[SAMWolf]

Master Sergeant George H. Butler had enough fighting spirit for three men. With Dog Co's leading assault platoon pinned down, MSgt Butler didn't hesitate. Leaving the relative safety of the company command post, he sprinted through a hail of fire to reach the beleaguered platoon whose platoon leader and platoon sergeant had fallen wounded. Charging forward up the narrow ridge line, he rallied the platoon by the time-honored expedient of getting out in front and leading, even though that meant leading through a hail of incoming fire.



Wounded in the face and blinded in one eye by grenade fragments, Butler continued his assault on the dug-in Chinese, bringing the rest of the platoon with him through the sheer force of his personal character and his display of fearlessness. When his rifle was shot from his hands, he picked up another, personally killing 10 defenders.MSgt Butler's one-man war ended only when the defenders of the ridge turned tail and fled. Only then would he allow his wounds to be treated. There are times when wounds don't count. George Butler's actions would in time bring him America's second highest award for military valor, the Navy Cross.

MSgt Butler would not be the only Dog Co noncommissioned officer to distinguish himself in front of Oumsan. The Chinese weren't quite ready to give up the fight, and a counterattack wasn't long in coming. Much of the brunt of it fell on an exposed squad of Dog Co Marines led by Sgt Jack Larson.

Temporarily forced out of his primary position by overwhelming pressure, Larson withdrew his men to a planned alternate site, only to lead them back once darkness had fallen. The squad was able to complete its preparation of the primary position none too soon, for shortly before midnight the Chinese struck with the force of a pile driver.

Larson's squad suffered serious casualties. Firing his own weapon into the ranks of the attackers, flinging grenades into their midst, reorganizing his men to compensate for casualties, directing the defensive fires, he scrambled from man to man to lend encouragement. Painfully wounded and bleeding profusely, Larson held the situation together for two hours until relief arrived. After the last of his wounded men had been treated, Larson accepted medical aid himself. Like the indomitable George Butler, Jack Larson would receive the Navy Cross.

Faced with men like Chinner, Larson and Butler and hundreds of other Marines cut from the same cloth, the Chinese continued to give ground and fall back to the north. Pressing forward for the next three days, by 14 March the 1stMarDiv was well established on Operation Ripper's first major objective, Phase Line Albany. On the following day, friendly units to the west found the ravaged city of Seoul abandoned by the back-pedaling enemy.

Even so, no one, from Major General Oliver P. Smith, the division's commander, to the most junior enlisted Marine, expected the Chinese to abandon the fight, turn tail and run. By the best available estimates there were some 385,000 CCF troops in Korea, along with 120,000 North Korean soldiers, reorganizing after the beating they had absorbed the previous year and beginning to appear in action once again. They were going to require some energetic rooting out. Scarcely pausing to catch its breath on Phase Line Albany, the 1stMarDiv jumped off toward Hongchon and Phase Line Buffalo early on 15 March.

It wasn't easy. Korea is a land of hills and mountains. Those hills and mountains grow increasingly higher from south to north. To scramble, scrabble, claw and battle up a steep, wooded hill to reach the crest against a determined enemy is to be confronted by the same enemy on another higher hill. The process never ends.

Then there was the problem of the roads. The few primitive dirt roads in the 1stMarDiv's zone of action quickly proved totally inadequate to handle the logistics traffic needed to keep a division supplied. They simply did not have the capacity to handle the number of trucks it takes to keep a division equipped in those things necessary to wage war. In thoroughly atrocious weather conditions, those trucks were grinding painfully along, hub-deep in mud. Despite the around-the-clock efforts of the division's engineers to keep the few roads passable, the entire supply system was bogging down. Only the efforts of the Korean Civil Transport Corps kept everything from becoming immobilized in the mud.

Thousands of Korean porters, utilizing the A-frame carrying rack used to transport heavy burdens since the beginnings of Korea, labored up and down the nearly vertical landscape, delivering ammunition, rations and fuel to the front- line units. Too much cannot be made of the contribution of the sturdy Korean peasants, some of them papa-sans in their 50s, who routinely muscled forward loads of 100 pounds and more to keep the advance moving. Cargadors they were called officially. Marines in the ranks, ever quick to borrow from the local language, dubbed them the yo-bo train, from the Korean word for the carrying device they mounted their loads on. By whatever name, they were invaluable.

