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4 / Chapter 1 companies.”The S-1 didn’t tell me, because I knew, that the 1st Battalion [BN] had Able, Baker, and Charley companies, plus Dog—the heavy weapons company ; 2nd BN had Easy, Fox, and George, plus How—the heavy weapons company; and 3rd BN had Item, King, and Love, plus Mike—the heavy weapons company. “One additional element that’s part of the 5th RCT is the 555th Field Artillery Battalion, which we sometimes call the ‘Triple Nickel.’ The last additional component is 72nd Engineer Company. As you can see,” he said, pointing to his left shoulder, “the shoulder patch for the 5th RCT has five points and is shaped like a pentagon, with the interior in red and a border in white. The 5th RCT is presently attached to the 25th Infantry Division, which is part of the X Corps.”2 After telling me all about the 5th RCT, the division, and the corps, the S-1 asked if I had any questions. “No, sir,” I responded. Besides, I thought, I most likely would never meet anyone with the X Corps or the 25th Infantry Division. I may never even meet anyone from the Triple Nickel unless it would be a forward observer. Again pointing to the northern mountains, the S-1 explained,“The 1st Battalion , of which Able Company is a part, starts from the highest peak, on the left side of the northern rim, and goes down eastward to just about the center of the rim. With Able Company occupying the left flank of the 1st Battalion, Able Company starts from the highest peak and runs east. The Turkish Brigade starts on the other side of the highest peak and runs toward the west. The joining point is the peak. You may be assigned to the platoon having the responsibility of defending the area on the east of the peak down.”I guessed that climbing up the mountain to the peak and back down was the worst platoon location in the Able Company area. Surely a new second lieutenant would get that assignment. Continuing to point toward the northern rim, he said, “Now the 2nd Battalion of the 5th RCT attaches to the right flank of the 1st Battalion and continues to the east.” The major explained that the bowl was about seven to eight miles across and that to travel from the bottom of the bowl to the rim by jeep took four to five hours. “In case you’re wondering, the NKPA soldiers are still very active on the other side of the northern rim. Get some rest, because you’re leaving early in the morning.” I thanked the major for his help, saluted, and departed. When I returned to the transit officer’s quarters, I found my gear as I had 5th Regimental Combat Team / 5 left it and started to settle in, hoping the chest cold that was threatening would go away. After looking around the quarters, I decided, as I first thought, that these quarters looked a lot like a bunker. I was learning that“bunker”was a generic term for any sleeping, mess, fighting, medical, or other type of facility. I had always visualized a “bunker” as a concrete structure like the ones the Germans used during World War II when the Rangers scaled the cliffs on D-Day. Not so in Korea. In Korea they used logs, tar paper, and sandbags as building materials. Sometimes, if available, the bunker builders would use twelve-bytwelve -inch square timbers that were twelve feet long instead of logs. Here, soldiers had constructed a bunker using logs that were ten feet long and eight to ten inches thick. My bunker for the night had been cut out of the Map 2. Punch Bowl. 6 / Chapter 1 side of a hill. Bunkers were constructed using these procedures because four of the sides wouldn’t require sandbagging—the floor, the left wall, the right wall, and the rear wall. All of the walls used logs stacked one on top of another. Logs on the roof were laid side by side. The front wall and the roof had sandbags stacked on the logs. This procedure of using sandbags had two benefits. First, small arms bullets would not normally penetrate the sand. Second, the sandbags would protect the bunker from the shrapnel generated from exploding artillery rounds. Frequently, the roof would have an additional layer of rocks. Theoretically, these rocks would trigger any incoming shells...

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