The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-11-23
Army Officer
In Korea
Tells OF War
LETTER TELLS OF
HARDSHIPS BEING
UNDERTAKEN In
KOREAN BATTLES

The following letter was received
from an American Army Infantry
Officer to his best friend, who is
now stationed in Key West. The
letter was written aboard the USS
Consolation. an American hospital
ship in mid-November and por-
trays the Korean action of early
November.
1t is so vivid in description that
the letter itself is sufficient to I'M
derstand the, hardships our Ameri-
can and fellow patriots are under
going in Korea.
Dear Pete,
Am now enjoying Navy life
aboard this Hospital Ship here in
sPuSan Harbor. And it is enjoyable
clean quarters. beds, sheets,
nurses, movies, etc. | can't say
much for Navy chow, though =
most unimaginative cooking and
menus. The reason I'm here, OBJ
viously, is that I'm wounded. / led
Able Company, that wonderful
bunch of dead-end kids called my
own, up hill 642, just to the west
of Heartbreak Ridge. The COM
pany fixed bayonets and sailed up
that hill a mile a minute
L &c
enemy trenches up about half
way to our final objective, all hell
broke loose. There the trenches
were about eight feet deep, and
the men bayoneted and grenaded
their wav through them.
Then the company pushed on.
About AS of the way TO the final
objective we ran into fanatical
resistance. A heavy fire fight de-
veloped, and | committed every
man / had to the fight. There was
binding crash. and next thing
/ knew | was about twenty feet
away, sitting on the ground, and
staring hard at the grass.
My pearl-handled pistol, with
the japanese dragons on it. lay
about four feet away. ! couldn't
get IL. People we're putting a dres.
sing on my head - the back of my
helmet had been torn to shreds.
sent for my Executive Officer.
All hell was breaking loose. Over
one hundred l20mm mortar shells
landed on us in an area concen-
tration. We were being blown TO
bits.
Men we're fighting, and shouting
and firing. Falling in all direc-
tons. Right next to me a 57mm
RIR was blasting like mad with
deafening roar. sat there and
watched my men through a red
haze.
Then the order came from Bat.
talon to disengage the enemy.
Easier said than done over a
third of the company was hit and
down. A machine gun had opened
up on our flank, about 500 yards
away on another ridge, and was
spraying murderous cross-fire
More acts of heroism were per-
formed in 10 minutes than could
have been written up in month
of Sundays. | left with the last
squad - my Artillery Forward
Observer and his Radio Operator
had me by each arm, and ! lurch-
ed along between them, feeling
drunk as lord
| called down our artillery pro-
tective fire and then a curtain of
artillery fire descended between us
and the enemy.
was met at the bottom of the
hill, which area was now under
enemy mortar fire, by the Battal-
ion Commander in q rage - he
said that he hadn't intended TO pay
that price for the hill and started
to chew me. | said OK. | was
ordered to take an objective, and
| attacked until ordered otherwise,
and would take any blame, etc,
also started to lapse into the I'M
printable. | suddenly realized that
no one was holding me up any
more. Everyone was looking at
me in amazement, and the C. O..