[SAMWolf]

By one means or another the advance kept moving. Evidence that it was disrupting Chinese plans for a fighting withdrawal came in the form of an intercepted radio communication early on 15 March. "We cannot fight any longer. We must move back today. We will move back at 1400. Enemy troops will enter our position at 1300 or 1400. Enemy troops approaching fast." Late that afternoon the lead elements of Major Webb D. Sawyer's 1/7 entered Hongchon without a fight.



It was a different story north of Hongchon, where for the next three days the Chinese fought bitterly, battling for every lump and bump in the ground. The division plan called for 5th Marines to pass through and relieve the 7th Marines on the left. The 1st Marines on the right had their hands full with Chinese fighting from a succession of skillfully sited bunkers and trenches. In a series of bloody hand-to-hand encounters, up close and personal, Marines had to shoot, blast and burn the defenders from their strongholds. On the infrequent occasions when the weather lifted, the treetop-level strikes of Marine close air support provided the element that turned the tables.

The 1stMarDiv's running gun battles with the Chinese continued to follow the pattern of alternately fighting and withdrawing. Slowly but surely, however, the Chinese were being forced backward, until on 20 March the advance had reached Phase Line Buffalo. Before darkness fell the 5th Marines, with the 1st Marines on the right and aided by deadly accurate air strikes by Marine Fighter Squadrons 214 and 323 (VMF-214, VMF-323), overran the Chinese main line of resistance with no friendly casualties.



If anyone had the urge to celebrate, there was no time for it. The drive northward resumed almost without pause with the 1st Korean Marine Corps (KMC) Regiment once again attached to the 1stMarDiv. The fighting qualities of the regiment could be summed up in the words of one of its young officers, 1stLt Kim Sik Tong. In his diary he wrote: "The KMC ideal is to complete the mission, regardless of receiving strong enemy resistance, with endurance and strong united power, and always bearing in one's mind the distinction between honor and dishonor." Men like that are handy to have around in a regiment that would have to fight its way through a virtual wilderness, devoid of the most rudimentary trails.

It was the KMC Regiment that ran up against the heaviest fighting in the advance to Operation Ripper's final objective, Phase Line Cairo. Sandwiched between the 5th and the 1st Marines, the Korean Marines worked their way through the tortuous jumble of ridges, gullies and ravines that fronted Hill 975, battling pocket after pocket of resistance in a continuing rattle and crash of point-blank fire punctuated by the detonation of grenades and mortar rounds. Supplied by airdrops and ably supported by Lieutenant Colonel William McReynolds' 3d Bn, 11th Marines firing in direct support, they slugged their way forward until the issue was decided on 24 March.



All the objectives of Operation Ripper were now controlled by the 8th Army, which had been attacking continuously since 21 Feb. Still, with evidence mounting that the CCF had not abandoned plans for a major offensive, LtGen Ridgway wanted to keep the pressure on.

