They took a lot of crap and the survivors didn't impress the Marines they walked out with. This wasn't a bad unit. They had landed at Inchon and had fought all the way up to the point where they were destroyed.
If MacArthur, Ned Almond,and the rest had not been so blind to evidence of the oncoming Chinese intervention and hung them out there they wouldn't be dead and the Marines wouldn't have fought a legendary battle.
One point I noted in researching this was that, for once, the Marines were better equipped with cold weather gear. When these army troops were armed and sent out to screen the retreating column along the ridge tops where it was about 20 below they kept falling back and rejoining the column. They had been thorougly whipped.
I tried hard to find ONE survivor to talk or write to about James Bowman, who is up there on this list, I couldn't find one. I didn't realize exactly how few survivors there were.
Can you post a little of what you know about James Bowman?
In memory of James C. Bowman
World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas
James C Bowman
Inducted From: West Virginia
Rank: Private First Class
Combat Organization: 31st Infantry 7th Division
Death Date: Nov 28 1950
Monument: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Last Known Status: Missing
U.S. Awards: Purple Heart Medal
Korean War Casualties, 1950-1957
Name: James C Bowman
Birth Date: 1930
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Home City: Marion
Home State: West Virginia
Citizen Status: US Citizen
Death Date: 28 Nov 1950
Processed Date: Nov 1979
Casualty Country: Korea
Casualty Type: Hostile - Killed
Casualty Cause: US Army - No Information Available
Casualty Air: US Army - No Information Available
Service Branch: US Army
Component: Reserve (USAR, USNR, USAFR, USMCR, USCGR)
Rank: Private First Class
U.S. Veterans Cemeteries, ca.1800-2006
Name: James Charles Bowman
Service Info.: PFC US ARMY
Birth Date: 6 Nov 1932
Death Date: 28 Nov 1950
Service Start Date: 1 Aug 1947