Jocko Podcast 273: Controversial Lessons from Being Put Through The Ringer. The Making Of A Soldier.

2021-03-17T23:49:06Z

Underground Premium Content: https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:08:00 - Soldier, and The Making of a Soldier, by Anthony "Tony" Herbert 2:42:10 - How to stay on THE PATH. 2:59:00 - Closing Gratitude.

AI summary of episode

I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, um, um, my cousin of a two and it was before the war, it's just like a normal deployment. but, you know, as far as like our perspective, you know, like, I guess maybe you could get talked through it, like, you know, you hear about these crazy things that people do, right? And so he could be like this young kid, even though like straight up, like someone that young will never be a pilot, like it just doesn't happen like that. You kind of act like you know what you're doing, and you kind of walk past the door man, like you're going to- If someone needs some help, like, hey, you know, you know, the kind of your grandma or whatever is like, hey, can you help me? So even though like VIA Kong there was professional VIA Kong meaning they didn't have some other job but then this is you could say the insurgents and Iraq same thing and you could say that once the insurgents became ISIS and started wearing like black uniforms and flying a big flag that was it's almost like they're not guerrillas anymore. You know, a little bit of both they're going to be less organized than a traditional military unit would be a conventional military unit so they're going to be a little less organized and then that just due to the fact that they're spending some of their time as civilians. And then I'm like, okay, I'm accommodating the other, the, you know, the 15 percent and kind of in a way, in a way, kind of ignoring the 85 percent, the needs of the 85 percent could be. Chinese artillery came alive now in the ground beneath my feet rolled and heaved like the deck of a ship on a raging sea smoke fire and steel split the air like a tornado. And this guy was like the local doctor and he kind of got to know him a little bit. Again, I was like, you know, you get to these points to say, I got, but I really need to go over the, you know, should I read this part? But you bring up a good point from time to time that what if like 85 percent of people already know? But they don't do the answer to like let's say you know the in Vietnam like do the It's surprisingly influential when someone just sounds like and looks like they know what they're talking about. Hey, man, you know what, you know how you know how you know what someone's rank is? It's hard like that kind of stuff to be like, yeah, this person, we captured them already. And I remember there was a guy, you know, like, you know, one of guys was married. He talks about another body of his and doesn't really, well, he doesn't explain what happened because he didn't know what happened but somehow this kid got shot with a 22 caliber like playing around or whatever. It was always like that back then, always some accident or cave in that killed one or two or three men, not any major disaster as the newspapers like to say. Man, I mean, he can't, I'm listening to the book and I'm like, Brad, this guy's going to die soon. Yeah, I like, I don't know the name of the movie, but I know what you're talking about, but I never watched it either. I mean, maybe certain angry, like, if you're angry enough, it's a money, maybe, but I'm well, what's in here's a good, here's a good example of thought processes when he is when he gets told, hey, go burn down that village. But if you're just, you know, raising no suspicion because you look like, you know what you're talking about. Not because we were great sportsmen or anything like that, but simply because we like to eat and eating wasn't simple, wasn't a simple matter for a coal miner and his family in those days. Like, I mean, maybe over simplifying it would be like, that's his 100% purpose in life. He's like a young kid and he'd go and he'd be a pilot and he'd really like do stuff. So if it's someone that's dressing up like a civilian and they're maybe acting like this civilian but they're not in an organized military so they don't have a uniform and they have a chain of command And then they say that there's going to be a 30 man combat patrol that's so a North Korean patrol is going to go down this particular riverbed, do north of the positions at the end. So the big book, the soldier book came out in 1998, he wrote it came out in 1973 or something like that. They hunt just like you hunt Tony and just like your father and your brothers. And I was like a young, you know, single guy at the time. With complete disregard for his own safety, like all those things, that's, that's what he's got going on. And it's weird to like, any one of these actions that he did is so far off the charts of what, what's a what's expected to like a normal award writing above and beyond. Like, you're not going to look into every little thing that happens. I had left it was so crazy to think like that story of him attacking that machine gun asked where he saves the major and all that. If you want some of this stuff, which you should, you know, if you subscribe to it because you don't want to miss it, if you don't want to miss cruel oil, you don't want to miss join warfare. So you've heard Hamburg or Hill, then in this crazy battle and you got the casualties right there, 1,93700 seriously wounded and they had taken the hill before it had been reinforced. There's like embedded desire to be in war for many young men, right? Now I mentioned like for a split second that Fox company was headed up to this hill 868. Maggie's loss, I said to myself, turning back toward the Kansas line, I joined the remnants of what had been easy company moving back up the hill out of the valley and away from hill 868. And they're like, they're just going to hook you up, right? It's like time and time and time again. It's almost like, you know, having to grab a wounded major. If one of the most highly decorated soldiers from the Korean War, a man that you're going to see how often this guy's wounded over and over again, blown up hit with white phosphorus, shot, and bayoneted multiple times. And when he came back with the government commodities, a bag of rice, a bag of raisins, a bag of cornmeal, he had the look of a man who had stood in a line of men going nowhere.

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jockel Podcast number 273 with echo Charles and me, Jockel Willing. Good evening, echo. Good evening.
[00:00:07] I was with the Turks and we were heading south. The Chinese had entered the war a few days before.
[00:00:17] They had kicked the ass of the entire 8th Army and we were on the run.
[00:00:22] We had descended a spur of the ridge and we're crossing the valley when we came to a village.
[00:00:28] Everywhere you looked were the corpses of slaughtered Americans.
[00:00:36] One, a captain of infantry, I had met back and forth Lewis, was strung up by the wrists between two buildings.
[00:00:45] His feet not quite touching the ground.
[00:00:49] He raised his head slightly and his lips trembled as he tried to speak. His strength lay in a pool of frozen blood beneath his feet.
[00:01:02] I leaned my rifle against the wall and reached up to cut the ropes.
[00:01:10] Water, he breathed softly, then coughed once the air gurgling through the blood and his throat.
[00:01:20] I'd heard it before from the coal miners back in Hermione.
[00:01:26] They made no difference whether I cut him down or not. He was dead.
[00:01:34] His chin sank to his chest and he swayed lightly.
[00:01:40] Like the thin frail branches of the willow trees next to the cemetery back home.
[00:01:46] The men captured with him were hanging too.
[00:01:51] Some between branches, some endureways, one between two thick limbs of an ancient apple tree.
[00:02:00] They had all been butchered the same way, stripped, then strung up like Christ on the cross.
[00:02:09] Their stomachs had been sliced open and their guts pulled out to dangle down before them.
[00:02:17] Blood, flesh, and guts were trampled in the snow everywhere.
[00:02:24] The Turks glided silently from body to body, cutting each down and laying it to rest.
[00:02:33] A bright Korean moon etched in silver, the horror of the scene.
[00:02:45] I can hardly remember if time when I didn't want to be in the service.
[00:02:50] Both my brothers were in.
[00:02:53] Bud was a chief torpedo man. In the north Atlantic, Chuck, the oldest, was an infantry company commander in Europe.
[00:03:03] Bud was the more colorful storyteller.
[00:03:07] And the navy would have been my choice hands down, except for Hollywood.
[00:03:14] Artillery, barrages, hand-to-hand combat, paratroopers, the jungles, arrow-flin in Burma, that was war.
[00:03:27] I was born to be an infantryman.
[00:03:36] And that right there is the opening of a book called The Making of a Soldier.
[00:03:42] By Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Herbert.
[00:03:47] And this is an incredible book and I've been referencing it here and there as I've been reading it for the last few months.
[00:03:58] And it's actually two books. There's actually two books.
[00:04:01] One is the book I was just reading from called The Making of a Soldier.
[00:04:05] The other is simply called Soldier, both written by Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Tony Herbert.
[00:04:11] And I first heard of these books a few months ago. I'd never heard of them before.
[00:04:16] And I spoke to the cadets at West Point.
[00:04:21] And the Colonel that hosted me by the name of Colonel Pat Howell.
[00:04:26] He's the director of the Modern War Institute at West Point.
[00:04:30] And after this event, he emailed me.
[00:04:34] And during the event I had mentioned about face and hackworth while I was talking to the cadets.
[00:04:41] And Colonel Howell sent me a photograph in this email.
[00:04:45] And this photograph that he sent was a photograph of his copy of about face.
[00:04:52] And it was actually signed by Colonel Hackworth.
[00:04:57] And the inscription said to Patrick,
[00:05:00] You come from a long line of great warriors who led by that adage of looking after your men.
[00:05:09] Warmist regards Hack.
[00:05:13] And it turned out that Hackworth had worked for Colonel Howell's grandfather in the army.
[00:05:23] And so Colonel Howell sent me a message.
[00:05:26] An image of another book. And the book that he sent me, the image of his called soldier.
[00:05:31] And Colonel Howell said this in the email.
[00:05:33] He said, speaking of Dave Hackworth, I sent a pick of his autograph of my copy.
[00:05:39] He had worked for my grandfather years previously.
[00:05:42] I've also sent a picture of a very hackworth-like story about a guy named Tony Herbert.
[00:05:48] The book is called Soldier.
[00:05:51] He also was enlisted in the Korean War, got commissioned, and then was a batained commander in Vietnam.
[00:05:58] And had a prickly time with his chain of command.
[00:06:01] He also worked for my grandfather back in Germany circa 1960.
[00:06:09] So, I mean, I get that report right there.
[00:06:12] It's all I need to hear.
[00:06:14] I hunt down these books online.
[00:06:17] These two books, one soldier, and then the other one, the making of a soldier.
[00:06:24] And I ordered them both.
[00:06:26] And it's to me, okay, well great.
[00:06:28] I got another warrior that I can try and learn from, pretty straightforward.
[00:06:33] But I should have paid more attention to the statement.
[00:06:36] That Herbert, that this guy Colonel Herbert had,
[00:06:39] quote, had a prickly time with his chain of command in Vietnam.
[00:06:42] This is actually a pretty significant understatement.
[00:06:46] And it makes this whole story, and the lessons learned.
[00:06:53] Just not quite a straightforward.
[00:06:57] A lot of controversy.
[00:06:59] And the whole story, which is a combined about a 600 pages of reading between the two books,
[00:07:06] as I tried, as I read these books, and this way this story comes out.
[00:07:14] It's a pretty big elephant to try and swallow.
[00:07:18] And I wasn't quite sure how to approach the whole thing for the podcast.
[00:07:21] I read the books, and then I'm just kind of stewing on them.
[00:07:25] Because there's the whole thing.
[00:07:27] There's war crimes, and there's accusations, and counter accusations,
[00:07:31] and there's good leadership, and there's bad leadership, and it's all wrapped up around this story.
[00:07:36] If one of the most highly decorated soldiers from the Korean War,
[00:07:41] a man that you're going to see how often this guy's wounded over and over again,
[00:07:46] blown up hit with white phosphorus, shot, and bayoneted multiple times.
[00:07:57] So you have this completely heroic individual that is definitely a hack worth type leader,
[00:08:06] and you see these heroic tendencies eventually get caught up and put through the ringer of politics,
[00:08:14] and ego, and the bureaucratic machine.
[00:08:17] And it just really makes it a complex story.
[00:08:22] And as I read the book, there was less and after less and what to do,
[00:08:28] and what not to do, and what to watch out for.
[00:08:32] And like I said, because the vast range of this story is hard for me to wrap my head around it and present it,
[00:08:38] and figure out how to present it.
[00:08:39] And luckily, I have a standard operating procedure of what to do when I'm facing a tough task.
[00:08:43] What you do is you put your rock on and you start marching.
[00:08:47] And that's what we're going to do here, the life and times of Colonel Anthony Tony Herbert.
[00:08:53] And I'm going to utilize both these books, they kind of bounce back and forth,
[00:08:58] to get some background on Herbert's life to start with.
[00:09:03] We're going to go to his second book, which is called Soldier.
[00:09:15] Here we go.
[00:09:17] Both my brothers were born well before me, Charles 15 years earlier in Jules Paul 11,
[00:09:23] almost a different generation, a fact of life for which I never really forgave them.
[00:09:28] Because when World War II came along, they both packed up and marched off,
[00:09:32] leaving me standing on the front porch, cursing the irrevocable fact that in 1941,
[00:09:38] in America there wasn't a great demand for 10-year-old fighting men.
[00:09:42] I cried too when they left, not because they were going to war and might not come back,
[00:09:47] but because I couldn't go with them.
[00:09:50] My mother tried to comfort me. The army doesn't want you now, Tony.
[00:09:55] She said, you've just got to learn to understand, rules are rules,
[00:10:00] but I neither could nor would. All I really knew for certain was that one day above all other things,
[00:10:06] I wanted to be a soldier and that somebody or something was ruining my dream.
[00:10:11] So this guy comes out of the womb, ready to rock and roll as they say.
[00:10:16] And I'll tell you, as I get into this early life,
[00:10:21] it's definitely a very cool description of America in this timeframe,
[00:10:27] both prior to World War II and he's a little kid and then as he gets a little bit older,
[00:10:32] he says, this guns were always an integral part of my life in the Herbert family.
[00:10:38] Not because we were great sportsmen or anything like that,
[00:10:41] but simply because we like to eat and eating wasn't simple,
[00:10:45] wasn't a simple matter for a coal miner and his family in those days.
[00:10:49] The minds were all my father had ever known.
[00:10:52] The day after day regimen of dust and dirt and darkness and penny-pinching and poverty,
[00:10:58] with never enough pennies to pinch,
[00:11:01] up until John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers came along in 1939.
[00:11:07] The most cash my father ever saw for one week's work was $2.
[00:11:12] The rest of his compensation came in the form of credit at the Yerika store where Mr. Stalls,
[00:11:18] the manager and doodiful employee of the mine,
[00:11:21] would carefully match the amount of purchases against the amount of credits in
[00:11:26] inevitably worked out at the end of the year that my father and every other minor in town
[00:11:31] had bought more than their credit allowed.
[00:11:33] All my life, I heard my father and mother were about paying off the company store before they died.
[00:11:39] Their chief aim was to leave without passing that particular debt onto their children.
[00:11:46] They lived in a company owned house, in a company owned town, in a company owned county.
[00:11:52] Neither my father nor any other man who worked in the mine's could quit.
[00:11:58] How could they? The mine's owned them.
[00:12:02] But none of us ever really felt poor.
[00:12:07] There were so many other families just like us that we had no standard of comparison.
[00:12:12] Everybody had to struggle to make it.
[00:12:15] At least everybody with whom we had any contact.
[00:12:19] And for all we knew, the whole world lived precisely as we did, there in hermany.
[00:12:26] 40 miles from Pittsburgh deep in the black heart of coal mine country.
[00:12:34] Different kind of lifestyle.
[00:12:37] If my father ever complained about the grim cycles in his life, I never heard him.
[00:12:45] He was a steady as a clock up before dawn, walked to the mine, back home in the evening for a glass of beer or two before supper,
[00:12:53] and then to bed.
[00:12:54] But with a wife and four children, Charles and Jules, my two older brothers,
[00:12:58] plus our sister Irene, four years my senior and me, there was never enough money, never near enough.
[00:13:05] And the income from his guide service, and I skipped the head, he also like,
[00:13:09] will guide hunters sometimes.
[00:13:11] His income from the guide service couldn't bridge the gap.
[00:13:14] He trapped moss grats and sold pelts to Montgomery Ward and Sears in Roebuck.
[00:13:19] And average skin would bring about a dollar 75 and exceptionally good one would sell for three dollars.
[00:13:25] And although he approached his trapping with all the same skill and determination devoted to his job at the mine and his hunting, it still wasn't enough.
[00:13:34] There were occasions when he would have to trudged down to the welfare office.
[00:13:38] It was painful for him.
[00:13:40] I knew he dreaded every trip he had ever made down there.
[00:13:43] And when he came back with the government commodities, a bag of rice, a bag of raisins, a bag of cornmeal,
[00:13:50] he had the look of a man who had stood in a line of men going nowhere.
[00:13:54] He was unusually grim.
[00:13:56] And for days afterwards he would not be himself, but somehow quieter, more withdrawn.
[00:14:02] I suppose the only comfort he had was in knowing that he wasn't the only husband and father in her many who was having trouble taking care of his family.
[00:14:13] All of us went to whatever lengths were necessary to get the job done.
[00:14:17] We made wine at home and sold or traded it for essentials. Charles took on an ice route.
[00:14:25] Delivering the 25 pound and 50 pound blocks up and down the street.
[00:14:29] We picked coal at the slate dump, a smoking mountain of coal waste deposited by the mine just at the edge of town.
[00:14:36] It was about a quarter mile across and three quarters of a mile long.
[00:14:40] All of the childhood images I have retained, one of the most vivid is of that Ebony heap rising above the house is steaming and hissing like a volcano.
[00:14:49] We would trudge up its crumbling sides, pick up pieces of slate knock on knock the coal off and put it in our burlap sacks that we carried.
[00:14:58] At the end of the day we piled our sacks into a wheelbarrow and went downtown to sell the coal for a dime a sack.
[00:15:05] The slate pile was never one of my favorite places. There were cavernous hollow pockets beneath its contours and we had all heard of the two people who had gone to the dump and disappeared forever into its black bowels.
[00:15:20] But somehow we survived.
[00:15:24] The town was one of several built around the collection of mines that had attracted not only the Baltic immigrants, but a lot of scots and Irish men as well.
[00:15:34] So for Creek a bright red steam fed constantly with a drain off from the mine separated our town from Limerick Hill, the first of the others.
[00:15:44] The first of the systems that were premised on that creek was rigid as though it were the Berlin Wall. Still despite our differences, I never knew what they were.
[00:15:55] We shared one common bond, the mines and their wailing whistles that shrieked out at the beginning and end of the workers' days, sounding for miles and miles through the hills.
[00:16:06] And sometimes signaling the reality of death.
[00:16:11] My uncle Joe Sheerer, my mother's oldest sister's husband died in a cave in.
[00:16:18] At the nearby barking mine when I was about four years old, three or four other miners were also killed in that cave in.
[00:16:25] And I remember the sound of the whistles.
[00:16:28] It was always like that back then, always some accident or cave in that killed one or two or three men, not any major disaster as the newspapers like to say.
[00:16:39] So it was forgotten and ignored by those who had the kind of power that would have made some difference in the condition of the mines and the dangers faced by those who worked in them.
[00:16:52] He goes on here, he talks about the church.
[00:16:55] And he has a father Kelly there said, I always loved father Kelly, but I was never sure about the church.
[00:17:00] He was a kind old man who'd been a hero in World War I and had the medals to prove it.
[00:17:05] According to my father, he had been gasped.
[00:17:08] At times he seemed very nervous about being a priest and maybe that why he was drinking a great deal.
[00:17:16] He talks about another guy named Dr. Latimer.
[00:17:19] And look, I'm going into some detail here because as this story unfolds, you've got to try and figure out where he's making decisions from.
[00:17:30] Where is his morality rooted? And it's very clear as you move through this that there's people that influence the way he fought.
[00:17:41] Another guy that influenced the way he fought is a guy named Dr. Latimer.
[00:17:45] And this guy was like the local doctor and he kind of got to know him a little bit.
[00:17:52] And one of the things he would do is give him copies of National Geographic.
[00:17:56] And again, this is one of those things where when you read this, you think, okay, it's when you look back.
[00:18:03] When you see the way the whole story unfolds you look back, you think to yourself, okay, this is interesting.
[00:18:08] He says it was Doc, I think, who first started impressing me with the idea that wherever people live, they're essentially the same.
[00:18:18] Look at these natives, he would say, pointing at some bare-breasted folks from Australia or Africa.
[00:18:24] They hunt just like you hunt Tony and just like your father and your brothers.
[00:18:29] The only differences that they use a bone arrow.
[00:18:32] They bleed if they get cut.
[00:18:35] And the fathers and mothers worry about their children and they all worry about food and about dying.
[00:18:41] And they all want to live as long as they can just like you, Tony.
[00:18:45] The doc never went to church. Somehow that impressed me.
[00:18:49] Like my father, he seemed always to be what he was never any foniness around him or about him.
[00:18:59] So that's again, you can kind of see this guy's developing a pretty strong moral character about other people and seeing other people as people and what the common ground is.
[00:19:09] He talks more here about father Kelly. He was a good priest.
[00:19:13] Good in the sense that he deeply knew the people in his flock. He knew their poverty and their hopelessness and their frequent desperation and above all,
[00:19:21] he knew how absolutely necessary it was that their individual family incomes be supplemented.
[00:19:27] That's why he showed no reservations at all about doctoring baptismal certificates.
[00:19:34] In 1942, when I was 12 years old, he changed mind to make it read that I was 16.
[00:19:40] And thus allowed me to get a work permit and start bringing home a little cash for the family. He had done the same for my brothers I was told,
[00:19:47] and for almost anybody else in town who had son to a willing to work.
