Chosin Few; 64 years later
Stars & Stripes reminds us that the battle for Chosin Reservoir began in Korea 64 years ago today with their reprinting of an article from the Daily Interlake in Montana which interviews local survivor, Capt. Richard Wayne Bolton, 82, of Happy Valley;
“They waited until dark to attack,” Bolton said. “When they came, they blew bugles and whistles and shouted. The Chinese came in waves and they came, and they came, and then in the daylight they completely disappeared to wait for dark to attack again.”
“I thought the whole division was going to die,” he continued. “The Chinese came to annihilate the 1st Marine Division and I thought every one of us was going to die.”
The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir is one of the epic battles in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps. The Marines who survived are accorded a special level of deference. One of the most famous quotes to come out of the battle is that of Marine Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith who said, “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.”
The surrounded, outnumbered Marines not only managed to break free of the Chinese, they inflicted heavy casualties as they went.
“Mao said they won the battle but they lost 45,000 men in the fight. The Chinese 9th Army was combat-ineffective,” Bolton stated. “But the 1st Marine Division was still in action.”
Green Bay’s NBC26 interviews another survivor, Jim Jolly, from Waupaca;
We’ve discussed the documentary “Chosin” in the past, but for those who might have missed it, the film is an excellent tribute to those who fought in the battle. The folks from the Chosin Project interview veterans who were there and they tell the story in a unique way. The last time I checked, “Chosin” is on Netflix.
Category: Historical, Real Soldiers
just checked and it is not on Netflix right now.
Never Forget…
If any of you are interested in reading about about the “Chosin Frozen” battle drop me a email. I helped to form one of the KWVA (Korean War Veterans Association) Chapters that still have members that served in Korea at the reservior that can tell you anything you’d like to know, but don’t expect to much, many stll hate to talk about their time at the reservior. Jonn will give you my email address.
Sam Naomi (Korean Veteran) 1950-1952
My uncle, Glen Carter, from Missoula Montana, was captured briefly at frozen Chosin. Despite a serious head wound, he escaped with others. He lived a short life. Ended up with a steel plate in his head. After being discharged in 1953 he lived about 10 years, never the same after the head wound!
I often wish that they’d make a movie about Chosin, but then I remember that Hollywood could never be trusted to tell the real story. They’d come up with some anti-American bullshit that makes the Norks and Red Chinese look like anything but the slave armies of two murderous dictators, among other crap. The men who suffered on that Goddamn peninsula deserve much better.
Then again, seeing the trailer for “Unbroken” (directed by Angelina Jolie, no less) makes me
wonder if they could actually get it right. Also reminds me that I’ve been meaning to read the book for a long time.
I read “The Last Stand of Fox Company” five or six years ago, and was immediately pissed that that story had never been taught or even acknowledged in any school I’d ever attended. As much as I hate to say it, movies have long been the best medium for educating people on stuff like this, which makes it all the more infuriating when they don’t tell the true story.
While I’m on the subject, “Into the Fire” is another book that should be filmed. How many kids today even know what a B-24 is, or that there’s even a country called Romania, much less the importance of a town called Ploesti? Men who had the courage and dedication to stay on their bomb run while burning alive inside their planes deserve to be remembered by every preschool kid in America, not mentioned in passing in some history book that won’t be read anyway.
Or the sailors of Taffy-3 in the Battle Off Samar. Or the Marines at Hue City (sorry, “Full Metal Jacket” doesn’t cut it). Or how TJ Hudner earned his Medal of Honor. Or…
Shit, this turned into a long rant!
https://kindle.amazon.com/work/give-me-tomorrow-greatest-story–the-ebook/B003XSXZDA/B004BKJB9Q
Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War’s Greatest Untold Story–The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company
by Patrick K. O’Donnell
This is about the battle to hold Toktong Pass open at the other end from Fox 2/7 and the battle to hold “the rear area” at Hagaru-ri.
Let us also not forget the 31st US Infantry “Polar Bears” (from the Siberian Campaign 1918/19) who fought and died at the Chosin as well.
Bearcats!
Pro Patria!
My step-father, a former VFW State Commander was there. Much to look up to. Studs from Chesty on down.
I watched Chosin a few mouths ago. Amazing stories.
It should be required viewing our public education.
No words ……….
God bless Capt. Richard Wayne Bolton. A hero in my book.
There are thousands of US Fallen scattered about North Korea and the DMZ. It is heart wrenching to ponder. There is no US military cemetery in North or South Korea and servicemen often were buried where they fell, near an aid station, a POW camp, and, sometimes, not at all. Graves registration did what it could and small cemeteries were established where they could be established but those were in the north. The disinterment and identification of UN forces was accomplished with great difficulty at Inchon but this was the exception. Temporary military cemeteries that existed were hastily abandoned as the communist forces moved southward. Because of our relationship with North Korea, very little success has come from our post-1950s efforts to repatriate the US soldiers, Marines, and airmen who fell in that land. And the DMZ is simply inaccessible. So, they lie there, in twos, threes and far greater numbers, awaiting the day that they will be returned home.
I should note that there is the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Tanggok, a suburb of Pusan. It contains about 2300 graves, including a few Americans who were purposefully not disinterred as the other Americans were, in order for the Fallen to represent all of the UN forces in Korea at the time. (Whether these few remain there today, I do not know.) For a period account of some of the efforts of the Quartermasters during the Korean War, read this:
http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/news/factsheets/documents/korea_factsheet.pdf
One of the biggest impacts of that documentary to me was the Marine that explained that he was drilling in a Reserve outfit waiting to go to Boot Camp when the call-up happened. His Boot Camp was Korea and the Chosin.
The other was the story of the Marine that was on a cart of dead soldiers with a head wound, some how escaped and was found by an Army unit.
Those men from Korea deserve much more respect than they have ever been given. If it wasn’t for the tv show MASH many of us wouldn’t even know about it, except for a small blurb in the history books.