I have never studied the battle of the Chosin Reservoir but did read Chesty Puller’s biography.
Sometimes it is hard to believe America produced such great men.
I posted this in another thread today. It is unknown to most Americans today.
One of the things that was fascinating to me (and really unfortunate for those Marines) was that there were a number of Marines who had been on (inactive?) reserve after WWII and were called up. They were quickly trained and formed back into some semblance of units, and sent to Korea where they ended up in Chosin at that place and time.
Some of those guys had fought last on Peleliu, which by all accounts, was some of the most taxing, bloody and gruesome combat of the war in 120 plus degree temps with little drinkable water...about as bad as it could apparently get.
Then, five or six years later, some of those exact same guys who had to fight in 120 degree plus temps ended up in Chosin fighting in extraordinary bitter weather that had the capability to make Bastogne look nearly balmy in comparison. It got as low as 37 degrees below zero, and they had winds up to 50 mph. The windchill had to be just brutal.
Unbelievable. One can only imagine one of those Marines saying “What the hell kind of a deck of cards did I pull THIS from after being on Peleliu????â€