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78 Korea The Korean War was a turning point in my military career, the opportunity to finally prove myself. I had always felt a gnawing pain in my belly about not being treated fairly because of the court-martial and had determined then, as a Spartan would say, “to come back with my shield—or on it.” I really meant that. I always wanted to be with my troops. I wanted to fight and, if necessary, to die leading my men. If I go down, I said to myself, I’ll take a lot of people with me, and somebody will know about it. I shared that feeling with only one other person, Lieutenant Julius Becton, who had attended Officer Candidate School with me in 1945. He told me he felt exactly like I did. Becton was assigned to the Second Indian Head Division, which arrived in Korea before I did. I saw him once briefly, when I was on my way to the front and he was returning. He had just finished his combat tour. His last words to me as we passed each other were “Kelly, keep your head down; it’s rough up there.” I will never forget those words; coming from him, they meant a great deal to me. By the time our paths crossed again, Julius Becton had won two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and the Distinguished Service Cross. When my orders to go to Korea via Fort Benning first arrived, I was not happy. I petitioned to go to the front as early as possible. The U.S. Army had been knocked back by a very aggressive North Korean Army, from just below the 38th parallel all the way to Pusan in the southwestern corner of the peninsula. Our troops were outmanned and outgunned and took a mauling from Chinese soldiers who came across the border. As a trained infantry officer, I felt my place was with our beleaguered soldiers. The Chinese first entered the war in December 1950 and caused quite a bit of disruption through the early months of 1951. We were always outnumbered at least seven to one in Korea, but we always had air superiChAPtEr 6 79 Korea ority and generally had indirect fire and artillery superiority. So many times when we fought the Chinese, they had more people than rifles. With that numerical superiority, they had the capability of mounting sustained and continued offensive operations at the small-unit level. What they lacked in military equipment, they more than offset with their bravery and ferocity on the field of battle. When the Eighth U.S. Army, at that time commanded by General Walton Harris Walker, was pushed back to the Pusan perimeter, it was the worst period of the war for U.S. troops. It took months for our troops to break out of that small area. General Walker was a pudgy little tanker, an armor officer who told his men, “Die in your foxholes. Die in your foxholes.” That grim message was not appreciated by the soldiers. I recall the negative comments I received when I joined the regiment and talked to my men about that message. When Walker was killed in a jeep accident, General Matthew Ridgway took over. The new commanding general was a dynamic personality who infused aggression into the Eighth Army. He said, “Gentlemen, I want to see your plans for attack, not defense.” Our basic philosophy changed 180 degrees. In late 1950, U.S. military forces broke through the Pusan perimeter, and Ridgway took the army to the Naktong River line, just fifty miles south of Seoul. The Twenty-fourth Division helped reestablish a defensible military line all the way across Korea. All of this happened as I was still on my way to Tokyo, where I was processed for combat. In April 1951, with my combat gear and new rifle, I flew to Pusan to join the Nineteenth Infantry Regiment of the Twentyfourth Division, which was spread out along the Naktong River. We were headed for the division rear. In a combat theater, the fighting regiments, the battalions and companies, were on the front lines. Regiments at the rear were generally support troops, such as the quartermaster corps, and reinforcements waiting to be sent to the front lines. The rear was never more than five miles from the fighting. WIth thE NINEtEENth INFANtrY rEGIMENt The Nineteenth Infantry Regiment was legendary in military annals. During the Civil War, the regiment had fought...

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