Moving forward relentlessly, on 4 April the 1stMarDiv was among the first 8th Army units to recross the 38th parallel and enter North Korea. It was also on that day that LtCol Joseph L. "Moose" Stewart, the executive officer of the 5th Marines, began his journey back to the United States. Of all the original members of the 1stProvMarBrig to land at Pusan on 2 Aug. 1950, he was the last to leave Korea.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on March 07:
1543 Johan Casimir count of Rhine (occupied Gent)
1574 John Wilbye composer
1602 Kano Tanju Japanese painter (palaces, portraits)
1621 Georg Neumark composer
1659 Henry Purcell English organist/composer (Dido & Aeneas)
1663 Tomaso Antonio Vitali composer
1682 Johan W van Ripperda Dutch diplomat/baron/duke
1693 Clement XIII [Carlo Rezzonico], Pope (1758-69)
1707 Stephen Hopkins (Governor-RI) signed Declaration of Independence
1715 Ewald Christian von Kleist German lyric poet (Der Frühling)
1731 Jean-Louis Laruette composer
1762 Sebastiaan C Nederburgh director-general (East Indies Company)
1765 Joseph N Niépce French inventor (photography)
1769 Josef Alois Ladurner composer
1773 Tommaso Marchesi composer
1785 Alessandro Manzoni Italy, poet/novelist (Betrothed)
1792 John Herschel Slough England, William Herschel's son, astronomer
1797 Karl Schwencke composer
1799 Frantisek L Celakovsky Czechoslovakian poet (national anthem, folk song)
1807 Franz Grave von Pocci German poet/composer (Der Alchemist)
1811 Christian Heinrich Hohmann composer
1813 Judocus Smits Dutch Catholic newspaper pioneer/founder (The Time)
1820 Gustav Heinrich Graben-Hoffman composer
1822 Victor Masse composer
1827 Henry DeLamar Clayton Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1889
1831 John Bratton [Old Reliable], US physician/Confederate Brigadier General
1832 Orlando Metcalfe Poe Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1895
1837 Henry Draper Virginia, astro-spectro-photographer (Moon, Jupiter)
1841 Olegario Víctor Andrade Argentina, poet (El nido de cóndores)
1842 Anne van Diest Belgian physician/feminist
1844 Anthony Comstock New Canaan CT, anti-vice crusader/philatelist
1849 Luther Burbank Lancaster MA, horticulturist
1850 Tomás G Masaryk Czechoslovakia, Father/President of Czechoslovakia (1918-35)
1856 Matilde Serao [Tuffolina], Italian writer (Land of Cockayne)
1857 Julius Wagner von Jauregg Austria, psychiatrist (Nobel 1927)
1858 Nikolai Artzibushev composer
1866 Paul Ernst writer
1869 Ernst J Cohen Dutch chemist
1872 Piet Mondrian Holland, abstract painter (Broadway Boogie Woogie)
1872 Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov composer
1875 Maurice Joseph Ravel Cibourne France, composer (Boléro)
1883 Carl Deis composer
1886 Raymond Largay Wisconsin, actor (April in Paris, Variety Girl)
1887 Heino Eller composer
1888 Alidius van Starkenborch Stachouwer Governor of Netherland Indies (1936-45)
1891 Marcel Barger [Meyer Streliskie], cabaret performer (I keep Susy)
1895 Juan Jose Castro composer
1896 Erwin Bodky composer
1898 Jan Bata Czechoslovakian shoe manufacturer
1900 [Albert] Carel Willink Dutch painter (magic realism)
1900 Giuseppe Capogrossi Italian painter
1902 Heinz [Heinrich William] Ruehmann Essen Germany, actor/director (Der Hauptmann von Köpenick)
1904 Ivar Ballangrud Norway, Olympics speed skater (4 gold, 2 silver)
1904 Reinhard Heydrich German Governor (Bohemen/Moravia (Lidice))
1904 Virginia Downing actress (Gig, Butterfield 8)
1904 Willy Forst Austria actor/director (Vienna Blood)
1905 Vera Fjodorova Panova Russian author (Sputniki)
1906 Alejandro Garcia Caturla composer
1906 Hans Lachman composer
1907 Juan Francisco Giacobbe composer
1907 Mircea Eliade religious historian (Le Yoga)
1908 Anna Magnani Rome Italy, actress (Rose Tattoo, Miracle)
1908 Joop [Joseph] van Santen Dutch 1st chamber member (CPN)
1908 Tomas de Manzarraga composer
1909 Greta Schoon writer
1909 Leo Malet writer
1911 Stefan Kisielewski composer
1914 Morton DaCosta Philadelphia PA, director (Island of Love, Music Man)
1915 Jacques Chaban-Delmas French politician
1917 Davis Roberts Mobile AL, actor (Mr Johnson-Boone)
1917 Janet Collins ballerina
1917 Robert Erickson composer
1918 June Wayne artist/lithographer/teacher
1919 Jocelyn Olaf Hambro financier
1919 Mochtar Lubis Indonesian writer (Twilight in Djakarta)
1920 Willie Watson cricketer (England batsman & soccer international)
1924 Eduardo Paolozzi British sculptor (Hydra)
1924 Kobo Abe Tokyo Japan, playwright (Woman, the Dunes)
1930 Anthony Armstrong-Jones [Earl of Snowdon] London England, photographer
1930 James Broderick Charleston NH, actor (Brenner-Brenner, Doug-Family)
1931 C W Stubblefield music promoter
1931 Cornelis T "Cor" van de Molen director Social Businesses of Press
1931 Donald Barthelme US, writer (Snow White)
