From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Task Force Faith, also known as Task Force Maclean (and by its official designation, Regimental Combat Team 31 (RCT-31)) or the Polar Bear Regiment (Chinese: 北æžç†Šå›¢; pinyin: BÄ›i Jà XÃong Tuán), was a United States Army unit destroyed in fighting at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War between 27 November – 2 December 1950. It comprised primarily infantry, artillery, and tank units from the 7th Infantry Division, numbering approximately 3,000 soldiers. Of these, about 600 were KATUSAs (Korean Augmentee To the U.S. Army). The name Task Force Faith was originally coined by a U.S. Army historian, however the unit was never known by this name. RCT-31, which consisted of the 31st Infantry Regiment and supporting units, had the 1/31 Infantry detached and the 1/32 Infantry (from the RCT-32) added, and the designation RCT-31 was never changed.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Faith
My Isshin Ryu karate instructor, Harold Long, was a Marine andone of the “Chosen Few”.....
My wife’s uncle’s remains is still over there somewhere.
Great site - thanks from one who there
What transpired at Chosin created some animosity between the US Army and the USMC, still lingering in some quarters today.
In my opinion, General Almond (Army) deserved much of the criticism he got.
An amazing, simply amazing battle. Talk about guts...those guys who hiked over that mountain in the middle of the night, in the snow up to their waists in 30 below zero temps and caught the Chicoms by surprise on the other side (who were caught totally with their pants down) and mortared the crap out of them...that's balls and toughness. They were already pretty frozen and compromised to begin with, but they did it.
My wife and I visited the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, and they have an interesting exhibit there (if you havent’ been there)
They set up a diorama of some USMC machine gunners manning a pit on a rocky, snowy, mountainside, and air-conditioned the room to drop the temperature (I would guess it is around 45-60 degrees)
They project night landscape on the wall, and have tracers coming out and in, it is a pretty good job. My wife saw Tootsie Roll wrappers all around, and wondered why they were there, then read the description which explained it: They were running low on 60mm mortar ammo, so instead of broadcasting in the open they needed more 60mm (which would have let the Chicoms know they were low on mortar ammo) they said “we need more tootsie rolls” as code.
Apparently, someone didn’t get the message about the code, and they airdropped them a couple of crates of tootsie rolls. The troops making their way to safety made the best of it, but because it was so cold, they had to put them next to their skin so they could chew through them!
And...left a trail of tootsie roll wrappers behind them!