[00:19:51] I'd taken my first job when I was 10, along with Richard Nadel, the brother of a pretty girl named Mary Grace.
[00:20:00] We worked on Mueller's farm right outside of town and every morning at 430 rain or shine. Mr. Mueller would come into town and pick us up on his little truck.
[00:20:10] We paid a dollar fifty a week and a gallon of raw milk. And for that, we both drove tractors cut wheat, dug potatoes, fed his cattle, milked his cows.
[00:20:19] He knew what he was doing. Obviously that wasn't helping much with the family financial burdens and father Kelly's forgery was an absolute necessity.
[00:20:29] So he had the under the table job, but you're not getting paid very much. So he gets this doctored birth certificate.
[00:20:37] He goes out and gets a job at this glass factory, he goes into some detail about that.
[00:20:41] He's working in a situation where he's wearing a full ass bestest suit.
[00:20:46] And he's working in a place that's so hot, you're only allowed to work for 10 minutes and then it's 10 minutes break.
[00:20:53] And it's not like these are a lenient labor laws. It had to be so hot that you'd like die if you don't get a break.
[00:21:02] So then he does that job for a while. He ends up with a Pennsylvania Railroad. He's making 85 cents an hour.
[00:21:08] And he's doing this job where once again, there's a 600 pound piston that's like above you and you'd never be, if it happened to fall, you were dead.
[00:21:16] Because you couldn't hear anything. And of course he liked football. He liked playing sports, but he says here, I soon learned that the practice time required for high school athletics,
[00:21:26] 8 into the time I could spend in the field with my hunting and my trapping.
[00:21:30] During games on Saturday, I would tie hunting dogs to the bench and stash my gun beneath it while we played.
[00:21:39] During one of the during one of the winters in my early teens, the Calsters lost four of their children in one swift stroke of fate.
[00:21:51] And once again, the mind whistle told the story to the neighboring communities. One of the older brother Harry's Harry was a friend of mine.
[00:21:58] His two younger brothers and two sisters were out one afternoon playing on the frog ponds in the area ponds created by the still drainage of the mines. The near zero temperatures had frozen the water to what the kids believed was a safe depth.
[00:22:13] But the ice broke beneath them and one by one the others plunged through and drowned to trying to affect a rescue with the courage so typical of the area all for dead.
[00:22:26] I had never seen Harry cry before. I caught his eye at Stader's funeral home and his tears moved me to cry myself.
[00:22:39] Again, just the fact that he's talking about sort of this courage and if you think about what your job is, what most people's jobs are going to those mines every day.
[00:22:50] He talks about another body of his and doesn't really, well, he doesn't explain what happened because he didn't know what happened but somehow this kid got shot with a 22 caliber like playing around or whatever.
[00:23:04] He says he lived for some months, but then gangrene said in and they brought his body back to her, her many.
[00:23:11] The funeral said at St. Edwards where I was an altar boy that priest took the water shaker from me and began to sprinkle its contents on the casket and I remembered that I stood there before the altar trying to figure out at which end of the great metal box they'd placed Joe's head and which end his feet.
[00:23:28] I never really thought in terms of the dead as being punished. It'd always been a matter of living getting their come up and.
[00:23:38] I never picked individual fights, but I never seemed to have any trouble getting into them either.
[00:23:53] I guess because I was larger than most of the guys my age, a lot of them couldn't resist the challenge.
[00:23:59] I don't remember ever losing one.
[00:24:04] We get a good background with the guy. We get a good feel of the situation. It's very tough. Hard work.
[00:24:10] Always behind the eight ball financially, but still nonetheless tight community.
[00:24:17] Fast forward a little bit while I was getting started as an analyst and my brothers were fighting the war.
[00:24:23] Chuck became an infantry officer in a company commander in Italy and bud, a navy man served as chief torpedo man aboard a destroyer that prowled the North Atlantic.
[00:24:32] Their letters were never any aid or comfort to me.
[00:24:36] Vicarious combat, like books and movies and teleplays had never been my cup of tea.
[00:24:42] I hadn't quite recovered from their abrupt departure from her many and their subsequent location in places with exotic names when they came home with medals on their chest and war stories to tell the old man on the front porch.
[00:24:56] In the spring of 1944, that's what I wanted and I wanted it badly. I still wanted to be a soldier and I knew exactly how I could do it.
[00:25:04] The military's rules be damned. The phony baptismal certificate father Kelly had worked for me.
[00:25:11] Had worked up for me was the key. Actually, I was already getting some advice from people at work about registering for the draft.
[00:25:18] They thought I was 18 years old.
[00:25:21] And I saw no reason to disappoint them. I went over to Irwin with my work permit in hand and told Mrs. Gunga where at the draft office that I just forgot about it and needed to register.
[00:25:33] She looked at me as if I were a little bit of a bitch who was trying to sneak out of my duty as an 18 year old American citizen.
[00:25:40] Actually, I was a 14 year old teenager. American citizen, they was trying to do my best to sneak into my duty.
[00:25:47] I'd like to say it was all my idea, but I can't remember whether it was me or my friend Tony Spazali.
[00:25:54] So, him and Tony Spazali decide they're going to go and list.
[00:25:58] They catch or they hit your ride until they get outside of Pittsburgh. Once they get outside of Pittsburgh, we walk the rest of the way to the US post office in downtown Pittsburgh.
[00:26:08] We both joined the US Marines. This kid's 14.
[00:26:11] The next day, the train Tony and I were riding southward through Virginia towards Paras Island, South Carolina.
[00:26:18] It was halted in some backwards town and we were taken off by a man who identified himself only as a federal officer.
[00:26:25] We were both impressed if disappointed. When we arrived back at the Pittsburgh Depot, Mr. Grestman or high school principal was waiting and took us home.
[00:26:36] My father only shook his head, but my mother was glad to see me and smothered me with forgiveness. I went back to my traps in my school and my job and the railroad.
[00:26:44] The very next day, I wasn't finished, however, I was only waiting. Fast forward a little bit.
[00:26:49] Three years later, now he's actually the right age. He goes to unless he's 17 years old, goes to the Marine Corps recruiting office and gets told the quote as full.
[00:26:59] Because by the way, the war's over. The war had been over. So he missed the World War II. He turns 17, right cool.
[00:27:07] Sorry, we ain't got nothing for you. So he gets told by the Marine Corps recruiter, sorry, nothing for you.
[00:27:12] And then at that moment, a man wearing the US Army's 11th Airborne patch on his shoulder, centered into the Marine's office and noticed my quandary.
[00:27:19] Hey, kid, you want to be a pair of troopers? He asked, what's that I inquired?
[00:27:23] You had jumped out of planes and fight, he said, and I joined. Perry didn't a story. We got you.
[00:27:30] A week later, in the early morning of May, 1947, I got up to say goodbye to my folks, my father who rose at 430 every morning of his life, except Sundays was sitting at the kitchen table.
[00:27:41] When I came downstairs, already dressed and ready, leave. My mother was puttering quietly around the stove and the large white, a name will cabin it, preparing lunch for my father to take to the mine.
[00:27:51] I sat down and poured a cup, they'll cough into a metal cup. I suppose my father felt it was absolutely necessary that he gave me some parting advice, although he like I had no idea what being a pair of trooper meant.
[00:28:02] But it was good advice. As I recall, it went something like this.
[00:28:06] The uniform doesn't mean you're a soldier.
[00:28:09] Whatever you do, don't get disgusted, stick with it like you stick with it here at home. Remember what your brothers did. Nobody ever quit.
[00:28:18] It won't be any harder than hunting than waiting in the creek in the wintertime. Nothing is as hard as just getting started.
[00:28:27] It's like in the coal mines every step takes care of itself. Then we walked out together.
[00:28:34] My mother didn't cry. I wouldn't have expected her to stoicism as a virtue that a coal miner's wife develops.
[00:28:41] I never remember my mother as a young woman, not that day or any other. And when my wife is 60 years old, she will be younger than my mother was at 30.
[00:28:51] My mother waved from the porch as my father and I descended the 20 steps to the road.
[00:28:57] His ride to the mine came by and they disappeared into the darkness. I walked to the Eureka store, caught a buster Irwin, took a train to Pittsburgh, and then on the morning of May 10, 1947, I arrived at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
[00:29:09] I recall that moment as among the happiest in my life. The moment I stepped off that train and knew I was on my way to my dream.
[00:29:21] I was going to be a soldier. So we kind of get an idea of what we're dealing with here.
[00:29:27] I think that's something important background to grab.
[00:29:31] And then we're going to go back to this other book. So we're going to go back to the other book that making of a soldier.
[00:29:39] And what's interesting about this is he originally wrote this book.
[00:29:47] He originally wrote this book. So the big book, the soldier book came out in 1998, he wrote it came out in 1973 or something like that.
[00:29:57] Maybe a little bit later. But this other book, he had originally written a book called Conquest to Know Where.
[00:30:05] It was just about his experience in Korea. And he wrote that in 1954.
[00:30:11] And he was young when he wrote it. And he explains this in the kind of in the preface to this book. He explains he was young.
[00:30:17] He had a co-author, the co-author kind of ran with it a little bit more than he did.
[00:30:23] And so I ended up really not reflecting what he had been through. So he re-wrote this book later.
[00:30:29] So we're picking this up where he's at basic training. So in basic we were interviewed periodically for school assignments.
[00:30:37] My choice was infantry. And I kept asking for it. I was advised each time that only an idiot would want to go infantry.
[00:30:43] But there's no way to discourage me, although I got pretty mad at being told that a soldier who wanted to fight was crazy.
[00:30:51] And today I was about to tell the captain in a couple of loutens just what I thought of leaders who attempted to sell men on every profession in the army.
[00:30:57] Except the one that had been created for when my friend Bob Heizi took me aside. Look herb.
[00:31:03] Don't let the bastards get to you. If you don't accept a school, they're going to have to let you go infantry.
[00:31:10] But frankly, I think you're nuts. He was right, not that I was nuts. But that if I held out, they would have to let me go infantry.
[00:31:18] I did and they did. So after basic, because it goes through basic training, some stories about that. And obviously I'm fast-boarding through a bunch of this stuff. You have to get these books to get the full details.
[00:31:32] After basic, I cooled my heels for a couple of weeks with the second infantry division for Luce,
[00:31:36] I watched it into my papers were processed. Then I was sent to jump school and was graduated as an infantryman and a pair of trooper.
[00:31:42] I served a year and a half was discharged and returned to finish school at Seckwitley Township High in Hermione.
[00:31:51] No one went anywhere in the US Army without a high school diploma, so I earned mine then reinlisted in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Brake.
[00:32:00] For a month later, while I was studying radio repair at Fort Monmouth, the North Koreans invaded South Korea. I was shaving when my friend Harry burst into the little train with news that the United States was going to provide combat assistance to South Korea.
[00:32:17] My head whipped around and I sliced a notch on my chin that passed for a dimple for a good two years.
[00:32:23] Harry and I talked it over, we made our decision. Then we made our pitch. We asked to be released from school early to go to Korea.
[00:32:30] The Commanding Officer laughed. Korea explained was a zero big nothing. Our troops in Japan were quite capable of handling things over there.
[00:32:37] And he said it would all be over before our request could even be processed. He's crazy. I later insisted to Harry and can't be.
[00:32:45] I wasn't going to be cheated again. I tried to go over his head. It was useless. I tried to flunk out of the course. It was impossible.
[00:32:52] The only way was to graduate. So I boarded down. I took my classes. I applied myself. I was going to get out.
[00:32:59] I was going to get out of the signal corps completely. I was going to get out of the 82nd. I was going to get out of the United States. I was going to get to Korea.
[00:33:07] And I was going to get back into infantry as an infantryman and to fight in the war.
[00:33:16] And he makes a good attempt. He makes a good attempt. He makes it happen. He graduates from the school.
[00:33:25] And now he is on a troop transport, which takes 10 days to get to Japan. Those are the longest days of my life. On the eighth, I was assigned KP.
[00:33:35] Refused to pull it and got busted from private first class back to private. They didn't matter. I was on my way to war. And I wasn't about to arrive with dish pan hands.
[00:33:47] Besides who the hell cared whether I got there as a PFC or private. He just fell on. He was full on.
[00:33:55] We were briefed by some of the evacuated veterans of Korea who were being used to give us the real scoop before we went in. Some of it was bullshit. Most of it was true.
[00:34:06] A sergeant of that of both World War II and Korea told the best, whenner is coming, he informed us.
[00:34:14] Most likely you will find it more severe than any winter you have ever seen. It's high, rugged country, and bitter cold.
[00:34:22] And you'll be out there in the weather 24 hours a day for months. You explained how the enemy were. They were not cowards. He said they were well-armed and they could fight.
[00:34:33] Yeah, sure a sergeant, some smart ass heckled from the back of the auditorium, tell us a war story.
[00:34:39] His glance swept over us. I'm not going to tell you any war stories. You'll have your own soon enough. And some of you won't live long enough to tell them.
[00:34:50] Three days later, I was sitting ashore with orders assigning me to the 20th-air ground signal liaison in Busan as far south as you could go.
[00:35:01] But I hadn't come to Korea to repair radios, and I wasn't about to sit out the war in Busan.
[00:35:07] There were plenty of guys around who would be happy with those orders they didn't need me. I went up to see the captain and explained that I was an infantry paratrooper,
[00:35:15] and I expected to go to the 187th-air-born regimental combat team or back to the second infantry division, both wearing country. He scarcely heard me. He said,
[00:35:25] What I'd been hearing ever since I had joined the army, impossible. I was humiliated and furious and stormed back to where my gear lay piled on the wet ground.
[00:35:35] I was surrounded by troops who had been wounded and who were now returning to their units. Our artillery pounded to the north. I wasn't going south.
[00:35:44] The next day, when they loaded trucks aimed north, I picked one with second division on its bumper and leaped the board. I was a-wall in Korea.
[00:35:54] You know what A-wall means, right? Absent without leave. So he's just got this cushy job repairing radios, and he randomly selects a vehicle and jumps on board.
[00:36:10] You think that's like, you go, okay, that's kind of crazy. Well, look at this. The truck was a mixed bag of vets and replacements from a half-a-dove and dozen different countries. A Korean was driving.
[00:36:22] I soon discovered that I was the only American aboard. I also learned from one of the Koreans who spoke English better than I did that the truck belonged, not to the US-second infantry division,
[00:36:31] but to the Republic of Korea Army-second infantry division. So I first saw combat in a Korean division, but at least I was in battle.
[00:36:39] And look, I could- I could easily just turn this into an audio book and read the entire freaking thing. Like, it's- there's so much- there's so much interesting things that happen.
[00:36:54] You kind of have to read it yourself, and I apologize. I don't want to do a full audio book of this.
[00:37:02] Because I'm reading this thing and I'll be like, well, I can't read the whole book and then you read something crazy.
[00:37:10] This could never happen nowadays, right? No. Obviously. No, good.
[00:37:13] Like, I mean, I guess it kind of could. It kind of could actually look-
[00:37:19] Hey, man, you're in country. You know, you could- you could get away with a lot. You could get away with a lot because they don't have-
[00:37:31] They don't have, you know, you could- you could kind of make things happen, right? Just like, you know, you're sneaking into a concert.
[00:37:36] You kind of act like you know what you're doing, and you kind of walk past the door man, like you're going to- you got some task that you're supposed to do.
[00:37:42] Yeah. You've got no one says anything to you. So, you know, you throw your name. Hey, can you put me on that manifest to get this flight up to Baghdad?
[00:37:49] You know, something to be like, well, where are you from? I'm from a sealed team that's supposed to be up there. You know, names willing.
[00:37:56] Well, what happened? Oh, and I was late, you know, I was- my kid was sick, and I got here late. I'm just trying to get up with my unit.
[00:38:03] And they're like, they're just going to hook you up, right? Right? Yeah. That's the problem.
[00:38:07] No, I wasn't talking to tilt. Yeah.
[00:38:09] It was either tilt or it was. It might have been Dick Thompson who was like,
[00:38:14] We've evolved into your go to Vietnam. I was like, yeah, cool. Yeah, you're good. You're in. It wasn't like, hey, can I please go?
[00:38:21] Yeah. You want to go to NAM? Cool. Oh, you want to go to Special Forces? Cool. You want to go to, you want to go to Salk? Cool. No problem.
[00:38:28] Yeah. So, it's sort of a little bit of that. Still like nowadays, I think you could get away with some of this.
[00:38:34] It would be a little bit trickier. Yeah. Many, in case those strap hangers roll around the country.
[00:38:39] Do, do, do, do. Yeah. It's surprisingly influential when someone just sounds like and looks like they know what they're talking about.
[00:38:46] Hey, man, you know what, you know how you know how you know what someone's rank is? They have a little patch that's velcroed onto their thing.
[00:38:54] So, yeah. Freaking to Andy Stomph talking about that. Andy Stomph would like to put make himself a, make himself a lieutenant commander.
[00:39:01] And he's a, he'd make himself four ranks above what he actually was.
[00:39:06] Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, and I guess, right. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, they chose to look into it.
[00:39:13] And it's like, yeah, they could eventually find out. But if you're just, you know, raising no suspicion because you look like, you know what you're talking about.
[00:39:19] Like, you're not going to look into every little thing that happens.
[00:39:21] Yeah. Especially, there's a war going on. You're like, oh, you're a placement cool.
[00:39:24] Yeah. You're not like, let me see your paperwork.
[00:39:26] Yeah. By the way, when asked for your paperwork, you say, oh, yeah, you got blown up.
[00:39:31] Yeah. And it's not like you're trying to do something that a normal person would be thinking is advantageous for you.
[00:39:38] It's not like you're saying, hey, I need to get on a plane. Did you go to Japan?
[00:39:41] Right. There are people who probably say, hey, what do we mean?
[00:39:43] We need to go to Japan. Yeah. What's, what's he talking about?
[00:39:46] That's not happening. But if you're saying, hey, I want to go to the front lines.
[00:39:49] Yeah. Hey. And you're going to see his whole tour, basically. He's A-wall.
[00:39:54] He's A-wall. This whole tour just, and he does exactly what you said.
[00:39:58] He kind of shows up and gets with a company and starts working.
[00:40:02] So, he's in a way. It's almost like a crazy irony where he's A-wall, but he's A-wall because he's not A-wall.
[00:40:08] He's even saying he's like, yes. Yeah. He's B-wall.
[00:40:13] I'm going to get some, he's get some wall.
[00:40:18] Yeah. You could get, I think you could get away with some of it.
[00:40:22] I mean, I know that we definitely did some, let me give you an example.
[00:40:26] We did things that were not normal. You know, maybe not a fish.
[00:40:31] You know, not a fish in the noobers. You know, my, my C-B, so I had C-Bs that,
[00:40:36] which is construction battalion. So they're navy guys that do construction.
[00:40:41] And they've got a really awesome historical story in that they would build airfields in World War II.
[00:40:49] And they did, and there's part of the underwater demolition teams that use some of that experience from the C-Bs.
[00:40:56] So there's a, there's a connection there. Anyways, C-Bs are C-Bs.
[00:41:00] The C-Bs that worked for me. They did some stuff that was not a big deal.
[00:41:05] That was not above that was not 100% let's say authorized. Right. For instance,
[00:41:12] we need a piece of equipment. We need a piece of gear. We need a bunch of lumber to build something.
[00:41:19] Basically, my C-Bs would figure out how to get that stuff that we needed.
[00:41:24] And you know, there might be trading stakes or whatever, captured weapons, whatever, just whatever random things.
[00:41:32] And here you go. Yeah, makes stuff work. So there's definitely, it's a little bit more.
[00:41:37] It's wild west, right? You heard, like Iraq or Afghanistan described it. Oh, is the wild west out there?
[00:41:45] Yeah, here people say that. It takes a little while for the administrative things to catch up.
[00:41:51] So when you're waiting for administrative things to catch up, there's some shady activities happening. You're making some things happen.
[00:41:58] Who's a guy and there's a movie about it? He's like a young kid and he'd go and he'd be a pilot and he'd really like do stuff.
[00:42:07] Yeah, I like, I don't know the name of the movie, but I know what you're talking about, but I never watched it either.
[00:42:12] Yeah, would he like get and fly a plane and yeah, yeah, he would apparently the story I didn't see the movie either,
[00:42:17] but I remember seeing, no, it was an interview. He was on like a podge.
[00:42:23] Yeah, the real guy. Yeah, the real guy. And he's older or whatever, but he's same like, yeah, he's main thing.
[00:42:28] You just act like you know what you're doing. That's all you gotta do.