1934 King Curtis [Curtis Ousley], rocker
1934 Nari Contractor cricketer (Indian batsman & captain)
1934 Willard Scott weather forecaster (Today Show)
1936 Georges Perec French writer (Seire Noire, Retour a la bien-aimee)
1937 Anne Kristen actress (Truth or Dare, Rachel-Dr Finlay, Sunset Song)
1937 Don Bonker (Representative-Democrat-WA, 1975- )
1938 Homero Blancas Houston TX, PGA golfer (1972 Phoenix Open)
1938 Janet Guthrie race car driver, 1st woman to race in Indy 500
1939 Marion Marlowe St Louis MO, singer (Arthur Godfrey & Friends)
1940 Daniel J Travanti Kenosha WI, actor (Frank Furillo-Hill St Blues)
1940 Harald Gerlach writer
1940 Rudi [Rudolf] Dutschke German student leader (Glasnost Berlin)
1940 Viktor Petrovich Savinykh USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-4, T-13, TM-5)
1942 Al[bert] Tanara WLAF defensive coach (Amsterdam Admirals)
1942 Michael Eisner Mount Kisko NY, CEO (Walt Disney)
1942 Paul Preuss US, sci-fi author (Medusa Encounter, Starfire)
1942 Tammy Faye Bakker gospel singer/wife of Jim Bakker (PTL)
1942 Tommy F Robinson (Representative-Democrat-AR, 1985- )
1942 U N Kulkarni cricketer (Indian pace bowler in four Tests 1967-68)
1943 Carole Peel Australian softball assistant coach (Olympics-bronze-96)
1943 Chris White rock bassist (Zombies-Never Even Thought)
1943 Leon Frank Sylvers rocker
1944 Elton Gallegly (Representative-Republican-CA)
1944 Jürgen Theobaldy writer
1944 Townes Van Zandt musician
1945 Arthur Lee rocker (Vindicator)
1945 John Heard Washington DC, actor (Cat People, Cutter's Way, CHUD)
1946 Matthew Fisher London, rock keyboardist (Procol Harum)
1946 Peter Wolf rock singer (J Giels Band-Centerfold, Freeze Frame)
1947 Donna Loren Boston MA, singer/actress (Beach Blanket Bingo)
1947 Lewis J Stadlen Brooklyn NY, actor (John-Benson, Savages, Windy City)
1947 Richard Lawson Loma Linda CA, actor (Eddie-The O'Neills)
1947 Robert O'Neill Crossman politician
1950 Franco Harris NFL fullback (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1950 Mark Pinter Decorah IA, actor (Karl-Behind the Screen, Another World)
1951 Linda Gibboney actress (Search for Tomorrow, Jessica-Generations)
1952 Ernie Isley US vocalist/guitarist (It's Your Thing, Heat is On)
1952 Lynn Swann NFL receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers)/sportscaster
1952 Vivian Richards West Indian master blaster
1953 Jules Shear rock musician
1953 Kathleen Sullivan Pasadena CA, newscaster (E!)
1954 Matt Frenette rock drummer (Loverboy)
1958 Rik Mayall comedian (Drop Dead Fred, Bottom, Little Noises)
1959 Thomas Edward Lehman Austin MN, PGA golfer (1994 Memorial Tournament)
1960 Ivan Lendl Czechoslovakia, tennis pro (US Open 1985-87)
1960 Joe Carter Oklahoma City OK, outfielder (Toronto Blue Jays)
1961 Mary Beth Evans Pasadena CA, actress (Katherine-General Hospital, Kayla-Days of our Lives)
1962 Taylor Dayne [Leslie Wunderman], Long Island NY, vocalist (I'll Always Love You)
1963 Mike Eagles Sussex, NHL center (Washington Capitals)
1963 Mohammad Ishaq cricketer (UAE batsman 1996 World Cup)
1964 Amy Baltus Bloomington IN, WPVA volleyballer (Nationals-13th-1992)
1964 Jeff Criswell NFL tackle (Kansas City Chiefs)
1965 [Willie] Flipper Anderson NFL wide receiver (Indianapolis Colts)
1965 Cameron Daddo Melbourne Australia, actor (Brian Petersen-Models Inc)
1965 Jesper Bo Parnevik Stockholm Sweden, PGA golfer (1995 Nestle-5th)
1965 Steve Beuerlein NFL quarterback (Jacksonville Jaguars, Car Panthers)
1966 Jeff Feagles NFL punter (Arizona Cardinals)
1966 Mel Rojas Haina Dominican Republic, pitcher (Montréal Expos)
1966 Terry Carkner Smiths Falls, NHL defenseman (Florida Panthers)
1967 Zheng Haixia WNBA center (Los Angeles Sparks)
1968 Jeff Kent Bellflower CA, infielder (New York Mets)
1968 Ricky Proehl NFL wide receiver (Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears)
1969 Anne Marie Lauck Rochester NY, marathoner (Olympics-10th-96)
1969 Anthony Davis NFL linebacker (Kansas City Chiefs)
1969 Brian Jamieson Livingston NJ, rower (Olympics-silver-1996)
1969 Geoff Smith Edmonton, NHL defenseman (Florida Panthers)
1969 Matt Blundin NFL quarterback (Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions)
1969 Sam Gash NFL running back (New England Patriots)
1970 Jacquelyn Doucette Miss Massachusetts-USA (1996)
1970 James Calvin Spivey Schiller Park IL, miler
1970 Kathy Gedney Indianapolis IN, WPVA volleyballer (US Open-25th-1994)
1971 Alison Herst Toronto Ontario, kayaker (Olympics-5-92, 96)
1972 Andrew Finch rower (Olympics-1996)
1972 Marina Hatzakis Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1974 Joost Volmer soccer player (FC Twente)
1975 Andrey Savenkov hockey defenseman (Team Kazakhstan Olympics-1998)
1975 William Hampton CFL defensive back (Calgary Stampeders)
1977 Ludmila Richterova Kosice Slovakia, tennis star (1995 Bournemouth)

