Valleys of Death (8 page)

We were part of Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker's “mobile defense.” The strategy focused on using a small number of soldiers to form a thin screen while the bulk of the force waited to counterattack. The idea was unheard of in the 1950s and considered a “theory” at best, but Walker used it to perfection. We could move at ease since the Air Force controlled the skies and there were ample roads and trains so we could flex to trouble areas.

For us ground troops, it was confusing. This game of chess had become maddening. I never had a map and seldom knew the number designation of the hills or objectives. We only knew to move, attack and defend unknown hills that would stop the North Koreans from breaking through and capturing the city of Taegu. This was our world: following orders, fighting for one another, being successful and somehow surviving.

So once we made it back to our side, we quickly moved up another unnamed hill against light resistance. When we got to the top, Vaillancourt contacted me on the radio and told me to go to the reverse side of the hill and wait.

There were a lot of dead North Korean bodies on the hill, most of them bloated from the heat. It looked as if they had been stacked there for a couple of days. While we were waiting for orders, we broke out some C rations, and my mind drifted away to Philadelphia. A neighborhood drunk was passed out on the sidewalk and someone had placed a penny on his nose. The older guys hanging on the street corner were egging the kids on to try to take it off. We were all too scared to try to do it. Finally, I tried, but as I moved close to the drunk he grunted and scared the hell out of me. Now here I was sitting on the ground eating beside stinking dead bodies, and a penny on a drunk's nose didn't seem to be too bad. Life is strange.

Vaillancourt came over from the company command post and woke me out of my daydream.

“Rich, get your men moving. I'll show you where to go. McAbee wants you on the right flank to cover a draw.”

I shouted to the men. “Saddle up, we're moving out.”

Vaillancourt pointed out a draw to the right side of the ridge. Before he left, I asked about Winn. I hadn't seen the lieutenant for days.

“Is he dead?” I asked.

“No idea, Rich,” Vaillancourt said. “He disappeared. Haven't seen him in forty-eight hours.”

I never saw Winn again. To this day I have no idea what happened to him.

As we were moving to our position, I touched base with Sergeant Herbert (Pappy) Miller, who was occupying the last position of the First Platoon. Miller was from Pulaski, New York. He'd served in World War II, but after the war he couldn't find a decent job. So he enlisted, and had three months to go before we left for Korea.

“We're tying in with you. We're going to cover the draw on your right flank,” I told him.

“Great,” Miller said. He and Gray were friends from back at Fort Devens. I heard Miller tell Gray that the platoon had been hit hard on the first day.

The ridge looked familiar to me, and after a few minutes I realized we'd been there before. For a change it was a half-decent position for the 57s. I planned to put one gun on the left side of the draw and the other on the right side. The squads would be separated by twenty yards. I showed Gray where I wanted him to put his squad and told him to come with Walsh and me to the other gun position. I needed to talk to both of them about how we were going to cover the draw that night.

“I'm not feeling very good. I need to sit down for a few minutes,” Gray said. His head was pounding and he felt dizzy.

“Try to come over as soon as you can. Are you going to be all right?”

“Yeah, just give me a few minutes.”

When we got to the other side of the ridge, I turned and looked back at Gray sitting on a tree stump. He had his head in his hands. Gray and Walsh had been great squad leaders and I hoped he was okay. I needed him and his leadership.

I had taken off my helmet to wipe away some sweat when Gray and the stump suddenly disappeared in a fireball. An artillery round landed right on him. I was stunned and just stood on the ridge looking at the smoking crater.

Something happens to men who see combat. No matter how you try, you cannot make death invisible, it is there with you every moment. That split second would be seared into my mind for the rest of my life. But at the time, we didn't have time to mourn Gray. We had to get dug in.

“Start digging. That round has us zeroed in and the barrage will be coming next,” I said, grabbing Walsh.

“Get Hall over to take charge of Gray's squad. Tell him I'll be over to talk to him later.”