[00:42:31] That's always a good one. And so he could be like this young kid, even though like straight up, like someone that young will never be a pilot,
[00:42:37] like it just doesn't happen like that. And he just act like he knew what he was doing. And they'd be like, yeah, cool.
[00:42:43] That's why they call it a con man, right? Because you have to have this confidence level of confidence.
[00:42:47] So he's got a level of confidence here just to jump on with a bunch of North Koreans. The reason that I'm went off on this tangent about not reading everything is because he jumps in, he's in combat with these guys.
[00:42:57] He says, uh, the first guy I was sure that I had shot bounded into the air, then dropped over a ledge before us.
[00:43:05] It was my first sure kill, but I felt neither revulsion nor sense of power just in difference.
[00:43:10] I had had more compassion for rabbits and deer, a guy with a rifle in his hands coming to kill me did nothing to stir my sympathy.
[00:43:17] Subsequent years of combat and Korean Vietnam served only confirmed and strengthened that feeling.
[00:43:22] Ten minutes later, I was out of ammunition. This is his first scenario. Ten minutes later, I'm out of ammunition.
[00:43:28] Everyone else on my side had already taken off, so I picked up a wounded Korean and helped him back to where I had joined the unit.
[00:43:35] Now look what happens. He finds a Jeep with four American GIs and just kind of rolls with them because he doesn't want to be, he's with Koreans.
[00:43:45] With people that aren't speaking, he does a few people. Let's be. Can you move on most of them?
[00:43:49] And then he jumps in with them, ends up going to this replacement depot and load. He gets loaded onto a box car.
[00:43:58] That's, that's heading south.
[00:44:01] And then a couple days later, he ends up where he's supposed to be. Okay, so a couple days later, we were near enough for me to make my move. Oh, he gets to Busan.
[00:44:08] So he gets back to Busan because he's with the Korean unit. He doesn't want to be with the Korean unit. So he goes back to Busan to figure out like, okay, how can I get with some Americans?
[00:44:15] He gets back there.
[00:44:17] And a couple days later, we were near enough for me to make my move. I stole a Jeep and drove over to the 23rd.
[00:44:24] They were preparing for to jump off for the Yalu River, a push north designed to end the war. Headed home was the modded hot motto home by Christmas.
[00:44:33] My car thru promised rumor had it that the seventh infantry division and the Marines were already rolling north.
[00:44:39] The rocks already have more men on the yay Lou on the yay Lou than the Chinese on the mainland to put it together.
[00:44:47] Someone's wore helmets as good as over. I felt a pain in my heart, but what the hell a short war is better than none.
[00:44:53] The other side's life is full of surprise. So he steals a Jeep to go and again, right?
[00:44:58] This guy's just getting after it.
[00:45:01] The temperature plummeted to 20 below.
[00:45:05] Again, I'm trying to figure out what to read, but you read, you see that the temperatures 20 below.
[00:45:10] Let's make sure everybody knows.
[00:45:13] Extra equipment and ammunition we're issued.
[00:45:15] We began to feel a fever for conquest.
[00:45:18] We were going to end it. The big attack was on.
[00:45:21] Not by us, but by the Chinese.
[00:45:23] One million strong they came at us across the Yalu River out of Manchuria surrounded by more than 30 fold divisions are attacked turned into a route.
[00:45:37] So then this happened. So he's, they're starting to kind of get beat up and the sergeant comes off.
[00:45:43] We got to get more troops up here. The Turks are somewhere off close to the east.
[00:45:47] Do you know where they are?
[00:45:48] Sorry, I don't even know where we are. He ignored it.
[00:45:52] Well, I know where they're supposed to be.
[00:45:55] But I'd hope maybe you know for sure. He dropped the finger on my shoulder.
[00:45:59] I've got to send you after them.
[00:46:01] I don't have anyone to spare. It's another lesson of war.
[00:46:04] If you don't belong to the unit, you can be spared.
[00:46:06] So he's just tagging along with these guys.
[00:46:08] And so the sergeants like, okay, well, I need somebody to go do something to you.
[00:46:12] Sure, I'll go. I heard myself volunteer. That was all.
[00:46:16] He didn't know any more about the Turks than I did.
[00:46:19] If I found them okay, if I didn't, that was okay too.
[00:46:21] Two hours later, I located their lead element.
[00:46:24] They were still heading north, looking for more Chinese,
[00:46:27] which said just about all there is to say about them.
[00:46:30] Every other unit was heading south, running from the Chinese while the Turks were moving north,
[00:46:35] looking for Chinese.
[00:46:36] And the Chinese were desperately trying to avoid them.
[00:46:39] I couldn't talk to the Turks.
[00:46:40] And they couldn't talk to me.
[00:46:42] I tried to get across what I wanted, but it was useless.
[00:46:44] They had their orders. Attack north.
[00:46:47] Night closed in and I stayed.
[00:46:50] So he's supposed to go figure out what they're doing.
[00:46:53] And he can't even communicate with them to get them to do what he needed them to do.
[00:46:58] So he stays with them for a while.
[00:46:59] Then he decides, I'm fast forward.
[00:47:01] He decides he's got to leave and go back in the at least tell him, hey,
[00:47:03] this is where the Turks are.
[00:47:04] I don't speak their language.
[00:47:06] And what do you want me to do next?
[00:47:09] And in order to leave, he heads off to the north.
[00:47:12] He thinks it's going to be the best way to go.
[00:47:14] And here we go back to the book.
[00:47:16] I looked ahead and spotted about 200 Chinese coming across the valley.
[00:47:19] Not more than 100 yards out.
[00:47:21] I dropped down behind some rocks and fallen timbers and stretched out on my belly in the snow.
[00:47:25] Recalling the dead captain.
[00:47:27] That's what I opened up with.
[00:47:28] I eased my rifle off safe.
[00:47:30] I wasn't about to be taken alive.
[00:47:32] They came straight up.
[00:47:33] The finger toward me and passed.
[00:47:35] I was safe.
[00:47:36] I was ready to move again.
[00:47:37] I put my hands down to push myself up when all hell broke loose.
[00:47:40] The Turks had opened up with everything they had and Chinese swarmed back down the hill toward me.
[00:47:45] I was halfway to my feet.
[00:47:47] It was too late to drop back now and I couldn't just stand there.
[00:47:50] I spun the rifle around and opened up on three or four nearest to me.
[00:47:53] Weapons flew in the air and bodies went sailing past me.
[00:47:56] Asked over heels.
[00:47:57] I snatched up one of their burps and squeezed the trigger along.
[00:48:00] Sharp rip, rent the air and more bodies tumbled by.
[00:48:03] As fast as I emptied one weapon, I scooped up another.
[00:48:06] I had him by the balls.
[00:48:07] I could fire at anything in any direction.
[00:48:10] They couldn't fire without hitting their own troops, running and milling around in confusion.
[00:48:14] Some headed back up the hill and the Turks opened up again.
[00:48:17] When they came back down, I dropped another couple dozen.
[00:48:20] Suddenly it fell silent.
[00:48:22] It was no time for me to move.
[00:48:23] I got back down and waited.
[00:48:25] At first light, the Turks sent a patrol to see what the score was.
[00:48:29] Between us, we had accounted for almost 200.
[00:48:33] My foxhole buddy convinced them that I had gone out after the entire group alone.
[00:48:38] And I became an archa-dush, their brother.
[00:48:42] Later when I stood before their president, the only foreign soldier ever received the Turkish equivalent of the congressional metal of honor.
[00:48:51] So now he's in position with the Turks.
[00:48:57] And here we go again.
[00:48:58] And I'm probably going to be saying that a lot as we read through this.
[00:49:01] Here we go again.
[00:49:02] Their in position and shit just gets crazy.
[00:49:05] The major assault came from the west, and it wasn't too swift since we had the sun at our backs.
[00:49:10] Some men fought some just froze, but the Turks rose as one man with fixed bayonets and met the charge head on about 20 yards out from the column flanks.
[00:49:20] Steel clashing against steel, screams of pain and terror intermingling.
[00:49:25] But not a sound from the Turks.
[00:49:27] The Turks, who I came to know well, who and who later died, slashed across the faces of three Chinese with one great sweep of his blade.
[00:49:34] Another a master sergeant who would later visit my home in the States as a hero of his nation.
[00:49:39] And as an honored guest of ours, gutted two more at my side.
[00:49:43] They loved it.
[00:49:44] But the Chinese, I saw already had no stomach for it.
[00:49:48] They routed quickly and fell back abandoning their dead and wounded.
[00:49:51] The wounded, the Turks finished off.
[00:49:54] They gave no quarter and asked none.
[00:50:02] By the way, just FYI, just so everyone knows, we're talking about bayonet battles.
[00:50:08] Jumping ahead a little bit here now, they're in a column.
[00:50:11] So they've kind of, they kind of been roughed up.
[00:50:14] And even though they've done some hard fighting, they're heading south.
[00:50:17] They got lots of casualties.
[00:50:19] They're in rough shape.
[00:50:20] He's back with Americans now.
[00:50:22] As dark descended, we saw Chinese troops perch like buzzards on the heights around us.
[00:50:27] Our column froze to a halt.
[00:50:29] Ammo was low.
[00:50:30] There was no ration hand out.
[00:50:32] The few men who had sea rats mostly passed them to the wounded with no wire for setting up a defense that column had to move.
[00:50:39] A truck pass close to me and I fell behind it.
[00:50:42] Letting my ass drag a little.
[00:50:44] Suddenly my feet flew out from under me and I cracked my chin on the ice.
[00:50:47] I bound up fast like a novice boxer and bearers by a sudden unexpected knockdown.
[00:50:51] In the first round, my hands were sticky with blood.
[00:50:54] I glanced up and saw it, sluicing from under the tailgate of the truck.
[00:50:58] Load of wounded and dead before me and freezing on the surface of the road.
[00:51:02] I remembered running behind my brothers' ice delivery truck as a kid watching water drip out.
[00:51:08] As the ice melted in the summer sun, what a waste of water.
[00:51:12] Then it hit me.
[00:51:13] War.
[00:51:14] What a waste of blood.
[00:51:16] Glancing back into the darkness.
[00:51:18] At the hills crawling with Chinese, I realized that sometimes the alternatives were worse.
[00:51:23] So I straighted myself up.
[00:51:25] 14 miles wasn't that far.
[00:51:27] Two men came beside me in the darkness.
[00:51:29] One of them had one arm gone, the other both.
[00:51:32] They needed space in one of the trucks.
[00:51:35] Myself and another soldier climbed aboard and sifted through the wounded for the dead.
[00:51:39] We unloaded eight bodies and laid them at the side of the road.
[00:51:42] Help the two wounded climb aboard.
[00:51:45] Then drop back again behind the truck.
[00:51:47] Word came back again.
[00:51:50] Keep the column moving or stop in place and die.
[00:51:55] So like I said, they're in tough shape as they're extracting in this situation.
[00:52:00] And again, they explain how they end up there.
[00:52:04] But I'm not reading the whole book.
[00:52:07] A feeling of confidence and well-being washed over me.
[00:52:11] I'd make it.
[00:52:12] And so would most of the others if they'd fight.
[00:52:15] We were breaking through.
[00:52:17] Some men were beginning to rally.
[00:52:19] One, when one truck driver bought the farm, someone else jumped in to take up the slack.
[00:52:23] The column was moving.
[00:52:25] It was made contact pull back, regroup, fight again and again.
[00:52:28] But we were moving.
[00:52:31] Many died needlessly.
[00:52:33] Tanks and trucks plowed over them in the dark and confusion.
[00:52:36] Crushing dozens beneath wheels and trucks.
[00:52:39] The sounds of battle and the powerful roar of engines drowned out the screams.
[00:52:44] In the light of a flare, I saw a man's face frozen in horror.
[00:52:48] His mouth opened and a soundless scream as he went under the treads of a patent tank.
[00:52:54] It was unavoidable.
[00:52:57] And it was ghastly.
[00:53:00] Three men were stretched out beside the road.
[00:53:03] White phosphorus searing into their dead flesh.
[00:53:06] And incoming round struck halfway between us.
[00:53:08] And I hit the dirt.
[00:53:09] When I raised up, they had disappeared.
[00:53:12] And a small crater hollowed the snow where they had been.
[00:53:15] More artillery followed.
[00:53:16] And I dove into a hole made by an earlier round.
[00:53:19] There was another guy in there.
[00:53:21] Go ahead, you yellow bastard shoot me.
[00:53:24] Screamed.
[00:53:26] I still had dirt in my eyes.
[00:53:27] I'm not a yellow bastard.
[00:53:28] I fired back.
[00:53:29] And I'm not going to shoot you.
[00:53:31] He was an asshole I figured.
[00:53:33] Still brushing dirt from my eyes.
[00:53:35] Look, I said carelessly.
[00:53:37] Meaning God damn it, can't you see?
[00:53:40] I can't.
[00:53:43] I can't.
[00:53:44] He saw, I can't see anything.
[00:53:45] My eyes cleared and I saw his face.
[00:53:47] A massive searing white phosphorus.
[00:53:50] He might have been one of the three I had thought was dead.
[00:53:54] Or someone else who'd been hit in the same round.
[00:53:56] I scooped up chunks of ice and snow and tried to clean his face.
[00:54:00] I led him out of the hole and over to a medic.
[00:54:04] The medic lifted him onto the truck and began to tend to to his injury before the driver
[00:54:08] threw it into gear and lurched back into the column.
[00:54:13] I was still watching and wishing him well when the truck took a direct hit and disappeared.
[00:54:21] My throat was on fire.
[00:54:23] I needed water.
[00:54:24] I reached out and broke off an icicle from a passing truck.
[00:54:27] I stuck the end in my mouth and sucked on it.
[00:54:31] It was sticky, dirty and salty.
[00:54:36] It was frozen blood.
[00:54:40] It dropped from my hands.
[00:54:42] I moved out farther onto the flank again deeper into the darkness.
[00:54:46] Only a candy ass really needed water.
[00:54:50] Just before first light, I am both toward the head of the column and attach myself to the lead unit.
[00:54:56] We came upon a unit that had gone before us, all of them dead.
[00:55:00] And many disemboweled like the men in the village.
[00:55:04] A young lieutenant laying a ditch with his leg blown off above the knee.
[00:55:08] I turned a kid at it and loaded him onto a passing tank with some other wounded already aboard.
[00:55:14] A couple of hours later, I found him alongside the road with a bullet between his eyes.
[00:55:19] The back of his head was gone and his brains were splattered all over his vest.
[00:55:25] We attacked some more, took some more casualties, took our wounded and mostly left our dead behind us.
[00:55:33] We had lost 3,000 men in one day of the 7,000 remaining in the division.
[00:55:49] So eventually they make it back and he gets shipped to...
[00:55:58] He gets assigned once again to a rear unit.
[00:56:02] And they're probably trying to take care of him, thinking this guy just went through all this hell.
[00:56:07] And he requested to get transferred.
[00:56:10] Like no, I want to go to a frontline unit and what do they say?
[00:56:13] They say that's impossible.
[00:56:15] So we waited two days as long as rifle and went back on a wall.
[00:56:19] And reported to a placement unit handling, hospital returnies.
[00:56:23] I teamed up with a couple of men from the 38th and returned to the unit then on down to its second battalion.
[00:56:30] At battalion headquarters, we were asked which company we were from.
[00:56:33] This is what you're talking about.
[00:56:34] So he gets to battalion headquarters, not a battalion that he's even a part of.
[00:56:38] And they say which company you from.
[00:56:40] And he says E company.
[00:56:41] I said and was loaded on the back of a dozen half and delivered at company headquarters.
[00:56:46] I was assumed to be a replacement from state side and was turned over to Dave Bernstein.
[00:56:51] A wonder from Brooklyn, whom I came to cherish.
[00:56:55] You see that bridge up there, we're going to have to cross he asked.
[00:56:58] Well, we've crossed it at least four times already two times south, two times north.
[00:57:04] I noticed him studying me out of the corner of his eye.
[00:57:07] They'll, they'll more than likely shoot us back across it again tonight.
[00:57:12] He glanced at his watch.
[00:57:13] Usually the shit hits the fan about 10 30.
[00:57:16] They lay on the artillery for about 15 minutes and then follow up with Takasan Chinks.
[00:57:23] Takasan, that means a lot.
[00:57:26] He studied me when he said it.
[00:57:29] I felt myself flushed.
[00:57:30] Come off it man.
[00:57:31] I'm no damn rookie.
[00:57:32] I made it to Kuna Rhee with this outfit.
[00:57:36] He brought me up short.
[00:57:37] You were at Kuna Rhee.
[00:57:38] That's right.
[00:57:39] What outfit?
[00:57:40] Who the hell knows?
[00:57:40] I was a radio man.
[00:57:41] I was a radio repairman.
[00:57:43] I lied.
[00:57:44] I didn't have time to explain being a wall.
[00:57:46] So he meets these guys.
[00:57:48] This easy company here.
[00:57:51] Bernstein signaled again.
[00:57:53] Now he's now he's with these guys.
[00:57:56] And this scene as he read this, it just gives you that.
[00:58:00] I had to read this part just so you get a kind of a sense of sense of who he's with and who these guys are.
[00:58:08] So he shows up.
[00:58:11] Bernstein signaled and I stood up and followed him in one of the huts.
[00:58:15] Inside it was a little casino.
[00:58:17] The mud walls were covered with tap trees and silk blankets.
[00:58:20] The white blanket's e-compety had liberated when they moved into the town.
[00:58:23] There was a small fire burning in the fireplace.
[00:58:26] The mud fireplace.
[00:58:28] There were three fifths of whiskey on a small shelf and five half empty bottles in front of five soldiers playing poker on a silk covered table in the middle of the room.
[00:58:37] One of the men, a sergeant, kept calling for bug.
[00:58:41] That's bug's Hoover.
[00:58:42] He's always calling for the bug.
[00:58:44] Aces, Straits and flushes Bernstein explained.
[00:58:47] He introduced me to the men with whom I would serve until I left Korea or until they died or captured.
[00:58:53] Some stood up and shook hands.
[00:58:55] Others just nodded.
[00:58:56] We watched for a bit.
[00:58:58] Then left.
[00:59:00] What are their jobs I asked?
[00:59:02] Call me Dave, he said.
[00:59:05] McPherson's the platoon sergeant.
[00:59:08] Used to be an 82nd-airborn, I think.
[00:59:10] We kid him about the time he went a while.
[00:59:12] Came back and the old man said he'd never be a soldier.
[00:59:16] That was in the States.
[00:59:18] In four months he's been here.
[00:59:20] He's gone from PFC to Master.
[00:59:22] He was the same old man who promoted him.
[00:59:25] Max Tuff, but he's a hell of a good guy.
[00:59:28] Crandles a squad leader.
[00:59:29] He hates war and he hates the army, but he fights.
[00:59:33] Billy Joe buckled his riflemen.
[00:59:35] A PFC from Atlanta.
[00:59:37] He's kind of new here too.
[00:59:39] Brinsons a drafty.
[00:59:40] He's got kids.
[00:59:42] One of them signed some of his letters.
[00:59:44] Though I don't believe he's even old enough for school.
[00:59:47] Brinsons a bar man.
[00:59:49] Bugs is a goddamn tiger.
[00:59:51] He does anything and everything that needs doing.
[00:59:54] Sometimes he's a squad leader.
[00:59:55] Sometimes he's a platoon sergeant.
[00:59:56] He's everywhere and anywhere.
[00:59:58] Wherever there's gooks.
[00:59:59] If you're a fighter, you'll like him.
[01:00:01] And he'll like you.
[01:00:02] If you're not, stay the hell out of his way.
[01:00:05] Who's got the squad on the sign to ask?
[01:00:08] King.
[01:00:09] Forgot to mention.
[01:00:10] He's a good Joe too.
[01:00:12] Hell, they all are.
[01:00:13] He said fleeing up his arms.
[01:00:14] No sense in trying to say who isn't who isn't.
[01:00:18] He looked thoughtful.
[01:00:19] The amazing thing is the age.
[01:00:21] Average is less than 21.
[01:00:23] And that's including the World War 2 vets.
[01:00:26] So there's a little introduction to the guys.
[01:00:32] Says the Chinese didn't attack that night.
[01:00:35] But neither did we.
[01:00:36] Bugs lost his asset poker.
[01:00:38] Ten years after Errol Flynn and Burma.
[01:00:40] I was an honest agrade infantryman.
[01:00:42] I felt damn good.
[01:00:44] I slept well.
[01:00:49] So, well, here we go.
[01:00:51] He just roll.
[01:00:52] They just roll.
[01:00:55] You know, the, you ever heard that added.
[01:00:57] I'm sure I've said it here before that war is a lot of weighting.
[01:01:02] There is not weighting in this book.
[01:01:05] There's very little.
[01:01:06] Because every time he's seems like he's going to have to wait.
