t let a bunch of Chinese laundrymen stop you.”

Almond then flew out. Faith, disgusted with the general’s apparent indifference to the plight of his men, threw his newly awarded Silver Star into a snowbank and went back to work organizing his men into defensive positions. While the general felt they were strong enough and prepared to take the offense, the officers in command on the ground hoped to hold out long enough for the expected reinforcements to move up from the south.

Faith’s 1st Battalion was on the east side of Chosin. As the rest of the line fell back to Fusan, the battalion (with elements of the 31st Infantry Regiment and the 1st Marines) was cut off and surrounded. The reinforcements they were waiting on never came.

Coinciding with the renewed offensive from the communists was a bitter cold wave from Siberia. Temperatures plummeted. The cut off troops at Chosin had limited supplies and were not outfitted for the frigid temps. Frostbite was taking as many men out of the fight as was the enemy. On the night of the 28th, amid a Chinese assault on their position, the temps went down to -30F.

The dead and wounded piled up. About 2,500 soldiers, sailors, and Marines were part of Faith’s command. About half their number were dead or wounded in the first few days at the frozen Chosin. Several of Faith’s key leaders were taken out of the fight including the original commander of the task force.

Over the course of the first two days of the battle, Faith moved his men, under heavy attack the whole time, to link up with the Marines and the men of 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment. While they were receiving supplies via airdrop and were constantly covered by Navy F4U Corsairs conducting close air support during the day, the situation was only deteriorating.

Faith prepared to get his men off the mountain and back to friendly lines. He planned a breakout through the enemy. After making a hole, “Task Force Faith” (as it came to be known) would travel by convoy through the enemy held territory to make it to friendly lines. The situation was so dire, that as Faith and his men set out on 1 December, they only took enough vehicles to carry the wounded. Everything else was destroyed in place.

As they set out, Navy and Marine fighters attacked the Chinese positions, greatly aiding their retreat. Faith personally led the lead elements of the breakout force, then remained there to guide all his men through. Once they had all escaped, only then did he join his troops.

An enemy counterattack held the convoy up. Colonel Faith ran to the forward elements, under a fusillade of enemy fire to personally direct the attack on the enemy encircling force. The truck column, laden with hundreds of wounded and under constant assault from the enemy, moved slowly. They were again halted when the Marine Corsairs bombed short, striking the lead elements of the convoy with napalm, burning several men.

This demoralized the already desperate troops. Not only were they fighting a relentless, fanatical enemy, they were now being hit by their own munitions. Darkness fell on the men, both literally and figuratively. Through the night the enemy that surrounded them continued to probe the Americans’ defenses.

During the night, Faith led his men from the front, as he kept them slowly creeping forward. They were halted by a Chinese roadblock. Faith ran to the front to again personally direct the fire. Fighting their way through that, they ran into another one.

As they were fighting at the second roadblock, Faith was still at the front of the battle. He was launching hand grenades and discharging his pistol when he was wounded by a fragmentation grenade. His men loaded him into the cab of a 2 ½ ton truck, with Private Russell Barney driving.

Barney and Faith pressed forward. They were the only truck to make it through that last roadblock. As they were pushing through the enemy ambush, Faith was again struck, this time fatally. Barney was able to escape the truck and eventually made it back to friendly lines somehow.

The rest of the men of Task Force Faith were not so lucky. As Faith and Barney were moving through the last roadblock, the Chinese attacked in force and used white phosphorus grenades. With some of the trucks on fire and the situation falling apart completely, the men of Task Force Faith could fight no more. Those that could, fled into the brush, with some of them going onto the ice of the reservoir itself.

Of the 2,500 men trapped at Chosin with Faith, about 1,500 eventually made it back to American lines. They came back in ragged groups or were picked up by Marine patrols the next day. The other 1,000 died on that frigid hellscape in North Korea or died in Chinese captivity soon after.

Faith would be listed as missing in action and was later declared dead, but his body was unrecovered. He was only 32 at the time of his death. His wife and young daughter would receive the Medal of Honor on his behalf from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General of the Army Omar Bradley. Faith had served under Bradley when Bradley commanded the Twelfth United States Army Group in the final months of the Second World War. Among Faith’s men in the Battle of Chosin, 10 were awarded Distinguished Service Crosses (three posthumously).

Long after the battle, researchers, with access to Chinese records of the time, determined that Task Force Faith had fought bravely and performed well under the circumstances. In recognition of that, the US Navy awarded 1/32nd Infantry the Navy version of the Presidential Unit Citation (the unit-level equivalent of the Navy Cross) in the year 2000.

The 32nd Infantry had already received a Navy Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of Inchon. They had received two Korean Presidential Unit Citations, one for the time period 1950-1953 and the other for Inchon.

Faith’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry would carry on his legacy of valor in action. They earned an Army Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of Kumsong in 1953. They received a Valorous Unit Award (the unit-level equivalent of a Silver Star) for Iraq in 2003-2004 and again in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan in 2009. They received Meritorious Unit Citations for Iraq (2003-2004), Afghanistan (2006-2007), and Afghanistan (2013-2014). They most recently received an Army Superior Unit Award for 2017-2018. The battalion is easily the most decorated of the regiment.

Faith was married to Barbara Ann Wilbur of Louisiana. They had one daughter, Barbara “Bobbie.” She was just a toddler when her father left for Korea. Barbara Ann would die in 1960, just 37 years old. After Faith died she had remarried to Warren Kennedy Bennett. Bennett was another career Army officer. He was an infantryman who saw extensive combat in the Pacific War, eventually rising to the rank of major general.

America has, since the end of the Korean War (which ended in an armistice in 1953), been working to recover the remains of American (and allied) servicemen left in North Korea. More than 62 years after his death, Lieutenant Colonel Faith’s remains were located and returned to his only daughter, Barbara “Bobbie” Faith Broyles, for burial. His burial, with full military honors, took place at Arlington National Cemetery on 17 April 2013.

Broyles told the news at the time, “He’s been missing for 62 years and it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing that he’s been found. What’s so amazing is that our country doesn’t give up, they keep looking for the missing and the prisoners of war and people who are unaccounted for in battles.”

“What I recall most about my father was that he was happy. I still can hear him laughing. He enjoyed life. And above all, he enjoyed the Army,” she said.

***And earlier version of this article was posted with an error saying the MoH was awarded to Faith’s family by President Truman. Truman’s name is on the award citation (the President awards the medal in the name of Congress), but he was not present at the awards ceremony.***

Category: Army, Historical, Korea, Medal of Honor, Valor, We Remember