For the rest of the day I kept the men busy. Anything to keep their minds off Gray. What drove me more than anything was a positive outlook and the fact that my men were watching everything I did. I often wondered when we were moving down the road what went through their minds.

It had to be a lot tougher on them than on me. While they had only death to dwell on, I had dozens of things that I must be thinking about and be prepared for. What was ahead? Where would I be if I were a North Korean? How would I react if we got hit from the right or left? How was our ammunition? Water? Was the bore sighting of the guns still all right? Were the men taking care of their feet?

Luckily, the barrage never came. But I knew that we wouldn't be so lucky when it got dark. Standing in my hole, I took a deep breath. The first attack started soon after the sun set. We could hear them coming up the hill. Artillery rounds slamming into the ground farther down the line rattled off the walls of the valley. I squinted into the darkness looking for the shadows.

The first North Korean assault started with screams and machine gun fire, but we beat it back with mortars and our own machine gun fire. Running between holes, I made sure everybody was ready for the next wave. Walsh had his section up and ready to fire. Hall was also ready, which was impressive since he had just taken over from Gray.

The second attack was worse. The North Korean soldiers were less than fifty yards from us.

As I fired at the shadows moving toward us, I heard a frantic voice come on the radio.

“Roy Rogers 3,” the voice said in a deep Southern drawl.

“I needs mo' firepower. I needs mo' firepower. I'm about to get overrun.”

It was Lieutenant Jim Brown from the platoon that was on our left. I hoped to hell he got more fire support. We were all hanging by a thread.

Dead North Korean soldiers were stacking up in front of our foxholes. But they kept coming. Wave after wave.

I could hear Walsh screaming at the men to stay in their holes. I was frantically changing the magazine in my carbine as two of the North Koreans were within ten feet of me. Walsh and Hall saw them too and opened fire, cutting the North Korean soldiers down. I saw another North Korean to my right and fired. He staggered back and dropped to the ground.

I stayed low in my foxhole and kept firing straight ahead. Hall and Walsh kept firing to the rear, hitting the North Koreans attempting to move through our position. We had them in a cross fire, and in minutes our position was littered with North Korean bodies. Sliding a fresh magazine into my carbine, I poked my head up waiting for the next wave. But it never came.

“Stay alert. Some of them may be alive. If you see any movement, shoot them.”

We waited a few minutes and then finally climbed out.

“Check around your holes for live Koreans.”

The bodies of about a half dozen North Korean soldiers lay crumpled in between our foxholes. I slowly picked my way, my rifle at the ready. My nerves were on fire. I'd never been this close and was ready for even a slight movement. Two were badly wounded and kept muttering in Korean. I saw Hall kick their weapons away and then drag them to the rear of our position. Eventually our medics would take care of them. We dragged the rest of the bodies away from our position and piled them to one side. I didn't look at their faces. I didn't care.

As daylight peeked its head over the hills, a tall, scrubby-looking infantryman carrying a carbine approached me from out of the mist. As he got closer, I saw the small white cross painted on his helmet. He stuck out his hand as he approached.

“Chaplain Kapaun,” he said, giving me a firm handshake. “Where are you from?”

Chaplain Emil Kapaun, from Pilsen, Kansas, was a Catholic father who joined the Army toward the end of World War II. He served in Burma and India until May 1946. He returned home and was assigned a parish in Kansas. But he felt his calling was with the troops, so rejoined the Army in 1948. He joined us in Korea after spending a few months in Japan.

His uniform was dirty and he, like the rest of us, needed a shave. It was clear he'd spent the night close to the fighting and not safely in the rear. There was a peacefulness about him, though, that put me at ease. A quiet confidence. He seemed to care where I was from, and I watched him as he spoke to the rest of the section. Each time, he asked where the soldier was from and gave him a firm handshake. It was not long before he had us all smiling.