[01:01:08] He just goes, they will all find a lot of fighting.
[01:01:10] No time to wait.
[01:01:11] Yeah.
[01:01:12] Late the next afternoon, we were briefed by the company commander.
[01:01:16] Still later, we were briefed by our platoon leader.
[01:01:19] Lieutenant Malanowski.
[01:01:21] I was to go on patrol.
[01:01:23] He said he was sorry to have to send me out on my first full day in the platoon.
[01:01:26] But no sweat.
[01:01:27] No real sweat.
[01:01:28] He assured me it was only a listening post.
[01:01:30] At 1800 hours Dave, Sauer's Crannell Tate, a guy called self-propelled.
[01:01:35] That's, that's one of the top nicknames I've ever heard in my life.
[01:01:38] The guy's name is self-propelled.
[01:01:42] Freaking legit.
[01:01:43] He had come to E company from an artillery self-propelled gun unit.
[01:01:47] So his name was self-propelled.
[01:01:48] And myself were briefed by King, who would lead.
[01:01:51] We're going to, we're going to bitten north for tonight to LP5.
[01:01:55] Nothing big.
[01:01:56] There shouldn't be any trouble.
[01:01:57] We'll lay low and listen.
[01:01:58] We've all been out here before, except for Herbert.
[01:02:01] He glanced at me.
[01:02:02] All you have to do, Herbert, is listening.
[01:02:04] Watch for unannounced company.
[01:02:05] Okay.
[01:02:06] Okay.
[01:02:07] And he continued briefing and made it simple, clear and complete.
[01:02:13] It's kind of crazy, right?
[01:02:15] Simple, clear and complete.
[01:02:16] That's my definition.
[01:02:18] My definition is simple, clear and concise.
[01:02:20] And this one is simple, clear and complete.
[01:02:23] We moved out later.
[01:02:25] Each of us knew exactly what was expected of him and everyone else in the patrol.
[01:02:28] So there you go.
[01:02:29] That's just a beautiful briefing.
[01:02:31] Everybody knew what was expected of themselves and of everyone else in the patrol.
[01:02:35] These men were all business.
[01:02:37] He goes out and feels now.
[01:02:38] All these men were all business.
[01:02:39] No scuffin' about.
[01:02:40] No talk, no bullshit.
[01:02:41] So these guys are squirreed away.
[01:02:43] And fast forward a little bit.
[01:02:45] These patrols continue.
[01:02:46] He briefs on some of these patrols.
[01:02:47] What they're like, what's going on.
[01:02:49] The weather is getting even colder.
[01:02:51] The front line positions start to stabilize a little bit.
[01:03:00] Now.
[01:03:01] And it fast forward to a point.
[01:03:04] Tahirudotaj Jeyham trying to speak.
[01:03:06] Perrong E company all charges are over.
[01:03:08] he company is in need in the position.
[01:03:10] Th dentro on like the knob of a hill.
[01:03:14] And we'll go to the book.
[01:03:16] The moon..
[01:03:16] Rose Full and Bright and the Hills to the north.
[01:03:19] 골� code limit Sharp.
[01:03:21] Or.
[01:03:22] A trip flare...
[01:03:25] Cro抉抉緊 racing cours the elephant to
[01:03:26] The behavioral park
[01:03:31] Well.
[01:03:33] yards away. The flare drifted in its shoe to cross our entire front. Shadows climbing back
[01:03:38] around us as it disappeared then went out. Hold fire. Hey easy company, why don't you go home?
[01:03:47] This is home. You fucker go back to China. Someone yelled right back. Still neither side fired.
[01:03:54] That's freaking crazy right. They're calling you by your company name. Come down and fight.
[01:04:00] Someone on the other side blew a bugle and like a cavalry charge they swarmed up the hill.
[01:04:07] The moon came out from behind the clouds and lit up a sea of humanity racing over the bright snow
[01:04:12] toward us. They picked up speed. It was the bonsai charge of the Japanese in World War II all over again.
[01:04:19] We waited for their front ranks to hit the 75 yard line and squeezed our triggers.
[01:04:23] Nothing happened. A few muffled chinks. Our weapons were frozen. Firing pins
[01:04:32] immobile. Piss on them. Someone said and word came down the line. We pissed on them and it worked.
[01:04:42] The urine melted the ice and the troops all along the line began to fire.
[01:04:45] Man shifted positions to fill where individual weapons had not been pissed on yet.
[01:04:50] I ended up in a hole with a soldier from a third platoon. Herbert, I said by way of introduction,
[01:04:57] John's here applied without looking up. I took up a firing position and he continued to work on his
[01:05:02] rifle. A second later he dropped down beside me and jerked two quick shots into advancing troops.
[01:05:08] Good he said. Now let's drive the little bastards back to China. I didn't know where John's
[01:05:12] was from or where he was going but he had style. Yeah I said let's do that. The other men in
[01:05:18] line apparently felt the same way. We broke the assault at more than 50 yards and drove them
[01:05:23] back down the hill to lick their wounds. A kid to our right clambered out of his hole and started
[01:05:29] down the backside of the hill. Mick Fierceon was on him like a cat. Wherein' how you think you're
[01:05:34] going he asked? To the aid station the guy answered, I've got the chills. Kid, Mac told him it's
[01:05:40] 30 below zero. We've all got the chills. Get back in that hole. I'm going back to battalion.
[01:05:45] The kid shouted almost crying. I'm freezing. Mac leveled his car bean. Get back in your hole.
[01:05:52] I don't have time to argue. His finger squeeze the slack from the trigger. Get back in that fucking
[01:05:57] hole. Now the kid turned in with head hanging moved off from the dark. We heard the thought of
[01:06:05] his boots as he jumped back down into his hole. The bugle sounded again. This time they came up
[01:06:10] the hill and battalion strength but this time all of our weapons worked. Whoever had come up with
[01:06:15] the piss technique deserved a congressional medal of honor. We piled the bodies on top of one
[01:06:20] another all along the front. My bar began to overheat and the smell of cordite and urine seared
[01:06:28] my nostrils. Flares popped overhead again, lighting up the slope below and the valley beyond.
[01:06:35] The Chinese were everywhere. Like ants they were coming in and waves. It was a standard tactic
[01:06:40] with them. The first wave was light. It was meant to draw fires so they could note and pinpoint
[01:06:45] our positions of our automatic weapons. The second wave was to knock out our automatic weapons
[01:06:51] and to overrun us or at least wear us down so the third wave could finish us off. This time
[01:06:56] however three waves couldn't be enough and they seemed to know it as well as we did. They had
[01:07:02] come prepared. Their leaders were pros and seldom underestimated who they were up against. They knew
[01:07:08] that any unit prepared to pay the price could overrun any position. These guys always came ready
[01:07:15] to pay that price. John's was killed in the third assault. I laid his rifle in ammunition beside
[01:07:21] my own on the edge of the position. Then as an altar as an afterthought I extracted his bay
[01:07:27] net from his scabbard and fixed it to his rifle. I was ready. I tucked my boots beneath his body
[01:07:34] to keep them warm but he was already cold. There's going to be a long night by the fifth wave
[01:07:41] the Chinese had paid the price. The hillside before us was littered with their dead and wounded.
[01:07:48] We had sustained about 40% casualties ourselves. ammunition was almost non-existent. The artillery
[01:07:54] had ceased to fire in our support but last of our wounded were already on their way toward the
[01:07:59] rear walking wounded carrying the dead and incapacitated. The sixth wave hit and the order came
[01:08:09] down to fall back to cover the wounded. I leaped out of my position. No one had come by to pick
[01:08:17] up John's. I checked his body. The rounded caught him smack in the forehead above his left eye.
[01:08:22] The back of his head was gone. I slung his rifle over my shoulder. Locked his cartridge belt above
[01:08:28] my own and joined the rest of the men. At the base of the hill we came to a road which led back across
[01:08:33] the bridge. Our battalion commander Colonel Skeldon was rounding up units and reorganizing them
[01:08:39] for a counterattack. His driver was besides a trailer tagged onto his Jeep passing out ammo
[01:08:45] when we were ready. Skeldon let us back up the hill. He had done so efficiently and so quickly
[01:08:51] that we caught the sixth wave not yet ready to defend. Within minutes we were back in our positions
[01:08:57] consolidated and ready. First light was breaking and the Chinese pulled back. We gathered up the
[01:09:04] rest of our dead. John's went back down the hill in a mattress cover. Sours and tate, dead went
[01:09:12] along with him. The Chinese had outnumbered us at least 10 to 1. They had weapons and guts.
[01:09:20] They had been willing to pay the price but so had we. You know when they get to wave number five,
[01:09:34] you're thinking wow and that's not it. Here comes wave number six and the reason that you
[01:09:43] can't stay there is because you're out of ammunition. 40% loss had cut us down far below combat
[01:09:55] strength. We were ordered into reserve. Reserve it's a powerful word in a combat zone. It's a
[01:10:02] full night's sleep in a couple days. You're almost certain to live through. It's time to catch up
[01:10:08] to get your bearings, bearings and at time to find out how the war is going for the rest of their
[01:10:13] vision for the rest of the army. Since a man in combat doesn't have much opportunity to look around him.
[01:10:18] We had find whether the sun broke through and the frozen earth became a clagmire. Replacements
[01:10:24] came in and were assigned to fill the gaps. Day after they arrived, E company went into heavy combat
[01:10:31] training. We reviewed attack formations and procedures, defenses with draws, marches and counterattack.
[01:10:38] We practiced until every one of them understood what was expected them under all conditions.
[01:10:42] We laid down the standard operating procedures which had worked for us in the conditions of this war.
[01:10:49] Good training cuts losses and we intended to cut our losses to a minimum. We trained and we trained hard.
[01:11:03] We got a few supplies by air drop. Sometimes those came in with mail from home.
[01:11:08] And all training would grind to a halt. Mail was considered a morale builder.
[01:11:15] Personally, I disagreed. I didn't write much and didn't expect to get a letter.
[01:11:21] I got them of course, but they didn't mean much to me. Home was too far away. What happened in
[01:11:26] easy company 38th Infantry Regiment was more important. If you kept your mind on where you were,
[01:11:31] the war was easier. If you let your thoughts drift to things that no longer existed for you,
[01:11:37] then you were in trouble. Letters I read quickly sometimes skipping entire paragraphs and I got rid of them.
[01:11:46] Packages I broke open immediately and shared their contents on the spot. I consumed my portions on the
[01:11:53] hoof and forgot them. It's good advice, man. It's a good advice.
[01:11:58] I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, you know, um, um,
[01:12:05] my cousin of a two and it was before the war, it's just like a normal deployment.
[01:12:08] Back in the doing. And I remember there was a guy, you know, like, you know, one of
[01:12:13] guys was married. You know, had a girlfriend or whatever. And I remember seeing him, he was just, he was
[01:12:19] staring at a picture of her. And I just remember thinking that he was torturing himself, right?
[01:12:26] And he was in driving himself crazy. And he made no sense to me. And I remembered that.
[01:12:30] And I was like a young, you know, single guy at the time. So I made a mental note that that's not a good
[01:12:36] way. That's not a good thing to do, right? Fast forward a little bit. Then suddenly and simply
[01:12:48] Malanowski notified us that first and third battians were caught in a pocket.
[01:12:53] And we were moving up north to give them a hand. And the good news is this time we ride. He
[01:12:59] signed us trucks by squad. Malanowski deployed us squad's abreast each squad to maintain.
[01:13:10] This is when they get obviously get to their fighting positions. Um, each squad set to maintain
[01:13:15] itself and calm until we closed in for the assault. Then we'd move up shoulder to shoulder side
[01:13:20] by side to take up marching fire. We topped the ridge and descended toward the valley that separated
[01:13:26] us from the burning smoking mass that was hill 554 hour objective. The planes banked off in a
[01:13:33] way as we started across the valley. Our tillery screeched in to take up the slack. Small arms
[01:13:40] fire from the hill cracked overhead and Mal gave the order to pick it up and get a move on.
[01:13:45] Chinese artillery came alive now in the ground beneath my feet rolled and heaved like the
[01:13:51] deck of a ship on a raging sea smoke fire and steel split the air like a tornado. And the
[01:13:58] cover of heavy artillery pound in my ears. Suddenly I was through it at on the height of the
[01:14:02] near bank of a small stream facing a 40 foot drop to the far side. A machine gun opened up from the
[01:14:09] hill ahead. The rounds of whizzing past my ears and splitting the air above me and I leaped.
[01:14:16] I sailed down onto the far bank. My boots driving through the frozen crust into the deep cold
[01:14:21] mud pulling myself free. I bounded forward into the next heavy cloud of smoke. The ground heaved
[01:14:28] the ground sloped steeply upward. I had reached the base of hill 554. I shoved my BAR
[01:14:35] selector to automatic finger on the trigger. My eyes straining to pierce the smoke.
[01:14:41] I began to ascend the hill cautiously. Somebody broke through to my right. My finger tightened
[01:14:47] and I damn near dropped them. It was Dave. Without a glance toward me, he crossed in front of me
[01:14:52] and disappeared into the smoke. The cloud blew away for a second and I saw him clearly. Both sides
[01:14:57] called off artillery and shouts came along the hill to keep it moving and keep going forward.
[01:15:02] I hadn't fired a shot yet. Someone yelled grenades as they began to burst below and around us.
[01:15:09] Bug shouted open up and the line came to life sporadically at first and then with a marching
[01:15:15] steam stream of steady fire as men found their places in the line. Anything in front now was
[01:15:20] enemy or dead. I squeezed off one shot then waited. Firing blind went against the grain. My father
[01:15:27] had taught me to well. I held fire but then I saw that the tactic was sound. We were driving them back.
[01:15:33] Body's tumbled out of the smoke above down the hill below past me. I switched the selector to
[01:15:39] automatic rapid. A whisp of smoke cleared in front of me and there he was. Birp gun. The works.
[01:15:46] His face was a mask of shock. He fired first and rounds plowed into the ground in front on both
[01:15:52] sides of me and over my head. I dropped the butt of the bar until the barrel aligned itself with
[01:15:59] the slope of the hill. The muzzle level with his gut and squeezed the trigger. Little puffs of smoke
[01:16:04] and dust billowed from his uniform and drove his body back against the hillside. The weapon
[01:16:09] he carried flew from his hands past me down the hill. Chinese voices above were screaming in the
[01:16:14] smoke. I continued forward and picked up the pace. As I stepped past the body, I had just dropped
[01:16:21] that glance down. He was dead all right. I attempted an entire magazine into him. I wasn't as cool
[01:16:28] as I had figured. I released the empty magazine and was inserting a new one when one of his buddies
[01:16:34] broke through the right front. I swung around. He was a kid. He dropped his rifle. Then changed his
[01:16:39] mind and made a dive for it. But he was too late. I seated the magazine with a crack on my palm,
[01:16:46] slammed the bolt forward and squeezed the trigger. His head disintegrated. I grabbed his rifle
[01:16:51] pointed up the hill and emptied it into the smoke. Then I smashed it against the hillside and
[01:16:56] dropped the pieces. I restarted my rifle in both hands and continued up. This time I knew I had
[01:17:04] fired four rounds. There were still 16 in the magazine. I had calmed down. Another body broke out of
[01:17:11] the smoke above me. My finger tightened on the trigger. It was bugs. Let's go. We shouted. We're almost
[01:17:17] there. I caught up with him. King had been hit. Who else did know? Who else he didn't know yet?
[01:17:22] There were about six of us still on the line. But the enemy was pulling out. The hill was ours.
[01:17:27] Shoulder to shoulder. We marched those last few yards. We were the first two to reach the top.
[01:17:35] Within minutes, the remainder of the platoon moved up alongside our squad had been cut down to four men.
[01:17:41] Not a major action. It was just another hill for which we had paid the price.
[01:17:49] But it cost the Chinese dearly too. Their dead lay scouted all around. We had done well.
[01:17:56] We had won.
[01:18:00] Then suddenly as if turned by the hand of fate, our own artillery seemed to bounce back and flight and
[01:18:07] began falling onto our own positions. It was impossible for the Chinese to have spotted and
[01:18:13] called in counterfire so quickly. But ours or theirs, death was the same in a world of lightning
[01:18:19] bolts and thunder clapping around us. The earth underneath our boots blew up like a volcano.
[01:18:25] McPherson, a few yards in front of me, rocketed up into the sky like a doll. Like a doll in a
[01:18:31] hurricane and came down hard. And that was it. As suddenly as it began, it was over. I crawled over
[01:18:37] the Mac chunks of ice and debris raining down on us and my mouth tasted like copper pennies.
[01:18:43] Basterd's he grimaced. Dumb stupid asshole bastards. Those were our tanks.
[01:18:51] He was shaken. But his only real wound was a chunk of shrapnel behind his right knee.
[01:18:57] He was out of it. He was stayed side for sure. Carboni and carbonis the medic came up and we tied a
[01:19:03] compress around the wound with the shrapnel still inside. You're going home. Mac,
[01:19:08] carbonis said softly. I lifted him across my shoulder, careful of the knee and we made it back to
[01:19:14] the platoon. There'd be no evacuation until there artillery led up and we already had eight wounded
[01:19:21] besides Mac. The platoon was down to 21 and carboni was the biggest busiest man in it.
[01:19:27] We called back for litter teams and blankets. But it was no easier getting things up than it was
[01:19:31] getting them back. So we waited. Night came and the incoming stuff lifted. We said are so longs,
[01:19:41] told Mac that he had made it and was headed home for parades and kisses.
[01:19:48] Just to get home to see the family will be enough. You guys have my address, see ya.
[01:19:53] To the walking wounded, pick up, picked up his litter and fell behind the others, headed down the slope.
[01:19:58] We sat down and watched them whine their way towards the trail in the valley below.
[01:20:03] Six walking wounded. Mac and the other guys on litter's. It was all we could spare. In November,
[01:20:11] even the walking wounded would have had to stay on and fight. So things were improving a little.
[01:20:16] They disappeared in the rocks below and into a mine field.
[01:20:21] Seconds later, Mac and three others came running out of the rocks and back up the hill.
[01:20:27] Men ran to help them. The other five were dead. They left the bodies and brought Mac and the
[01:20:35] others back up to the ridge. The wind picked up again and it began to snow.
[01:20:41] Everyone was too tired to waste energy digging in. We shielded the wounded with our bodies to keep them warm.
[01:20:47] Halfway through the night, a Chinese unit passed us by. By morning we were surrounded again.
[01:20:54] By afternoon, the tanks had gotten through to us and we were able to evacuate the wounded. So Mac was
[01:20:59] on his way once more. But our destinies are cut elsewhere. There was no escape. At least for Mac,
[01:21:10] he had survived the shrapnel. One light piece behind the knee from a hit close enough to destroy a
[01:21:15] tank. He escaped the mine field. We were no longer trapped. He was on his way again and home was
[01:21:21] but a short way off. Then our tanks made another one of those errors. So common in war that most
[01:21:30] people never hear about. One tank had not received the word and fired one shot by mistake into
[01:21:39] the small band of wounded men. It was a direct hit. And Mac, the other three wounded and the two
[01:21:51] we had sent to carry the litter were blown to bits. Bitterness swept through me. I sat down in the snow
[01:22:01] and stared numbly into the distance. The hills here still white and blue. But they looked dirty.
[01:22:11] The sky was a swirl of muddy clouds. I let my head hang for a second or two and just stared at
[01:22:17] the frozen ground between my boots. Just little ridges of frozen mud with a light dirty snow
[01:22:25] coating the edges. The war had lost its glamour. Bitter at that base of the hill I raised
[01:22:34] hell with the tank commander out of frustration and grief. It had been a legitimate mistake on his
[01:22:40] part. One of the sergeants came over and apologized. I'm sorry he said it was my fault.
[01:22:45] It's war. I interrupted. It's nobody's fault. I had lost my first true friend in Korea.
[01:23:03] So the the horrible blue on blue. Something that everyone in the military, everyone in the
[01:23:12] police should think about all the time. I promise you. When things get crazy it is way more likely
[01:23:25] than you might think. This is an interesting part here. He says the army introduced rotation
[01:23:34] individuals with time could go home replaced by new men, quote, starting their tours. There was
[01:23:43] a reward before the end of the rainbow, a way out of war short of winning. It was the worst plan
[01:23:52] the army had ever put into effect. Men became cautious. They did their time and stayed alive.
[01:24:01] Soldiers no longer belong to a unit. They served in one until they completed a tour then served
[01:24:08] another. It was the beginning of the end. The purpose of all living is death. I had read once.
