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34 

PORTER  v.  McCOLLUM 

Per Curiam 

classes  for  slow  learners  and  left  school  when  he  was  12 
or 13. 

To  escape  his  horrible  family  life,  Porter  enlisted  in  the 
Army at age 17 and fought in the Korean War.  His company 
commander,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Sherman  Pratt,  testiﬁed  at 
Porter’s postconviction hearing.  Porter was with the 2d Di­
vision,  which  had  advanced  above  the  38th  parallel  to 
Kunu-ri  when  it  was  attacked  by  Chinese  forces.  Porter 
suffered a gunshot wound to the leg during the advance but 
was  with  the  unit  for  the  battle  at  Kunu-ri.  While  the  8th 
Army was withdrawing, the 2d Division was ordered to hold 
off  the  Chinese  advance,  enabling  the  bulk  of  the  8th  Army 
to  live  to  ﬁght  another  day.  As  Colonel  Pratt  described  it, 
the  unit “went  into  position there  in  bitter  cold night,  terri­
bly worn out, terribly weary, almost like zombies because we 
had been in constant—for ﬁve days we had been in constant 
contact  with  the  enemy  ﬁghting  our  way  to  the  rear,  little 
or  no  sleep,  little  or  no  food,  literally  as  I  say  zombies.”  1 
Tr.  138  (Jan.  4,  1996).  The  next  morning,  the  unit  engaged 
in  a  “ﬁerce  hand-to-hand  ﬁght  with  the  Chinese”  and  later 
that  day  received  permission  to  withdraw,  making  Porter’s 
regiment  the  last  unit  of  the  8th  Army  to  withdraw.  Id., 
at 139–140. 

Less  than  three  months  later,  Porter  fought  in  a  second 
battle,  at  Chip’yong-ni.  His  regiment  was  cut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  8th  Army  and  defended  itself  for  two  days  and 
two  nights  under  constant  ﬁre.  After  the  enemy  broke 
through  the  perimeter  and  overtook  defensive  positions  on 
high  ground,  Porter’s  company  was  charged  with  retaking 
those positions.  In the charge up the hill, the soldiers “were 
under direct open ﬁre of the enemy forces on top of the hill. 
They  immediately  came  under  mortar,  artillery,  machine 
gun,  and  every  other  kind  of  ﬁre  you  can  imagine  and  they 
were  just  dropping  like  ﬂies  as  they  went  along.”  Id.,  at 
150.  Porter’s  company  lost  all  three  of  its  platoon  ser­