When Kapaun finished making his rounds, he sat down near my foxhole and took out his pipe. It was missing most of its stem.

“What happened to your pipe?” I asked, as he filled it.

“A sniper,” he said. “Shot it out of my mouth a few days ago.”

We both had a laugh. I noticed the carbine lying across his lap.

“I thought chaplains couldn't carry weapons.”
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He smiled and nodded. “If they are going to shoot at me I'm going to be ready to shoot back.”

With that, he stood up and, cradling his wounded pipe, disappeared over the ridge to visit Miller's men.

For the next five days we found ourselves fighting south and east of the road junction at Tabu-Dong. We attacked during the day and defended against their attacks at night. Due to casualties in the battalion, the three rifle companies were beginning to look like three rifle platoons. My section was down to eight men.

We received two replacements. They showed up with their gear and clean uniforms. One was named Jackson, but I didn't catch the other's name. Jackson had a lot of questions about the North Koreans and where we were on the line. I tried to answer what I could but was content to let Hall and Walsh deal with him. I just gave both of the new men a little advice.

“Stay close to your foxhole partner and listen to him,” I said. “We have a very fluid situation, so act quickly and do what you are told.”

I didn't see them until the next morning. We'd been attacked again, but this time we were able to keep the North Koreans from our lines. But not without cost. Three men were gone; one missing and two wounded, including both replacements. The missing one, Jackson, had just gotten up and left. Walsh said Jackson's brother had been missing in action since July and he volunteered to come to Korea so he could find him. After the attack, he climbed out of his foxhole and walked into the darkness. We never saw him again.

We were taking casualties every night and soon could no longer hold our position south of Tabu-Dong. The constant North Korean attacks drove us south to the lower slopes of Hill 570. It had been raining constantly for two days as we dug into yet another new position on the slope; later that night we got orders to withdraw. Withdrawing in the daylight was bad enough. Now we were going to attempt it at night. I led Hall's squad out first since they'd lost two men in an attack that afternoon. When I got back for Walsh, everybody was ready to go. I ordered everybody to move out. Walsh took the lead while I waited for the last men to go. Everyone got up with the exception of one man. He was lying on the ground under his poncho. I pushed him with my boot.

“Let's go,” I whispered. I was nervous and wanted to get going before another attack.

Walsh, standing nearby, looked over at me.

“Sarge, that's Johnson. He's dead.”

I felt terrible. It hurt to see another one of my men dead in the mud. I didn't even know Johnson that well. He was another replacement and I'd only just learned his name. The fact that I had little time to dwell saved me. Plus, I knew that if I showed weakness my men might finally give in and feel sorry for themselves, and I couldn't have that. We needed to stick together. I became stoic and would remain that way for a long time.

Grabbing two of his unit mates, it was so dark I wasn't sure who, I told them to pick Johnson up and carry him out of there. We started to head toward the assembly point on the other side of the hill. Once we were on the road, the movement was agonizingly slow. We moved for about an hour and then stopped. I was called to the front of the column with all of the platoon leaders.

It was another attack.

“The entire battalion is going to attack Hill 570. Three ridges go direct to the top of the hill. K Company will be on the left, we will move in the center, and I Company on the right,” McAbee said. “We will attack at daylight with no artillery or air support. The Second and Third platoons will attack abreast, Second on the right, Third on the left. Richardson will follow with 57s in the center; the First Platoon will be in reserve.”

The hill, two miles southwest of the village of Ka-san, was a strategic point because it overlooked the Taegu Road. The hill was defended by bunkers, and intelligence reports said the North Koreans would likely make a strong stand there because once it fell, the way would be open for unrestricted advance.

A thick fog hugged the ground as we climbed Hill 570. We knew the North Koreans were on the top of the ridge waiting. The climb was steep and took us a while. I knew the North Koreans were just waiting for us to get into range. When we were halfway up, they finally opened up on us with machine guns and mortars.