[01:24:19] The loyalty, courage and comradeship lent nobility to that purpose. In a very short time our
[01:24:31] army and our country would come to reap the fruits of depriving their soldiers of that nobility of
[01:24:39] purpose. Those of us who are stuck with the old principles began to view ourselves as different and
[01:24:49] counted each rotation as they lost. In World War II you came home from war when we won.
[01:25:04] Some guys were two, three, four years. I mean just think about what that does to your mindset.
[01:25:13] Just think about what that does. I only got four more months. I only got eight more months.
[01:25:17] One day at a time I could get through this day. Fast forward a little couple days later. I got
[01:25:28] nicked in the wrist. Six of us won. Patrol down along the bank of a river. It's been one night
[01:25:36] me a decision when they showed me up and filled me with drugs to prevent infection. The next morning
[01:25:40] I returned to my platoon. Now the officer wanted me to go back to the mash for a couple days to
[01:25:47] make sure I was okay. We compromised if complications said in where I began hurting. I'd go back. That was
[01:25:53] that. He's just getting wounded and just doesn't care. This is a little later. I was going to,
[01:26:03] I was going to do get some shut eye, but I never had the chance. Heavy stuff whistled in right
[01:26:10] on us in the middle of my sentence. I a large gob of white phosphorus landed on my left forearm
[01:26:17] and began sizzling on its way to the bone. So we both spent the rest of the day packing my arm
[01:26:23] with cold mud to prevent the phosphorus from getting oxygen while we dug out chunks with our knives.
[01:26:30] Then I went to the aid station to have the wound cleaned and soaked. Getting wounded was
[01:26:33] becoming an annoying habit. The good news was that I got another night at the old aid station
[01:26:40] to sleep in a tent fairly dry on a litter which kept my ass out of the mud. It was almost worth
[01:26:47] getting hit for a night of uninterrupted sleep. No posting about posts. No being awakened every 30
[01:26:53] minutes or so because somebody wanted me on the radio or the sound tower. No taking turns.
[01:26:57] War has a way of reducing life to the basics and bringing home what the true comforts in life are.
[01:27:04] uninterrupted sleep is one hell of a comfort. Cool water to drink is another. A dry bed, a hot
[01:27:10] cup of coffee, a cigarette if you're a smoker, I guess. I'd seen enough dying men ask for one to make
[01:27:16] me believe it was for some Ashana whiskey. Fast forward Chinese troops were reported massing
[01:27:29] about 2,000 yards north of our permit. Positions in armed recon patrols needed to check it out.
[01:27:37] Approximately 1500 yards out the snipers bullet caught me in the upper right arm.
[01:27:41] Slug went in, wrapped around the bone. It buzzed like a hammer blow to the funny bone,
[01:27:45] but it didn't do much damage. The medic put a compress on it. We dropped down off the hill
[01:27:51] to put it between us and the sniper. This time they sent me all the way back to the
[01:27:56] mash by late evening. A surgeon had removed the bullet and told me to be evacuated to the rear
[01:28:00] in the morning. Get a good night's sleep. He said shortly after midnight, I a-walled from the mash
[01:28:06] and hitched a ride on a truck convay convoy back north to the unit. I reached a platoon at noon just
[01:28:13] in time for sea rations. He's using a wall as a verb now. Like i a wall. There's got to be a better
[01:28:22] term for that for what he's doing. Carboni's replacement, a medic named Ryan had been assigned to
[01:28:34] the platoon and pickens a new sergeant had joined us. Again, I was like, you know, you get to these
[01:28:39] points to say, I got, but I really need to go over the, you know, should I read this part?
[01:28:45] And then it just teaches you, teaches you. Pickens a new sergeant had joined us. No one was
[01:28:52] certain whether you'd served in combat yet or not, but he was a master sergeant that outranked
[01:28:56] me and I figured he must have had something on the ball that made to make rank. I went to meet him.
[01:29:01] He looked like a sergeant, meet trim and in shape. He wore his uniform well and his gear was in order.
[01:29:06] He talked like a sergeant. No bullshit and he gave orders like a man who knew his stuff.
[01:29:12] Dave didn't like him. One more gun is one more gun. I told him not always her. He replied,
[01:29:18] then change the subject. He didn't want to talk about it. It was an odd remark. And an odd way
[01:29:22] for Dave to act. He was no dope. And he said something was worth listening to. What he, what had he
[01:29:28] observed that I had missed. I studied pickens carefully. For the next few days, nothing occurred to
[01:29:33] change my evaluation. In fact, everything he did just seemed to confirm it. He had bearing command
[01:29:39] presence intelligence training the works. He was going to be a real asset to the company.
[01:29:45] Dave was wrong. Anyone could make a mistake. Pickens and I supervised the digging in and the
[01:29:49] preparation of the defense. He was great at weapons and placement. By the end of the day,
[01:29:55] we had a tight line that could throw up a wall of steel on command. Something big was brewing
[01:30:03] on the Chinese side. Pickens decided we needed more tactical wire to our front. He went to the
[01:30:08] rear himself to go pick it up. It was dusk and the sky was common. Beautiful. And that kind of
[01:30:13] interesting. Right? Like you feel something brewing on the Chinese side and this guy decides he's
[01:30:19] going to go to the rear. Dave is thinking, hey, this guy might not be all these cracked up to be.
[01:30:24] He seems a little too, maybe a little too square away. Right? Little while later, Jennings
[01:30:38] whistled to me. Hey, her, Malawans, you on the sound power. And we know we're going to took the
[01:30:43] phone from Jennings Sergeant Herbert. Sir, her, get the troops back and their holes all hell.
[01:30:48] It's going to break loose in a minute with my other here. I could hear planes coming in
[01:30:52] on the dive, men started running for the positions before I even had time to shout the planes
[01:30:55] drop their ordinance right overhead. I watched the canisters tumbled down through the sky,
[01:31:00] out over our heads and crashed through the trees only a few hundred yards before us. Malawans
[01:31:04] ask he was still talking. The valley is loaded with gooks. He was saying, get the men ready.
[01:31:09] Followed or notify the OP to be ready to pull in fast when they get the word. Where's Pickens?
[01:31:15] Wilco. Pickens went back for wire and hasn't returned yet. I said, okay, it's your baby.
[01:31:21] Stay in contact. Roger that out. This time we had the men and ammunition. We had wire and we had land
[01:31:31] mines and booby traps out. Our fire sectors overlap along the entire fund. This time they wouldn't
[01:31:37] be able to afford the price. I looked up at the planes. Lay off guys. I'm motor to myself.
[01:31:44] Let them come in and give us a chance. I felt good. I went along the line briefing in each position.
[01:31:52] Dude, I just like underlined this section here. This is his brief to the troops.
[01:31:57] Nobody moves out of position unless I give the word. No who's on your right and left.
[01:32:01] Keep all gear on. Fix bay and nets. No one throws grenades until you're certain they're in range.
[01:32:07] Remember, you can hear a lot further than you can toss a frag. Make shots count. Don't
[01:32:11] waste ammo. Keep up a good rate of fire. If word comes down to fire, each man lays his rifle
[01:32:17] against the stake we put it in and fires steady and a rapid rate on that line. All fires interlocking.
[01:32:23] Until I pass word to fire at Wilcoe, the entire sector. Don't forget the tendency at night
[01:32:28] is to fire too high. Keep aim low. We'll cream them. We have fast resupply from the rear.
[01:32:34] When ammo starts to get low, don't panic. There'll be more coming. Tonight belongs to easy
[01:32:40] company. Good to go. Tonight belongs to easy company and it did for six waves.
[01:32:52] The first five we chopped to pieces. We would have done the same for the sixth, seventh or
[01:32:58] tenth except that some asshole back at company rear hadn't done his job. Ammunition was running
[01:33:05] low by the fifth wave. More was supposed to be on the way, but King called back to Malanowski
[01:33:11] and learned that the company headquarters had withdrawn. There'd be no resupply tonight.
[01:33:15] The Chinese had broken through on the right flank where the Dutch who had been tied in with us
[01:33:20] had already pulled out. We were on our own. Then the phone went dead. Around had severed the wire
[01:33:28] or had been cut. I told King to alert the bautoon to be ready to pull out back down the hill
[01:33:33] to the point where we had previously designated in case we were overrun. I picked up bugs from
[01:33:38] from the hole to my left and we moved east along the back of the ridge to make contact with Malanowski.
[01:33:43] Or to find out what had happened to the wire. We were still moving when all hell broke loose as the
[01:33:48] sixth wave hit and came in over the wire and over their dead. Next thing I knew I was fighting hand
[01:33:54] to hand for my life. The little mothers were everywhere. Bugs and I killed about 12 of them before
[01:34:00] between us before we got enough opening to get the hell out. Let's go. He shouted. We were bound.
[01:34:07] We bound it down back the side of the hill like two fat bears toward where our company command posted
[01:34:13] been. There was nothing but fog. Either we were the last ones or the first. We dropped down
[01:34:19] behind a log and tried to assess the situation. From here on we'd play at safe. There was no
[01:34:25] telling who was behind us. Even our own troops would be edgy and friendly fire kills the same as
[01:34:30] enemy. The rest of the Platoon had either gotten out or they were dead or captured. Let's get going
[01:34:35] said bugs. The Chinese had pretty well halted the ridge. halted at the ridge. It was unlike their
[01:34:41] previous attacks when they had to be stopped by fire. The shooting petered out behind us. We moved
[01:34:47] off into the fog. Approximately 45 minutes later we tied up with the loose troops from other parts
[01:34:53] of the company who assembled at the pre-sad designated spot. I tried to find out about the platoon.
[01:34:58] The company commander had been hit and evacuated. Malanowski had been catching grenades on the right
[01:35:04] flank and throwing them back at the Chinese when one of them had gone off in his hand. He was in
[01:35:08] serious condition but alive and had been evacuated. Nobody knew about Dave. Anis, Jennings and the
[01:35:15] rest except they had been ordered to pull back. That made me the platoon leader and Lieutenant
[01:35:20] Cunning, the commanding officer. They eventually make a move to get out of there and it goes relatively
[01:35:31] well except for the fact that as they're approaching friendly lines again they realize that they're
[01:35:37] in a mine field. They make it through the mine field and then they end up going back out and they're
[01:35:49] in another hill on another hill again. We sat waiting silently. Dawn lit up the sky and the sun started
[01:35:59] up over the hills behind us. Light crept across and down forward of the slope. Now we could see movement.
[01:36:08] There were hundreds of them. They had evidently come in right behind us when we had been driven
[01:36:14] from our positions the preceding night. Now they were halted, regrouping. I tried the sound power
[01:36:21] to notify first, batowing in headquarters but just couldn't raise anybody on the other end.
[01:36:26] I sent Jennings back as a runner. Some 60 millimeter mortar light stuff started up in the air around
[01:36:32] us. The Chinese suspected that someone was on the hill. They might have spotted us or the men we had
[01:36:38] relieved. We continued to watch and held our fire for the next two hours. They dropped 60 millimeters
[01:36:46] on us but did no damage. Our air came up out of the sun and made one orbit overhead. Jennings
[01:36:54] must have gotten the message back to battalion. The planes peeled out of orbit, diving one after
[01:36:59] the other. The Chinese below held formation. Canisters of Napalm tumbled down, scattering flame
[01:37:06] and twisted metal among their ranks. Still they held. A bugle sounded loud and clear from the
[01:37:15] midst of the carnage and they came charging up the hill. Now I shouted, citing along the barrel
[01:37:23] and squeezing the trigger of the AR. Rifle fire cracked in my ears from both sides as the rest
[01:37:29] opened up with me. Our planes banked from east to west and the remaining canisters fell
[01:37:34] cutting deep swaths in the ranks of the Chinese. But they kept on coming. They had manpower and
[01:37:42] they had guts. We were butchering them but from their front line it kept getting closer.
[01:37:50] When one went down another replaced him, our planes empty of ordinance banked off south.
[01:37:56] Bugs passed word that ammo was running low. By sight I measured the distance to the nearest
[01:38:01] line of Chinese and squeezed the trigger in one last burst before giving the order to move out.
[01:38:08] The teams pulled out from right flank to left on order each following in, falling in behind
[01:38:15] the one passing from its right. Crandal and I went last to bring up the rear.
[01:38:19] My calculations had been accurate. We were able to pull back down the hill across the saddle
[01:38:25] and up into first bats positions without drawing fire.
[01:38:28] What's more, we had done a lot of damage to the Chinese as we passed through their lines,
[01:38:34] the men of first congratulated us and asked our names. I felt like one hell of a tiger.
[01:38:40] The major congratulated and thanked us. You guys conserved in this patagon any time.
[01:38:45] It was a top compliment. I shook his hand, saluted and reminded him we had to get back to our own unit.
[01:38:53] There was no transportation available as yet he told us. But tomorrow
[01:38:56] I said we could huff it and I moved the patrol out behind me without waiting for an answer or
[01:39:02] looking back. Jennings met us down the road and he had been nicked by a piece of
[01:39:08] shrapnel but he could walk and he didn't relish staying behind. We hitched a ride with a
[01:39:13] doose and a half headed southwest. Had I known the outcome for us, I might not have been
[01:39:22] such a hurry to get back. Canning was the only officer left the live in the company.
[01:39:29] Counting us, he commanded exactly 90 enlisted men. Pekens was gone. This is that sergeant we were talking
[01:39:35] about. Pekens was gone according to canning. He had been avoiding combat ever since he had arrived.
[01:39:41] I was the only one who had noticed. The day after we had come off the hill,
[01:39:46] canning forced him to take out a patrol. They were creamed. Pekens came back ranting about being
[01:39:52] flown deep to the sea into the jaws of death and sank to the ground, the babbling. Canning had
[01:39:57] had him evacuated. Combat fatigue he laughed. Isn't that a pister? Anyone in the patrol dead?
[01:40:05] I asked eight. Any of my men? A third platoon. He ticked them off Kyle, Fritz, Moon Song,
[01:40:15] Donovan, Shoemaker, Benson, Condini, and Davis. Kyle and Moon Song. The old ranks were cut down by
[01:40:25] two more. You're the platoon leader of second now. Until an officer gets in, I acknowledged.
[01:40:31] I understood it was temporary. As long as I'm here with some say so, he declared.
[01:40:36] We'll see, I thought. I was no officer. Malanowski had told me he was, I was a sergeant,
[01:40:41] but I had never seen any promotion orders. I led whatever men I was assigned,
[01:40:46] wherever I was ordered to. I was still in A-wall, and it would be funny as hell if I were still a
[01:40:53] private. There were no paydays for me. My name was never on the payroll. The records were delayed
[01:40:58] in the rear they said, I never contested it. What would I have done with money? The platoon number
[01:41:04] at 18 men counting me. We had one machine gun operating, no rocket launchers, and amounted to
[01:41:10] no more than a heavily reinforced rifle squad. But what the hell? 90 men wasn't a company either.
[01:41:21] Yep, still A-wall. And like replacements are coming in, but they're not getting their fast enough.
[01:41:29] Now we're going to fast forward a little bit. And once again, they're on another hill.
[01:41:34] All the chatter on the other side ceased about at the same time. There wasn't a sound for a few
[01:41:42] minutes. Then rustling in a few whispers. Some rocks broke loose and tumble down the slope.
[01:41:51] They were crawling up the hill, no bugles this time. Psychological warfare between the second
[01:41:59] division and the Chinese was over. We had become a seasoned unit. They knew it and we knew it.
[01:42:08] They were determined to get in close and destroy us. We were just as determined to let them
[01:42:14] getting close so we could destroy them. In a very few minutes both sides would face the moment of truth.
[01:42:22] This was Burma and I was better than Errol Flynn. No blanks, no bullshit. I was not an actor,
[01:42:32] but a US infantryman. I could beat any enemy that lived. We sat and we waited. I could hear
[01:42:39] myself breathe as I strained my ears to measure the distance. Then bam. The entire slope beneath us
[01:42:49] was lit up. Beams bounced off the clouds above and ricochet down the hillside. Artificial moonlight.
[01:42:56] I glanced hurriedly around and discovered buckdix into myself to be in the keyhole of a long finger
[01:43:02] leading up from the valley at the cross bar stem of a junction of tea. I glanced down the stem.
[01:43:10] And there they were. They moved forward towards us in the early light, like walking dead in a
[01:43:18] cheap horror film. I pulled the pin from an M17 frag and sent it sailing down the finger. The explosion
[01:43:26] drove four bodies up and forward into the air. Arms, heads and legs, flailing like marionettes,
[01:43:33] whose strings had parted. The light of the explosion went out and I didn't see how they landed.
[01:43:39] A second later we could make out about 10 more towing a machine gun on wheels. Bucklet fly this
[01:43:45] time, taking out both gun and crew. So far the score was a US about 14 or maybe 20 counting the
[01:43:52] advanced element. Chinese nothing. A shutout, which didn't hold for long. But the next group that
[01:43:59] broke out of the woods to our front wasn't any lead element or single machine gun crew. It was a
[01:44:06] whole damn army all along our front. Our men opened up all along the line. Body stumbled along the
[01:44:14] entire slope before us. The whistle blew once and just as suddenly as we had poured it onto them,
[01:44:20] they returned it to us. A wall of solid steel drove into our own positions. Now two grenades landed
[01:44:27] in our hole and buck scooped them up and flung them back down the hill. Three more landed and he
[01:44:33] did the same. This hole's two damn big dicks and shouted and they got us spotted. Another grenade
[01:44:39] came sailing through the air towards us bail out. I yelled and all three of us cleared the position
[01:44:44] as one. Two seconds later the grenade went off inside with a loud woop. Bucklet dicks and it
[01:44:50] gone right me left. I rolled over on my stomach, smack up against self-propelled. He had a shelter
[01:44:57] half stretched out on the ground. It was field stripping a machine gun on it methodically and
[01:45:01] unheardly as if you were giving a demonstration. He hardly glanced at me. Keep moth me her until I get this
[01:45:08] mother working. Three Chinese raced up and emptied their weapons into the hole. We had just left.
[01:45:14] Bucklet was reloading his car bean. Ginnum herbe yelled. But dicks and fired first,
[01:45:21] blowing the head off the guy on the right. I dropped the other two, then ran my bayonet into one
[01:45:27] as he tumbled by me. A grenade exploded among us and I felt myself flung backward down the hill.
[01:45:33] Chinese broke over the top of the ridge. A bayonet slashed my upper right arm. Down the hill
[01:45:39] men screamed all along the line. Buck grabbed me and yanked me to my feet. Let's go man. He shouted.
[01:45:44] Another grenade went off behind us, propelling the three of us, asked over heels down the rear slope.
[01:45:49] Buck jumped back to his feet first. A body broke out of the smoke above us. Self propelled
[01:45:55] I shouted. Sawd of a bench. The figure shouted back. A grenade in his hand. Bucked
[01:46:01] towards head off with the burst of about 20. Mother fucker he said. Hardly raising his voice above
[01:46:07] a wister whisper. Visit your ancestors. We fought our way down the valley as far as we could
[01:46:14] tell we were alone. But the Chinese were all around us. In the melee we got separated. Bruce
[01:46:20] and Dixon went one way me and other. I rounded a bush and stumbled into Ryan and King. Let's go.
[01:46:25] I said and started back down the valley toward the town. We're heading the wrong way Ryan argued.
[01:46:32] Uh-oh, I fired back. This is it. The artificial moon might win out suddenly leaving us in darkness
[01:46:37] with much of our night sight shot. I held us up for a bit to let her eyes accommodate. A bullet
[01:46:43] passed through my left leg just above the ankle. I could walk but my arm was getting a little stiff.
[01:46:49] I noticed King was limping. You hit. I whispered about three times. No broken bones though.
[01:46:54] You Ryan nothing he whispered. Hold. Avoid snap sharply in front of us.
[01:47:00] GIs I whispered back. Okay, come on in. There were seven of them. That made ten.
[01:47:07] So just a debrief. What just happened? Freaking insane mayhem is what just happened. These guys
[01:47:14] are getting attacked by the Chinese. They get pretty much overrun. They all bail out of the positions.
[01:47:19] They kind of fall back in the direction of the last known area that they think they could go to
[01:47:25] as which is this town on the way. They're getting separated and re-linking up with other guys
[01:47:31] and then finally they relink up with seven other guys. So now we have ten of them.
[01:47:35] One of them suggested we take off down the riverbed. Ryan wanted a whole up in the brush until
[01:47:40] daylight. I next both suggestions. We'd go into town as a patrol. There had to be other elements of
[01:47:45] the regiment there. The decision made. I moved up front to take over. We had one more contact with
[01:47:53] the Chinese machine gunner when we bypassed in the dark either because he was dead at the gun
[01:47:58] asleep or confused. Three members of the patrol dropped off on their own and headed down the riverbed.
[01:48:03] Ryan disappeared and showed up three years later as a return to POW. The remaining six. So
[01:48:09] there is losing guys. Guys guys, there's dropping off. The remaining six of us made it into the town
[01:48:13] out of the frying pan into the fire. We had just broken through to batowing in headquarters,
[01:48:18] which was surrounded. A major was in charge. I recognized him as a regular heller. He talked
[01:48:25] tough, looked tough and was tough. How many of you are there? He asked crispy. Six. It's a help.
[01:48:33] Not a division but a help. A radio crackling nearby informus that there was no way to break through
[01:48:39] to us until daylight. They wanted us to hold the major returned. We don't have enough ammo left
[01:48:44] in last to last an hour. A flare burst above us caught. Call us standing there in the open. Here we
[01:48:52] go again. The major shouted and rushed past us toward the patty on our east. For lack of any
[01:48:57] place better to go, we followed dropping down into firing positions just in time to catch about
[01:49:02] three or four hundred enemy crossing the patty toward us at a truck guns spewing.
[01:49:12] Three or four hundred. We were next to a machine gun and between us we laid down a field of fire
[01:49:19] that cut them down like a skythmoing wheat. Not a single one of them reached the perimeter. How long
[01:49:26] is this been going on? I asked one of the gunners all night. We let them pull back their dead and
[01:49:31] wounded. In the low we introduced ourselves to each other. Their names were Leroc and Macloud.
[01:49:36] Neither one seemed any more distressed or nervous about the situation than I was. They went
[01:49:41] about their business, cooling and professionally, making adjustments in the headspace of their
[01:49:45] weapon, getting more boxes of ammo ready and joking with each other and with us. Remember the
[01:49:51] message out of baton and World War II when we were being overrun, Leroc Joshed, send more japs.
[01:49:58] A young lieutenant came up behind us and introduced himself hurriedly. Name's Ben Calesky.
[01:50:06] He made a quick pitch. We can break out and some of us will make it. He looked me in the eye. Are you
[01:50:11] for it? I nodded. The rest of you guys, they nodded too. So there's the plan. We can try and get out of here
[01:50:18] and some of us might be able to make it. Okay Ben Calesky said we're going to muster at the south
[01:50:27] edge of the village on order. When they make the next assault, we'll meet them head on. Got it.
[01:50:33] Got it. Macloud echoed. The rest of us nodded. He turned and raised away. I sat down to think. I
[01:50:38] had always heard that when your time came to die, your life flashed before your eyes. I tried to
[01:50:45] summon it but got nowhere. My mother, father, all those things were too far away. I thought of
[01:50:50] some things I should have done differently but not too many. I should have kicked some asses. I
[01:50:55] didn't and I should have said some words to some people that I didn't. If I made it out, I'd never
[01:50:59] make those mistakes again. If I made it out. If not, then I'd take as many of them with me as I could.
[01:51:07] My thoughts were interrupted by the word coming down to a symbol at the south end of the village.
[01:51:12] No sooner would we there when the flare broke overhead lighting up the entire column. A machine gun
[01:51:18] opened up from the road directly in front of us. Son of a bitch that Ben Calesky mumbled. We got to
[01:51:23] get that gun. Got to get that gun. The words echoed through my brain. Two maybe three lousy guys
[01:51:29] weighing less than 150 pounds each holding up the entire US Army bullshit. Life was okay but not that
[01:51:36] okay. I scrambled to my feet and raced forward. Another guy came up with me step for step and we
[01:51:42] headed south down the road together covering for the first 30 yards side by side.
[01:51:47] Then there was this sickening thud of high speed metal whacking into flesh. As my companion
[01:51:54] went down beside me at just the moment I spotted the gun position. I was 20 yards off. It's 20
[01:52:00] yards out and slightly off to the right and I managed to get within five yards of the gun before they
[01:52:05] spotted me and into the hole with them before they could squeeze off around. They were kids.
[01:52:11] My band that ripped through the chest of the gunner driving him up against the back wall of the
[01:52:16] position pulling it loose. I beat the second man to death with my rifle but bayonetted the third.
[01:52:21] Then took a bayonet and the side myself from the fourth as I drove the butt down into his
[01:52:27] skull which jerked the rifle from his hands and snapped the bayonet off inside my chest.
[01:52:32] Bastard. I hissed as I pounded his skull one more time for good measure.
[01:52:38] My buddies were streaming past me. I leaped down the hole and joined the rush. A second later
[01:52:44] two Chinese flyweights pounced on my back. I reached back to grab some hair and picked up a
[01:52:50] fist full of teeth. I stumbled and fell and the three of us went down helped her skilter. I bounded
[01:52:56] back up alone and was off again. Flair's burst off above us lightning lighting the sky with flame.
[01:53:02] Grenades were exploding all around. Men were screaming on both sides. Then we were in the midst of
[01:53:07] the Chinese running parallel to the river. The major tripped in front of me and went down. I
[01:53:12] reached down to pull them up. Go on, get out. Save yourself. We shouted at me. Thrusting
[01:53:16] his pistol up into my hand. Here, take it. He was a small man. I yanked into his feet and threw him
[01:53:22] across my shoulder. We crossed the river and we were out of it. Some men lifted the major from
[01:53:29] my shoulders. There were eleven of us. Ben Kalski's arm hung limply at his side. Only one of us
[01:53:35] a sergeant from the first Ranger company had come through without a scratch. Another mile down the
[01:53:41] road, we met the unit on its way up to break through to us. There were men from easy company with it.
[01:53:48] My legs were a little rubbery. Young mouchic, another Pennsylvania, raised with me back to the aid station.
[01:53:55] The dock took one look at me and said the war is over for you soldier. You're on the way to the
[01:54:01] states. Young said goodbye, see you back home. I waved my hand at him, seen a couple days, man.
[01:54:08] The major asked me to write my name down. He was going to put me in for the Medal of Honor.
[01:54:13] I picked up a scrap of paper from one of the field clerks and wrote her book on it and handed it to
[01:54:18] one of the medics. I laid down on the litter and fell asleep.
[01:54:32] Yeah.
[01:54:32] Crazy.
[01:54:39] I think what's that? He's been wounded with a bayonet three times.
[01:54:42] I don't know. It's broken off. He's just.
[01:54:54] An ambulance left me at the 11th Evac hospital unit where they took the out the bayonet, took out the
[01:55:00] shrapnel, took out the slug, then tagged me for Japan and further evacuation to state side.
[01:55:08] But I didn't mean to go home yet. I begged the dock to let me recuperate where I was. I
[01:55:14] swore I felt fine, but they said it was impossible. I needed rest besides there were rules.
[01:55:19] There had been internal bleeding and I had lost a lot of blood. One of them suggested that I
[01:55:23] volunteered to come back in a few months. In short, the answer was no. I could stay at the 11th
[01:55:28] long enough to see Jennifer Jones who has arrived the next day. The day after I would be evacuated
[01:55:34] first to Japan, then to the states. Jennifer came in the morning and shook hands with each of us.
[01:55:40] The doctor told her my story as if I were a hero and she invited me for steak when I got back home.
[01:55:46] She was beautiful. She was real and down to earth. She was going to have dinner with the wounded
[01:55:50] men that night. But I missed dinner. When she came back, I slipped out of different exit. I
[01:55:59] talked the sergeant that's applying to letting me have some fatigues and a rifle. Then I hit
[01:56:03] to ride north and returned to my unit. Woon still draining. I told them at battalion that the docks
[01:56:10] had to have the medic change the dressings periodically and give me shots when I needed them.
[01:56:16] The wounds were to be bound and stitched after they had drained. No one questioned it.
[01:56:21] And I was given a lift down to easy company.
[01:56:27] Technically is that A-wall? No. Yeah. It is actually A-wall because you're being ordered to do
[01:56:34] something and then you're not doing it. The company was on a sort of low-level reserve.
[01:56:43] Not anything we hadn't been not anything like what we've been on back in the spring,
[01:56:47] but rather regimental reserve. We were in defensive positions short of the front,
[01:56:51] ready and reinforce whatever regiment needed. Or to be ready on call to spearhead the company had a new
[01:56:59] CO. Canning was the executive officer again. Three new lutenants had come into the first
[01:57:06] third and weapons platoon. Command of second platoon was still mine. Canning had been true to his
[01:57:14] word. I'd only been gone for a few days, but barely recognized the unit. Everyone treated me like
[01:57:18] something special. I was told I've been submitted for an entire shit pot full of awards.
[01:57:25] But Dave wasn't about to get me to bite on any of that bullshit. I mean who else I said.
[01:57:30] I met Captain West, the new CO and the new three new lutenants. Tim's an X Marine,
[01:57:37] Lieutenant Duboy from Duboy Street in Duboy in Duboy, Pennsylvania and Lieutenant from the
[01:57:45] sovereign state of Texas who wanted to know why if I was such a damn good platoon leader I wasn't
[01:57:50] an officer. I have Paul I explained. Captain West was a down-home type who was tall and lanky
[01:57:57] and served as a commander in World War II. He had been recalled out of Korea for the reserves.
[01:58:01] He made it clear that he would fight, but he wouldn't take Jackass chances. He talked real
[01:58:05] clear in plain. We also received our first black replacements. There were rumors that batangin
[01:58:13] headquarters had blocked at it and that there had been a knock-down dragout brawl at regiment
[01:58:18] that ended when our CO was told there would be no more rotation until we accepted black replacements.
[01:58:24] So the regimental CO had softened. We tried a couple. If things didn't work out after a month
[01:58:31] it would be discussed again. Easy company got one. He was a super soldier. Probably one of the
[01:58:37] finest sergeants in the whole damn army. The men were more than satisfied with him from the
[01:58:42] day he arrived. It was the officer corps and the ass kissing senior NCOs at regimental and batangin
[01:58:51] headquarters who opposed the idea of integration. Most of the troops didn't care one way or the other.
[01:59:00] The entire tenor of the war had changed and this is fast forward a little bit.
[01:59:07] Things were much better. We had broken the Chinese spring offensive. The second division was
[01:59:11] credited as having destroyed more than 92,000 Chinese regulars, more than 36,000 of whom were dead
[01:59:17] in that one three-day action. Word was that the north was ready to commence peace talks.
[01:59:25] Bugs was MIA. He was last seen standing on a patty-dike out of ammo, swinging and entrenching
[01:59:32] tool as he went down under a pilot Chinese. Gennings was missing an action. Most of the
[01:59:37] replacements we had gained and gone down and gained and trained had gone down fighting. Some
[01:59:43] know that we're at MIA and might show up as POWs later. There were men to be trained. This part of
[01:59:49] the country who's new to me so I had maps to study our unit was not going to sit on its ass for long.
[01:59:54] We're going to push north. This is where you start to see a different part of his character.
[02:00:08] Maybe not a different part but you start to see some of his character come through again that
[02:00:14] defines some of his future. One of it was him looking at the black replacements going like,
[02:00:19] yeah, no factor. Let's do this. The other one is another good indicator of his
[02:00:27] let's say his character in his mindset was they haven't started having some issues with some
[02:00:32] gorillas. The gorillas stepped in again and we started to take sniper fire daily. The
[02:00:37] unit was ordered to burn out some villages to deny them at base of operations. West assigned me the
[02:00:43] mission and I refused. I tried to explain that I hadn't joined the army or volunteered for
[02:00:49] Korea to fight civilians or burn their hooches. The discussion was getting sticky when Carlson
[02:00:55] volunteered and got both myself and West off the hook. It was a fatal error for Carlson. He took one
[02:01:01] through the chest from a sniper and went home in a body bag. I had hardly known the man. Yet I
[02:01:07] felt the same terrible emptiness when he died as a headwind Mac had bought the farm. West asked
[02:01:14] me if I'd like to go out and burn the villages now. No, I said he didn't push it.
[02:01:20] What exactly is a gorilla? Gorilla is non-uniformed fighter. So if it's someone that's
[02:01:32] dressing up like a civilian and they're maybe acting like this civilian but they're not
[02:01:37] in an organized military so they don't have a uniform and they have a chain of command but it's
[02:01:41] underground. So for instance in Vietnam there were the Vietnamese regulars, the NVA. They were army soldiers
[02:01:53] with uniforms but then there was also the VC right? You've heard that expression that's the
[02:01:57] Vietnam. So they might live in a village and act like a farmer but then at night they have a AK-47
[02:02:05] hidden and they attack. That's a gorilla fighter. So are they independent or are they like working?
[02:02:12] You know, a little bit of both they're going to be less organized than a traditional military
[02:02:21] unit would be a conventional military unit so they're going to be a little less organized and then
[02:02:26] that just due to the fact that they're spending some of their time as civilians. But they don't
[02:02:34] do the answer to like let's say you know the in Vietnam like do the yeah so the VIA Kong has a chain of
[02:02:40] command and a structure and things like that and they're senior VIA Kong and they're senior guerrillas
[02:02:45] in this situation. Gotcha but they're not they're not fully uniformed and I'm sure of like
[02:02:51] could there's probably a more technical definition than what I'm giving but that's the general principle.
[02:02:57] Is a gorilla fighter is not in an organized uniformed situation and probably is more or less
[02:03:07] apart times. So even though like VIA Kong there was professional VIA Kong meaning they didn't have
[02:03:11] some other job but then this is you could say the insurgents and Iraq same thing and you could say that
[02:03:19] once the insurgents became ISIS and started wearing like black uniforms and flying a big flag
[02:03:24] that was it's almost like they're not guerrillas anymore. Yeah an organized military unit.
[02:03:30] Yeah that was kind of their uniform. They're in the black. Yeah.
[02:03:37] All right so once again they're on another hill. I had left it was so crazy to think like
[02:03:48] that story of him attacking that machine gun asked where he saves the major and all that.
[02:03:53] That kind of that kind of could be the end of the book right. If he stabbed he's got to
[02:04:01] bayonet in his chest he's been shot. You can kind of say like okay that's probably a good place
[02:04:09] to go home for him and maybe end the book and all that. It's just not even close.
[02:04:17] So they're on another hill. I had left a listening post three men above and forward of the
[02:04:23] original positions when the Chinese moved in they came around midnight at about company size.
[02:04:28] The old the listening post picked them up and phoned the word about a hundred of them right on
[02:04:34] positions. Get down in your whole sit tight. I answered then I called back to company and radio
[02:04:38] two concentration numbers. Roy alerted the patrol to be ready to open fire on the old positions on
[02:04:45] command which would be immediately after the first round of artillery exploded. Figuring we must
[02:04:49] pull back. The Chinese began to chatter carefully. Suddenly there was one loud woosh
[02:04:55] followed by three more and the world blew up in their faces. Fire exploded the entire finger
[02:05:00] and draw lighting up the night in red, yellow and orange flashes. Silhouette's a body
[02:05:05] shown against the blaze, winging through the sky, smashing up against trees and rocks. I gave the
[02:05:10] signal and the platoon opened up. When it was over we had destroyed the entire company.
[02:05:15] Or rather the artillery had. There was no question about it artillery destroyed more enemy
[02:05:20] in combat than all other services combined including the Air Force. Death was sudden,
[02:05:25] ripping, ripping violent. Most of the time however we used it badly and it was a waste.
[02:05:31] Tonight we had worked well together and the Chinese had paid the price.
[02:05:34] I radioed back the results. West wanted me to take the platoon out across and verify. I told
[02:05:42] my wood at first light. He told me you wanted to do it now so he could notify battalion.
[02:05:47] I told him I would do it at first light and signed off. He called back two more times trying to
[02:05:53] raise me. I whispered for psychs to turn down the volume. Quiet settled over the area once again
[02:05:59] at first light. So there's a little little leadership, you know, little leadership scenario.
[02:06:04] Getting told to do something that probably doesn't make a lot of sense right now. Hey, just kind of
[02:06:07] turned on that radio a little bit. Don't answer. At first light I moved the patrol back across
[02:06:12] the draw and we verified our three men were unscratched. The entire Chinese company including parts
[02:06:18] of their officers were present accounted for and dead. I radioed the results to West. Good. Good.
[02:06:24] He said great. And then with the pause, come on in. We'll send a replacement platoon down.
[02:06:30] Not necessary. We don't have any casualties. I'll just send a party back for more ammo.
[02:06:35] Then as an afterthought, we'll have to move though. It's going to smell pretty bad down here after
[02:06:41] the sun comes up. Sure, certainly he said whatever you feel is okay, just give us your coordinates
[02:06:47] and when you get settled in, we'll co-sure out. And I just highlighted that part because you can see
[02:06:55] even though West was pushing him to kind of go out there and check. But at the end of the day,
[02:06:58] he trusts what he trusts what his guy in the front line says. We don't need to pull out.
[02:07:03] It may need some more ammo. Have to adjust our position. And it's just a good thing to see.
[02:07:14] The fast forward a little bit. I was called down to regimental headquarters and offered a
[02:07:17] battlefield commission to second lieutenant. Next time we were in reserve, I was to receive what
[02:07:24] Dave had called that shit potful of decorations. The Colonel commanding the regiment explained that
[02:07:30] many advantages I would have as an officer and a gentleman. But it was crazy. I didn't even have an
[02:07:35] education. I told my preferred being an elisted man for the time being. Then he said,
[02:07:40] you deserve to be the highest ranked one over here. And he promoted me to master sergeant on the
[02:07:44] spot. He broke out a bottle and offered me a drink at the time. I neither smoked nor drank,
[02:07:48] but I thanked him and sipped it while he discussed the possibility of my coming back for a commission
[02:07:53] when I changed my mind. I thanked him for the promotion and the drink again and then went back to the
[02:07:58] platoon. So he almost got the battlefield commission and said, no, likes being an e-dog.
[02:08:07] West picked up a piece of shrapnel. Actually, the next day Fox company passed through
[02:08:11] a lines into the valley. They swung east on a road and meander through the wide, low, flat farm land
[02:08:18] to a major terrain feature behind beyond. He'll sick 868 on the map. They fought and died for that
[02:08:25] peak for the next two days in night with us just sitting there listening to the battle rage.
[02:08:31] West picked up a piece of shrapnel from an incoming 81 mortar round and we received a replacement
[02:08:38] for him. A tiny, wiery, red-headed Irish man with a waxed handlebar mustache that was the pride of
[02:08:48] Korea. Any man who can best meet at Indian wrestling is a better man than I and can run the company.
[02:08:55] He announced none of us knew what the hell Indian wrestling was. So he ran the company and he ran it
[02:09:01] well. I like to put nine stars next to this. Here's a good leader. He joked with a man. He carried more
[02:09:09] than his share of the load. He took his turn at watch in the command post bunker. He carried
[02:09:14] an M1 rifle like the rest of us. He cooked his own rations and shared his water and coffee.
[02:09:21] He was the best weed hat canning accepted. There was no difficulty in getting the men to follow him
[02:09:27] or do their damnist for him. And he sure did his damnist for us. So there you go. Man, there he go.
[02:09:35] So this one point I was there's a part that I'm going to summarize a little bit of it. So basically
[02:09:47] what happens is there's these four Chinese designers that end up with the company. They're
[02:09:55] basically a cop from, they don't capture them, but they're a designer. They come over and say we
[02:09:58] surrender basically. And then they say that there's going to be a 30 man combat patrol that's
[02:10:06] so a North Korean patrol is going to go down this particular riverbed, do north of the positions
[02:10:13] at the end. And canning, the officer didn't believe him. Sounds like a setup, right? Oh, you're trying
[02:10:19] to get us to go down there and set up an ambush. So he doesn't really believe him. And
[02:10:23] Herbert does believe the guys. He kind of talks about how he psychologically was trying to figure
[02:10:31] out why would these guys do this? They're really surrendering, like why would four of them surrender?
[02:10:35] Why wouldn't you just send one to surrender? Why are you sending four guys to surrender? So he kind
[02:10:39] of goes through his psychological profile of the guys and he believes them. So I tried to talk
[02:10:45] canning in the new CEO and deleting me set up an ambush for them, but canning had prevailed.
[02:10:50] And the best the new CEO would do is let me drop one machine gun team down to the valley on the river.
[02:10:56] Turns out that the Chinese guys had told the truth. The gun crew and so now he did get one gun
[02:11:03] crew down there. The gun crew opened up a couple minutes short of midnight. They had caught the
[02:11:07] patrol in the riverbed, but the patrols larger than anticipated. And now they, the machine gun
[02:11:13] crew was under attack. The new CEO called me on the sound power. No, I couldn't pull my
[02:11:19] 普通 off line and go back to reinforce the gun crew, but I would take or send six men to do the
[02:11:24] best they could. I rapidly ticked off the names of my six best men as to the squad leaders.
[02:11:29] I told them to have them on the trail behind the positions and I picked them up one by one and
[02:11:34] moved toward the junction that led down to the valley below us. We tried to hurry and busted our
[02:11:38] asses slipping and falling each over each other in the mud. We hit the flats and started across
[02:11:43] the battalion heavy mortar section was in position. I asked the CEO to have canning notify them.
[02:11:49] We were on the way and to be on the lookout for us. So I'm gonna say that again. We asked the CEO
[02:11:55] to have canning notify them that we were on the way and to be on the lookout for us.
[02:12:01] One or the other had failed and their guards opened up with small arms fire without bothering
[02:12:05] to challenge us. Doomus went down dead. We dropped into a small gully and maneuvered toward the riverbed.
[02:12:12] Our gun crew is still pouring the lead. We broke out of the gully 75 yards east of them
[02:12:17] cop between their fire and the Chinese patrol. I yelled for the gun crew to hold fire and they did.
[02:12:22] Now it was us and the patrol in the riverbed. I cautioned my men to play it cool to use bay
[02:12:27] and that's where they could. No automatic fire under any circumstances. All automatic fire will
[02:12:32] be considered enemy. We spread out and moved ahead slowly. The Chinese were in a panic. They
[02:12:37] broke out of the niches and crevices in one of the in ones and twos and we dropped them with
[02:12:42] singer file or laced a bayonet through their guts. First light broke and we had the sergeant
[02:12:49] and the platoon leader trapped. They came out with their hands up. We marched them onto the valley
[02:12:55] road and had them hunkered down with their hands clasped across the tops of their head. I left
[02:13:01] the man to guard them and went back to take the tally. We had wiped out the patrol except for our
[02:13:08] two prisoners. The deserters had told the truth. There had been 30 of them heavily armed but now
[02:13:14] 28 of them were dead. There were sporadic shots up ahead but nothing to get excited about.
[02:13:20] I returned to the road then moved up to where I had posted my guard over the two POWs.
[02:13:27] They were all dead. The men from the mortar crews had opened up on them with small arms.
[02:13:33] I saw bloody red. I swung in the direction of the mortars and aimed my rifle from the hip.
[02:13:40] One of their sergeants popped up. I'm sorry Herbert. We didn't know.
[02:13:45] He dropped his carbine and raised his hands. We didn't know he apologized. No one told us.
[02:13:51] I lowered my rifle. My fault. I said not yours.
[02:14:07] So if you didn't quite catch that, the mortar company did not know that there was friendlies
[02:14:13] around there and he had actually had captured these prisoners and he left the guard with them
[02:14:17] and the mortar team killed them all. Both the captured enemy people and the guards.
[02:14:29] And there you go. That's a extreme ownership. My fault not yours.
[02:14:36] Blue on blue. Fast forward a little bit. We had received two replacements. One was named
[02:14:51] a lieutenant named Manning. The other sergeant was killed by a single artillery round which dropped
[02:14:55] into our positions that morning. No one in the unit except the CO had even heard his name.
[02:15:00] Life was that dumb. War was stupid. If there was a god that he was stupid.
[02:15:07] There was neither rhymed or reason to that man's death and he met no more than us
[02:15:11] than a chunk of clay when we passed him on the way out.
[02:15:20] Now I mentioned like for a split second that Fox company was headed up to this hill 868.
[02:15:27] And now these guys they didn't get there. Fox company didn't get a done. They took massive casualties
[02:15:33] and now easy companies heading up there and they get pinned down in this one particular spot.
[02:15:40] And well here they are. Manning caught up with me. What's happening? He asked excitedly.
[02:15:46] I was in a crater. My back against the wall. There was no sense in doing anything until the mortar's
[02:15:50] led up. There was no sense in getting excited either. I don't know Lieutenant. Why don't you
[02:15:54] pop your head up and take a look and then tell me. I joked and he did it. The machine gun ripped off
[02:16:01] a valley and he dropped back into my lap to round through the mouth in one cheek through the
[02:16:06] tongue smashing some teeth and out on the other cheek. He was okay considering what it could have been.
[02:16:13] My CO was next. He moved into the position with his radio with his radio man. What he
[02:16:19] have up there. Her be asked mainly the machine gun sir will get it after it gets dark. That's
[02:16:24] not good enough. He said the regimental CO is watching through the classes he wants it now.
[02:16:31] Camey and turned to look at us. Then let that fucker come up and take it. He said.
[02:16:37] Come on sir. I interrupted Fox companies been up here for weeks without moving all we need is a few more
[02:16:42] hours. The 23rd is moving. His moving up the old man said we've got to have that hill today.
[02:16:50] I rolled over on my gut and gave Camey in the signal to get ready. In the next four hours,
[02:16:56] 61 of us rounded that junction 11 of us made it two thirds of the way to the top along the final bar.
[02:17:04] The machine gunner at the top of the hill got the rest. So night found 11 of us almost at the top
[02:17:19] and the rest of us either cut their ribbons or unable to move. At three in the morning the
[02:17:25] Chinese launched a counter attack down the ridge to drive us back, weeding us down to eight.
[02:17:30] We still had radio contact with the CO and we wanted to know if we could hold out. We're not backing up.
[02:17:37] I replied hang in there herb. I've got a 57 coming up. Hang in there. He was referring to a 57
[02:17:43] caliber of 57 millimeter recoil as rifle. It could take out the machine gun all right, but it would
[02:17:49] have to be a direct hit every half hour or so for the remainder of the night he called the check on
[02:17:54] how we were making out. Just before daylight he joined us with the 57 and before we could stop him
[02:18:00] he was through us and made a one man attack on the position. And he almost had it.
[02:18:08] We gave him as much covering fire as we could, but just short of the position he went down pulling
[02:18:13] the trigger of the 57. The round plowed into the sandbags right of the opening two feet off
[02:18:19] total victory and blew the old man back down the hill. As overtake cattle which saved his life.
[02:18:24] A call came in from the regiment. A platoon of fox company would push through us and take the final
[02:18:29] bunker. Private Irvin Stern from North Dakota took two rounds through the chest.
[02:18:38] He never even asked to be evacuated. He apologized for being a problem.
[02:18:44] I could have hugged him. The platoon from fox company moved up to us. The lieutenant in charge wanted
[02:18:51] to talk until it was time for the assault. So I listened. He had a wife and kids. He never expected
[02:19:00] to make it. Pick and send you raw flash through my mind. He didn't intend to make it. But if he
[02:19:08] didn't, someone else would have to. That someone was me with came in and the six we had left
[02:19:15] and against a machine gunner with the determination and guts that that bastard had.
[02:19:19] We weren't going to make it. So when the lieutenant moved his men out toward the peak,
[02:19:26] I had my last troops stand. Stand ready to reinforce if necessary. As he stepped out to follow his
[02:19:34] platoon, I cracked him with the butt of Jordan's car bean and raced out through his troops.
[02:19:41] The gunner above, open fire and rape the hill, splattering dust and mud all around, round us.
[02:19:49] Men began to fall back. I grabbed them and pushed them back up the hill. Get that mother fucker.
[02:19:53] I shouted, get him. One of fox companies men shouted, okay, big deal. Let's get him.
[02:19:59] And then raced to me. Came in was leading our own six up the ridge. Men started tossing grenades
[02:20:06] from both sides and in the confusion one blew the gun away and we had the hill.
[02:20:14] We had lost a buck who had been sent to the rear wounded and was captured down by the
[02:20:19] brook by a Chinese patrol. Nelson was dead. The CO are top notch, black test case.
[02:20:27] Manning, everyone in my platoon was either dead or wounded except came in to myself.
[02:20:33] Word came up that we would be relieved. Came in said it was about time.
[02:20:41] Then he rolled over the body of one of our troops who had bought the farm the night before
[02:20:45] and the grenade exploded. This war was getting to be real pain in the ass. We sat there,
[02:20:52] him wounded now and only me in one piece waiting for our relief.
[02:20:58] When the relief showed up, Roy could still walk, we moved back down the ridge line together.
[02:21:06] One of the relief asked him who we were and he replied easy company 38th infantry.
[02:21:15] At the west end of the valley, we caught up with those few troops from our company that hadn't been
[02:21:19] committed and that had been moved back by the battalion CO. Maggie Higgins was interviewing them.
[02:21:31] The battalion CO introduced me to her. She asked me to wait a moment while she concluded talking
[02:21:37] with someone else. She turned her head and I walked off. I wasn't about to wait for anyone ever again.
[02:21:42] Maggie's loss, I said to myself, turning back toward the Kansas line, I joined the remnants of
[02:21:48] what had been easy company moving back up the hill out of the valley and away from hill 868.
[02:22:01] Again, you think, okay, this got to be kind of the end. This has to be kind of the end of this
[02:22:09] what he's going through.
[02:22:10] I'm not sure if he can reflect on it as I was getting to know men.
[02:22:21] Types were predictable and the world is becoming less complicated. There were men and there were
[02:22:26] fakes. A man either was or he wasn't. The rest was all play acting. I was 21 and I was already an old
[02:22:36] man. I had to shake it or I'd become a bona fide pain in the ass so I started to listen
[02:22:42] more than I talked and was somewhat reserved with the men. The war felt different. There was no
[02:22:51] apprehension, no excitement. Everything seemed routine and easy. I was going to make it unless
[02:22:55] a stray roundhouse but had my name on it and that was damned unlikely. I'd become a survivor.
[02:23:02] Some men lived and some men died. I would live. There was more than just war for me but for now
[02:23:10] I was still in Korea. We were on the line and across the valley lay the next major objective.
[02:23:17] I was ordered to report to battalion headquarters for briefing.
[02:23:20] So you get done with an operation where every you lose everybody is either dead or wounded
[02:23:36] and you achieve your objective and you get back in our next objective.
[02:23:40] He does a little stint and it's going to get past his part of it. He does a little stint
[02:23:51] with as a Marine Corps liaison and does an assault with the Marines and loses nine of the
[02:23:55] Marines that he's with. And then after that he goes back to easy company again.
[02:24:04] We returned to the same positions. We hadn't been pulled off of this back with easy company
[02:24:08] and rain began to fall. I had been in Korea one year. Most men were rotating stateside within nine
[02:24:13] months but I was still a wall. With no records I might be here forever. It was okay with me. I
[02:24:18] knew the country. I knew the war and I was well on my way to knowing myself.
[02:24:25] One day the war would end or else I'd go to stateside with a million dollar shot.
[02:24:29] Either way I'd be thankful. I'd never again waste a moment of life.
[02:24:33] And no one ever again would be able to take even a second of it from me.
[02:24:42] I felt terrific. Screw rotation. Life was my orster. Korea was my pearl.
[02:24:57] Going back out on another patrol. We crossed the road and started up a hill.
[02:25:02] Complex beyond the fog lifting beneath behind in beneath us. The world was still calm.
[02:25:08] We picked our way carefully. Slightly I stopped the ones and glanced back. I felt damn good. I felt
[02:25:13] proud. I felt American goddammit. We were the best. Just off the peak. They had a major gun position.
[02:25:20] A Russian heavy machine gun. Two crew members were standing outside shooting the breeze.
[02:25:24] Having a smoke I gave a signal for the patrol to fan out on both sides of the trail. I wanted
[02:25:29] those two taken silently and alive. I motioned for the two scouts to cover me. Then just as I was
[02:25:35] about to start forward to take them someone triggered a booby trap. Both crew members made a
[02:25:40] break for their bunker and I had to drop them. So much for surprise. We still had shock action.
[02:25:48] And we were at the top in their positions with their key guns and most of their ammo. In
[02:25:55] effect we had the hill. We could hold it as long. We could hold it long enough for George
[02:26:02] company to reinforce. Then nobody was going to take it back. So I had to skip some stuff because
[02:26:07] it's a pretty detailed explanation of what's going on. But basically they were kind of head
[02:26:12] up this into this position and they almost get fully in the position. They get close enough
[02:26:17] to where they're going to be able to actually capture the people that are in that gun without
[02:26:22] giving themselves away. But somebody you can hear somebody hit the booby trap. But once the
[02:26:28] booby trap goes they just kind of continue with the assault. They don't get the kill the guys instead
[02:26:31] of capturing them but they get there. And they capture this freaking hill. And this hill
[02:26:36] didn't really go too much into it but it's a very prominent terrain feature. And so it's
[02:26:41] surprising that they get there. And he says at the end there we could hold the hill long enough for
[02:26:50] George company to reinforce. And once George company was there they would have the hill and
[02:26:56] known to be able to take it from them. But George company never showed. By late afternoon there were
[02:27:03] six of us still alive and we could hardly see over the dead around us. Every time I called the
[02:27:08] Italian I got word that George company was almost to us hang on. Randolph was reloading magazines
[02:27:14] into the B.A.R. They're not common serge. We're almost out of ammo. Get the old man on the horn.
[02:27:20] I'd give it one more try. He wasn't available according to the radio man. I glassed back down the
[02:27:26] trail we'd come up so skillfully. So easily so damn sure of ourselves that Chinese must find it
[02:27:31] unbelievable that we hadn't reinforced yet. They didn't know we were down to six almost out of ammo.
[02:27:39] If we made a break now and Rand like hell we might be able to make it before they would close
[02:27:43] in on us. I sent one final message. Tell the old man we're pulling out. Then without waiting for a
[02:27:49] Roger any other bullshit like I'd been getting all day I gave the word to saddle up. They stared at
[02:27:55] me in disbelief. What about George company? There isn't any George company. Now God damn it pack
[02:28:01] up and get ready to move. Add a dud round down the trail. Nobody stops until he crosses the road.
[02:28:08] Then hold up and provide cover for the rest of us. Ready? I destroyed the maximum
[02:28:13] and picked up our own LMG. I began to tick off names. Keith go Nick go Daniels go Thompson go.
[02:28:22] I turned to Randolph go and we were halfway down the hill before they called on
[02:28:30] that it wasn't a diversion or another tactic but that we were bugging out.
[02:28:34] I took a round through the fleshy part of my calf. Randolph took one through the chest and
[02:28:39] a second through the head. He was dead before he hit the ground. Everyone else made it across the road
[02:28:45] without a scratch. Then held up and covered for me while I got Randolph's body out.
[02:28:50] I was puffing like a winded horse. I'm sorry.
[02:28:58] Four of them. I'm just fucking sorry. They would have to be crazy to ever trust me again. Thompson
[02:29:05] padded me on the shoulder. You ain't George company, Sarge. But it wasn't George company either.
[02:29:12] They had never been alerted for standby. No one had believed we could ever make it to the top
[02:29:19] and then when we did they didn't think we could ever hold out all day. The new S2 at the Betayan
[02:29:25] tried to explain to me that George company would get the hill back tomorrow. If the troll of
[02:29:31] 24 could do it, it would be a cinch for a full company. He was green so we really believed it.
[02:29:39] It wasn't even worth explaining. I'd been dealing with assholes like him on and off for almost a
[02:29:46] year now. I went over to the aid station and had them tend to my wound. The regimental CO had
[02:29:51] be back to the rear again the same night and apologized. No one had notified him that we'd made
[02:29:58] it to the top. He was sorry about my troops. But I had brought back valuable intelligence.
[02:30:04] Now the hill would be easy. I tried to explain what was really on that hill that neither George
[02:30:11] company nor the entire betayan was going to take it now. We had blown our chance. You're just
[02:30:15] hurt Herbert. You'll see. And we saw George company was chopped the pieces. The battalion failed.
[02:30:28] The 38th Regiment failed. They had to bring in the ninth regiment, part of the 23rd Regiment,
[02:30:34] the French battalion and part of the 14th Regiment. The battle raged for four weeks. We lost nearly
[02:30:41] 5,600 men, 1900 dead, 3700 seriously wounded before it was secured.
[02:30:51] Harkbreak Ridge. We could have had it for free. And it would have gone unnamed and unremembered
[02:31:00] except for one commander who had not believed in his troops.
[02:31:03] A couple of days later, halfway up another hill I was ordered to turn my platoon over to my
[02:31:11] assistant and report back to company headquarters where I was provided with a Jeep to regiment
[02:31:17] bypassing Italian, another Jeep to division and on the sole 8th Army headquarters.
[02:31:24] So you've heard Hamburg or Hill, then in this crazy battle and you got the casualties right there,
[02:31:31] 1,93700 seriously wounded and they had taken the hill before it had been reinforced.
[02:31:44] So you can see he's got this, this is a provided with these jeeps back to battalion, back to
[02:31:51] regiment, back to division and then all the way back to sole where the 8th Army headquarters is.
[02:32:03] This is what happens. We wield into sole and into the compound. Everyone was in class A's except
[02:32:09] myself and the Jeep driver. I'd never been this far to the rear in my life, not even in the states.
[02:32:14] The MP at the gauge gates checked our identification then stood back and saluted.
[02:32:22] What the hell gave him the idea of us? We're officers. I couldn't figure, but to save time I returned it.
[02:32:29] Your quarters are at number 8 Sergeant Herbert over there. He pointed at a building across the compound.
[02:32:35] Well, at least he knew I was a sergeant. I hadn't asked the driver for his rank. Thanks,
[02:32:39] Corpal. I replied, then turn to the driver. You staying I asked a hostage. A hostage got to get back.
[02:32:48] Save you time then. I jumped out of the Jeep and lit next to the Corpal. Take your bag
[02:32:53] serge, don't have any sun. I was 21. I turned back the Jeep driver. Thanks. It's an honor,
[02:32:58] serge. He saluted me off handedly, spun the Jeep around and a cloud of dust and brought back through the gate.
[02:33:04] He disappeared up the road in a second. Later in the afternoon after a good bath and washing some of the
[02:33:10] filth out of my fatigues, I saw it out the NCO club. It wasn't open yet. So I went back to my room, took another
[02:33:15] back bath and fell asleep. I had a terrible dream. It was one which would re-accur for years.
[02:33:26] I was charging a machine gun nest, not a bunker, but one in a hole.
[02:33:31] Like the one at Kun Mun Gaul. Then with bayonet fixed out of ammo, right on the edge, the earth gave
[02:33:41] way beneath my feet and I was going backwards. My guts unguarded. My rifle flung up in an attempt to
[02:33:48] re-gain my balance. But I was going over backwards and I woke up in a sweat.
[02:33:56] I got a hold of myself in a second. Sorrow I was and laid down and went back to sleep to be awakened
[02:34:04] next by light footsteps at my door. It was a young lieutenant. Everything sat as factory sergeant.
[02:34:11] He asked cheerfully. Great, sir, but why all the service? What the hell is it all about?
[02:34:18] It was just what he needed to trigger him off. The UN command had decided to send two outstanding
[02:34:23] soldiers from the command on a goodwill tour of Europe, state side, god knows where else.
[02:34:30] Our best, he said. Another soldier of the month contest I thought. I remember the MP at the gate
[02:34:37] in the classies and glanced at myself in the mirror. I was ragged, asked, and tired. I didn't have
[02:34:44] a chance and I didn't much give a damn. I was beyond that. I rushed the lieutenant out, took another
[02:34:50] bath, dressed, slung my B.A.R., and closed the door behind me. All I had to do was hit another
[02:34:57] and ride north, and I'd be back to easy company within two days. The corporal was still at the gate.
[02:35:05] Where you headed? Serge, he asked, home, man. Home? Back to my outfit.
[02:35:13] But Serge, hey man, do I look like soldier of the month material I asked?
[02:35:17] He shook his head in the nicest way any human being ever had before or since.
[02:35:25] Ah, Serge, you look like the toughest mother that's over here, and our most decorated soldier.
[02:35:33] He had tears in his eyes. You're going out, man. They're taking a guy to go with you.
[02:35:38] He lifted the rifle from my shoulder, and you ain't going to need this anymore.
[02:35:52] So, that is a good place to stop for this particular book.
[02:36:01] For this pretty much where there's an Apple Log that you should read. But the story ends there for this
[02:36:10] book, but as they end the book, but it's not the end of the story. And I won't even crack open this
[02:36:20] next book yet, which is going to pick up with what happens throughout his life and his career
[02:36:29] in the army after Korea. After some mayhem in Vietnam, we're going to learn a lot about leadership,
[02:36:38] a lot about life, a lot about human nature, and go ahead and learn some lessons.
[02:36:45] So, we will save that for next time to prevent having a seven hour podcast at this time.
[02:36:55] Until then, echo, speaking of life. Crazy story, right? Crazy story. I mean insane.
[02:37:07] Like unreal. Right. Like it's not real. It's so crazy and unbelievable.
[02:37:15] It's like time and time and time again. How many nine lives for a cat? What's he on?
[02:37:23] I think he's on 17. It's crazy how he has that much. I don't even know what you'd call it. Where
[02:37:31] he's just down for the fight. Just to be like, I guess though, right? Like when you're, when you grow
[02:37:39] up, just hard core mining town, no, just hard. You see your brothers go off to war. You see them
[02:37:50] coming home, telling stories about what's going on. Just embed it. Is there, right? There's like
[02:37:55] embedded desire to be in war for many young men, right? And I can't say everybody, I want to
[02:38:05] make that statement. I can't talk about females because I don't interact with females as much,
[02:38:10] but like when you're in a single platoon, you're with a lot of guys that what they wanted to do
[02:38:16] growing up was go to war. Myself included. Like that's what you grow up with. So there's got to be
[02:38:23] some kind of instinctual thing. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, maybe over simplifying it would be like,
[02:38:31] that's his 100% purpose in life. Yeah. So yeah, whatever I get band-edged a million times,
[02:38:39] shot, blown up, shot again, failed. Yeah. This guy lets you down. There's group lets you down, higher up,
[02:38:46] slating you down, shot up again. And okay, like let me, let me literally break the law.
[02:38:55] Many times, by the way, to get back to war. You don't know, it's as crazy. So he's there for a year.
[02:39:01] Now imagine this, the one guy that he talks about, this sergeant shows up, his first day gets killed.
[02:39:05] They don't even know what his name is. So here's a guy that's going 365 days of front line.
[02:39:13] Someone else shows up and they're dead in an hour. Yeah. Man, I mean, he can't, I'm listening to
[02:39:21] the book and I'm like, Brad, this guy's going to die soon. You know, obviously he doesn't die,
[02:39:25] but you can't if that's how it feels. It's like, man, he just keeps going back. That's crazy, man.
[02:39:32] Um, in the beginning, it had, you know, that graphic tail of the guts. Yeah. You know,
[02:39:39] wow, that does that to somebody. I can, you know, they obviously capture them and they just,
[02:39:46] what, cut them open and let their gut and then hang them up. Like, how can you even do that?
[02:39:52] Hell, baffling. Beats, dual tuments, it's human beings. Yeah, that's right. The, the darkness.
[02:40:00] Yeah, but, I don't know. Man, no, but straight up. Yeah, I know, but, you know, as far as like
[02:40:09] our perspective, you know, like, I guess maybe you could get talked through it, like, you know,
[02:40:14] you hear about these crazy things that people do, right? Whether it be to each other or whatever.
[02:40:18] And you kind of hear everything. You're like, I can see how he got there. I would never do that.
[02:40:22] Can stop, but I can see how he got there. You can kind of be like, I see, I see.
[02:40:25] It's hard like that kind of stuff to be like, yeah, this person, we captured them already.
[02:40:32] I mean, maybe certain angry, like, if you're angry enough, it's a money, maybe, but I'm
[02:40:37] well, what's in here's a good, here's a good example of thought processes when he
[02:40:42] is when he gets told, hey, go burn down that village. Yeah, and he goes, I'm not doing it. Yeah.
[02:40:48] Now, think about this. He says, I'm not doing it. And another guy's, all right, I'll do it.
[02:40:52] So the other guy goes out to burn down the village and he gets shot in the chest and killed.
[02:40:58] And now, you can see Captain West is like, hey, now do you want to go burn down the village?
[02:41:04] And you would think you could, you would think Captain West is sort of trying to take advantage
[02:41:08] of the anger that you would have. Yeah, like, let's get some revenge. Yeah. And he goes, no.
[02:41:13] So that shows what his character is like. And again, the idea of this character,
[02:41:18] and the reason I talking about it a lot is when you see when we get to what happens in Vietnam,
[02:41:24] there's a lot of his character, you have to try and understand his character because of accusations
[02:41:30] that are being made in all different directions. It's, yeah. And it's weird to like,
[02:41:39] any one of these actions that he did is so far off the charts of what, what's a
[02:41:48] what's expected to like a normal award writing above and beyond. With complete disregard for
[02:41:56] his own safety, like all those things, that's, that's what he's got going on. Yeah.
[02:42:01] Crazy man. Well, back to the path. Well, I was going to say speaking of human nature, we know that
[02:42:09] we as humans have a tendency to drift off the path. So maybe we need a little. Yeah.
[02:42:19] Yeah. Well, you know, a wise man once said, um, it's hard to stand the path.
[02:42:26] Once you slip off, it may seem hard to get back on. But you can do it.
[02:42:33] What do you recommend? Well, there's good news. Because you're not alone on the path.
[02:42:37] Yeah. You might feel like it. But you got some help. Same saying. Help through supplementation.
[02:42:43] Yep. I said it. So, okay. So we're working out. That's a big one. We already know that it
[02:42:50] it helps every element of your life. I'm just getting in shape, being in shape. It's funny that
[02:42:58] I keep getting reminded. I think I mentioned this before. Obviously, I'm not going to go too deep into it.
[02:43:03] Because it really pales in comparison to pretty much anything we've ever talked about ever. But
[02:43:09] it doesn't mean it's not. The groceries are well. It's not. It's not. It's very close. So,
[02:43:13] you know, the water jugs. Right. I said, I told you about this similar similar situation, but
[02:43:19] same thought process. So, you know, water jugs, right? The big five gallon ones. It's not on the
[02:43:22] cooler and stuff like that. So I was replacing mine at home. And you got bayonet? No. No,
[02:43:28] better bayonet. I definitely didn't. No, I did not. It was white phosphorus burning you to the bone.
[02:43:33] I did not. But I had to grab it off like this shelf. See, Rowan, you put it like that. You're going
[02:43:42] to take away the juice of the hose. Oh, as you left up, you got shot. No. Then the bullet wrapped around
[02:43:47] your bone. No, no, bullets in you. Do that. But I saw it. And the thing is like, what? Like 40 pounds?
[02:43:54] I think it's like eight pounds per gallon, right? Yeah. I think. Yeah. So, 40 pounds, boom.
[02:43:59] And you have to kind of let it drop. Mm-hmm. And so I got to try and find. You were in my field.
[02:44:06] No, so you can't just like, and I did it with one hand because that's something else in
[02:44:10] my hand because I was doing some other stuff at the same time. So, it drops. And I swing it almost
[02:44:15] like a kettlebell. You know, you got to catch the momentum and swing it and boom. And boom,
[02:44:19] 40 pounds big thing too, by the way. So I bring it up and I'm walking with it in one hand and
[02:44:24] I forget what I had in the other hand. I was doing some field. And I walked it over and I was thinking
[02:44:30] to myself, it's kind of good to have this kid. Right. You're over making, like, making the
[02:44:38] comparison even more contrasty. So it's making it like sound all lame. But don't you think about it
[02:44:43] for sure? I'm telling you what you think about it. It's way better to have that capability
[02:44:48] than not to. You seem to be able to handle the 40 pound thing. Under like, I don't
[02:44:55] want to say harder circumstances, but harder than normal. You seem to say. Yeah. It's almost like,
[02:44:59] you know, having to grab a wounded major. Yeah. Is your being over running, having to throw him
[02:45:04] over your shoulder. Good point. Okay. That's that capability. Yes. Yes. Or just keep a water jug.
[02:45:10] Or what have you? Okay. Perfect. So that's the point. The point is, hey, sometimes you got to
[02:45:15] know, why do you do this to yourself? Don't worry. You're doing it too. I'm not doing it.
[02:45:19] Yeah. You're doing it too. Yes. Pointing out what every single other person is. They can
[02:45:22] keep you. Anyway, if you got to say somebody, you know, and you got to put them on your shoulder
[02:45:27] and run them. Yep. With a big cross street or whatever, it's good to have that capability
[02:45:34] rather than, oh, shoot. I can't do it by myself. I got asked for help. Seems like. Check. Same thing
[02:45:39] with the water jug. Check. If someone needs some help, like, hey, you know, you know, the kind
[02:45:43] of your grandma or whatever is like, hey, can you help me? Can you grab that thing up there?
[02:45:47] You know, the water jug from on the shelf. You want to be the guy that they asked to help,
[02:45:51] because they know we can do it. You seem to say. Yes, bro. Hey, look, I'll let you out of this.
[02:45:56] Here's your out. We're not in Korea. Here's your out. Here's your out. You take it.
[02:46:01] Anyway, I totally respect that. You want to help grandma. Yeah. And whoever else needs help. And that's
[02:46:06] not to mention when you're by yourself, you don't got to ask for help because you can do it.
[02:46:10] Same thing. Okay. I'm just saying, if you have that option, like it's better to choose
[02:46:15] option where you have that capability is what I'm saying. I agree. So that's why one of the many
[02:46:20] infinite reasons why working out is important. Okay. I'm correct. I'm going. You are correct.
[02:46:28] Anyway, when you're working out, sometimes you get little little pains in your joints,
[02:46:34] which is no problem when you're listening to the best of that. That would induce pain as well
[02:46:39] for sure, for sure. But no worries, Jaco is supplement for these things. Not the bandet thing, obviously.
[02:46:45] But, you know, little pains in your joints. That kind of stuff. Join warfare. It's called Jaco.
[02:46:50] Join warfare. Super cruel oil. I think pretty much people know what we have. Hey, check this out.
[02:46:55] If you want some of this stuff, which you should, you know, if you subscribe to it
[02:47:03] because you don't want to miss it, if you don't want to miss cruel oil, you don't want to miss
[02:47:06] join warfare. You don't want to miss, you know what? Like, you don't want to run low on whatever
[02:47:12] supplementation is making you strong. It's giving you that freaking capability if needed.
[02:47:18] To catch that one. You're good. What have you or whatever. I mean, this could be a bag of
[02:47:23] groceries. This could be, you know, a cantaloupe rolling off the counter. You want to be,
[02:47:28] you know what? You're joined to hurt as that's happening, right? This could be mayhem.
[02:47:31] It's going to be mayhem. Okay. See, see. If you go to jockelfuel.com and you subscribe,
[02:47:38] then shipping is free, which is cool. Okay. Okay. So you, you, I kind of shy away from assuming
[02:47:45] everybody already knows. But you bring up a good point from time to time that what if like 85
[02:47:51] percent of people already know? Same same. Yeah. And then I'm like, okay, I'm accommodating the other,
[02:47:55] the, you know, the 15 percent and kind of in a way, in a way, kind of ignoring the 85 percent,
[02:48:02] the needs of the 85 percent could be. Same same. Making them go for that right as well.
[02:48:07] No matter how good that right is. Yeah. Exactly right. Right. So I did what's face at that right.
[02:48:11] That's not fun. It's a bumpy. It's a bumpy right. Yeah. I understand. I understand. Well, so we got
[02:48:17] George warfare, Kriroloil, discipline, discipline, go, mook, what else? Anything else?
[02:48:23] Where you're kidding more? Where you're kidding more? Where you're kidding more? Some vitamin D in there.
[02:48:26] Hey, so here's the, here's actually the thing. Here's an effective thing for the 85 percent of us who do
[02:48:32] already know estimate. Go to jockelfuel.com boom, everything on there. Choose like what you want. You want the
[02:48:40] additional protein boom, grab down and you want to join self boom grab down and you want to deserve.
[02:48:45] You want to deserve that happens to have that.
[02:48:48] And then let's see. So yes, jockelfuel.com the discipline go energy drink scenario.
[02:48:59] These you can get, of course, jockelfuel.com, but you can get them at. Wow. Vitamin shop. Yep.
[02:49:06] There you go. There you go. Pull your chest shot. Also, what a vitamin shop. Yes. Also,
[02:49:12] origen, origen USA. Yeah. Good job. You come caught yourself. Yeah. Well, you know,
[02:49:19] origen. USA.com. That's where you can get the stuff as well. But you can also get or,
[02:49:24] I should I say, you will notice when you're on there that you can also get American,
[02:49:30] made jeans, boots, jiu-jitsu stuff as in geese, geese, rash guard, geabags. Yeah, some good stuff on there.
[02:49:39] Check, check. I like it. It's true. Also, jockel the store. It's called jockel store. That's
[02:49:47] where you can get discipline equals freedom stuff. You get hardcore recondos stuff.
[02:49:51] Stuff is true. It's very good. I need more of those shirts. By the way, and more of these shirts,
[02:49:56] by the way. All right. You got it. I know the guy and the X flag. Can hook you up with a discount and everything
[02:50:01] so flag. You know, oh, good. Also, if you were attacking an enemy position and it was flying this
[02:50:09] flag, would you hesitate a little bit more? I don't think I would. You would do some hesitation.
[02:50:13] You would look at this flag and you'd say, wait a second. These people look like they are going to
[02:50:18] bring the heat. Yeah. They look like they have discipline. Yeah. Everything ever goes like crazy in this
[02:50:27] country or in the world. You will see me. Like, let's say revolution war, civil war, whatever,
[02:50:34] whatever, whatever mayhem, I'll be flying this flag. Yeah. You have to do your own symbol.
[02:50:40] You'll know discipline. Yeah. Yeah. Good idea. I'll join you. You're, think.
[02:50:46] We're in the group. You just don't get to join because you want to. I have capability and I'm
[02:50:53] highly trained. I will be someone against the water bottles where you guys go. It will be an asset
[02:50:58] after your team. Anyway, Dr.com, there's a cool scenario on there called the shirt locker. That's
[02:51:05] if you want a new designed shirt. Do you ever go on props to the guy that came up with shirt locker?
[02:51:11] On Twitter. Was it on Twitter? Oh, directly. No, I have nuts. Yeah. So whoever wants your mystery human
[02:51:17] good job. You know, did you see or did I see it? You did. Yeah. Tell me. I told you about it.
[02:51:23] But yeah. That's a mystery human. I was going to blame you. You should have tracked his name. But you
[02:51:27] didn't. Yeah. It wasn't even you that did it. See blaming never works. No, my fault. Okay.
[02:51:34] Check. Nonetheless, that is what's going on. On jockelstar.com. So yeah, check it out. If you like
[02:51:39] something, get something. It's a good spot. Also, subscribe to this podcast if you want to. Sure.
[02:51:45] If you haven't yet, if you just listened to three hours and you haven't subscribed yet, that's your
[02:51:51] choice. But if you want to provide a little bit of support, you can subscribe to it. You can leave a review.
[02:52:00] We also have some other podcasts. We have jockel and ravling new episodes out.
[02:52:04] Dental Cooper from Margar Made. We have the grounded podcast. We have new warrior kid podcasts.
[02:52:12] Yes, we prioritized and executed on those. Yeah, actually Uncle J came through and those ones
[02:52:18] because they're actually they're pretty good. Very check. Check. Let's see if you have to
[02:52:24] legit. Let's see. Good. Made an adjustment there. New warrior kid podcasts. You can check those out.
[02:52:29] Also, we have the the the jockel underground podcast, which is some amplifying information. Some
[02:52:39] behind the scenes kind of kind of we got some Q and A stuff coming. If you're a member of the
[02:52:45] undergr- if you're a member of jockel underground.com, you can actually ask questions.
[02:52:50] And yeah, go to jockel underground.com if you want to. What's it? Subscribe. You have to pay money.
[02:52:59] Well, you pretty much have to pay when it's $8.18 a month. But a reason why we're doing it, we're doing
[02:53:03] it because we don't want to actually have somebody injecting advertisements into the middle of the podcast.
[02:53:11] We don't want to have that. So there you go. You can pay. And if you can't afford it, look,
[02:53:17] we're not trying to hold back information. If you can't afford it, no problem, no factor. If you
[02:53:22] can't afford it, $8.18 a month, email assistance at jockel underground.com. And we also have a YouTube
[02:53:29] channel, which we're echo like he just he he bludges us with videos. What are you even talking about?
[02:53:42] I'm just talking about how some of the videos that that you that you're solely responsible for,
[02:53:47] a lot of people don't like them. She's taking from the system. They like the videos that we're on
[02:53:54] the system. Okay, all right. Hey, you two, what's it called? Jockel podcast. And it's a fish.
[02:54:01] It's a fish. It's a fish. It's a fish. No, that's that a fish. But yeah, it's a fish.
[02:54:08] A verified. Perfect. It's verified. Also, check out Origin USA. They're putting up stuff. If you
[02:54:14] wanted to restore the tapering up there and there's zero explosions in there. And there's very limited
[02:54:21] number of explosions on long videos. You know what Charles makes. Origin USA, that's main tie. Right?
[02:54:27] That's main tie. Yeah, yeah, you took net up. You doing some good work up there? You're a proof of
[02:54:32] main tie. I'm very much so I can't even make anything explode. Well, we're working on that. But
[02:54:37] he doesn't have the skill set. That's that. That's that. That's that. Maybe it's because he
[02:54:41] maybe it's because he is uses some discretion when he make his videos. Yeah, it's very possible. Yeah.
[02:54:49] Yeah. Check. All right. There we go. It's getting late. Also, psychological warfare. I don't know what that is.
[02:54:59] It's an album with track. So when you hit moments of weakness, you got job going to help you.
[02:55:03] I just realized since I just got done with the warrior kid, I just realized probably a year ago.
[02:55:08] I said, it'll make some more psychological warfare for everybody. Haven't done it. Yeah. Well,
[02:55:14] you got to kind of collect or think of or kind of mentally get a current weakness. The thing is,
[02:55:22] though, as people were so stoked on that album and gave such good feedback. And I think I was just like,
[02:55:29] oh, yeah, I won't. People were asking, I can do interest in that. And I didn't really. I was like,
[02:55:33] pump, you know? And then the prioritized next season. Oh, dang. Started to start. Other things started
[02:55:39] that I was going to say, what do you lose motivation? I don't know. Well, motivation isn't going to
[02:55:46] get a good. There you go. Literally, motivation will not get that. It's only discipline.
[02:55:52] Maybe I need to make a, maybe I need to make a psychological warfare track of what to do when you
[02:55:58] don't feel like making a psychological warfare. Second album. Yeah. Check flip side canvas.
[02:56:05] Flipside canvas dot com to code a mile from a brother who's making cool stuff to hang on your
[02:56:09] wall. Got a bunch of books got a novel coming out. Maybe it's a novel. Why not really sure what it is.
[02:56:15] But I wrote something that's not a leadership book and it's not a kids book. It's a story.
[02:56:23] Well, we'll say that for now. I think I'll read a little sum of it. That's some point. So
[02:56:30] the book is called Final Spend. You can preorder it right now and you can get that first
[02:56:33] edition. Leadership strategy and tactics field manual. The code evaluation, the protocols,
[02:56:38] discipline, and the freedom field manual. The way the warrior kid for field manual. I just
[02:56:42] tapped out my mic right there. Sorry about that. I got a job. I did fix that in post.
[02:56:47] Way the word. Oh, kid for field manual. Way the word kid one, two, three. Mike in the
[02:56:51] track. It's about face by hackworth stream ownership. That caught him in leadership. Ashland front
[02:56:56] leadership consultancy. We saw problems through leadership. Go to Ashlandfront dot com.
[02:57:00] If you need help inside your organization, we do live training all the time and we have courses
[02:57:07] online available. EF online dot com. If you want to check that out, we have some live events
[02:57:14] that we're doing called the master. The master go to extreme ownership dot com. If you want to come to
[02:57:20] the master, we also have EF battlefield coming up. We've sold one out. And so now we're going to see
[02:57:26] if we're going to do one more. If you want to learn lessons from the battle of Gettysburg,
[02:57:32] if you want to walk the battlefield and see where General Lee in Long Street in AP Hill and General
[02:57:40] Mead and Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, you come to that spot on little round top where Joshua
[02:57:48] Chamberlain and the 20th main. Talking about bayonet charged down the hill, you can go there.
[02:57:56] And you will feel it. So go to echelonfront dot com slash events. If you want to come to that,
[02:58:02] we already sold out the first part. It's only like 35 people per. So it's two days.
[02:58:09] You me 35 of 35 of us, 36 of us. Whatever. So come and check that out. If you want to help
[02:58:17] service members, if you want to help active duty and retired service members, if you want to help
[02:58:21] their families, if you want to help gold star families, check out Mark Lee's mom. She's got a charity
[02:58:27] organization, mom and Lee, and if you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to america's
[02:58:32] mighty warriors dot org. And if you want more of my weary some readings, or you need more of
[02:58:41] echoes uncoupled inquires. Of course, you can find us on the interwebs on Twitter on Instagram.
[02:58:49] When just so echo knows what I'm talking about, he only knows that as the graph. And on.
[02:58:58] Well, that goes that echo, which I am at jockelwillink. And thanks to all of the
[02:59:04] people out there in uniform. Maintaining our proud traditions of military service,
[02:59:12] as you also protect our way of life and to our police and law enforcement and firefighters and
[02:59:17] paramedics and EMTs and dispatchers and correctional officers in border patrol and secret service
[02:59:21] and all first responders thank you for protecting us as well. And everyone else remember what
[02:59:29] Colonel Anthony Herbert's father told him before he left for boot camp. He said nothing is as hard
[02:59:40] as just getting started. So don't wait, don't hesitate, don't ponder anymore, just get started.
[02:59:51] And until next time, this is echo and jockel out.