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Deaths which occurred on March 07:
322 -BC- Aristotle dies
0161 Antoninus Pius [Titus Aurelius], emperor of Rome (138-61), dies at 74
1040 Harold I King of England (1035-40), dies
1111 Bohemund I of Tarente French ruler of Antioch, dies
1274 St Thomas Aquinas Italian thelogian dies at 48
1305 Gwijde van Dampierre count of Flanders/count of Namur, dies at 78
1719 Steven J Vennekool Amsterdam's master builder, buried
1724 Innocent XIII [Michelangiolo dei Conti], Pope (1721-24), dies at 68
1737 Guido Starhemberg Austrian earl/fieldmarshal, dies at 79
1750 Cornelis Troost Dutch painter (Beslikte Zwaentje), dies at 52
1761 Antonio Palella composer, dies at 68
1786 Frantisek Benda composer, dies at 76
1802 Johann Georg Witthauer composer, dies at 50
1804 John Wedgwood founder (Royal Horticulture Society), dies
1809 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Austrian composer, dies at 73
1810 Albertus H Wiese Governor-General of Netherland Indies, dies at about 48
1833 Rahel Varnhagen von Ense-Levin German author, dies at 61
1842 Christian Theodor Weinlig composer, dies at 61
1862 Ben McCulloch US Confederate Brigadier-General (KIA), dies at 50
1862 John Baillie McIntosh US General-Major (Union Army), dies at 32
1862 William Slack US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle
1907 Victor Alphonse Duvernoy composer, dies at 64
1911 Antonio Fogazzarro Italian writer/poet (Il Santo, Leila), dies at 68
1924 Pat Moran manager (Cincinnati Reds), dies of Bright's Disease
1926 Jindrich Z Albestu Kaan composer, dies at 73
1931 Akseli V Gallen-Kallela Finnish painter/illustrator, dies at 65
1931 Theo van Doesburg [Christian Kupper], painter/architect, dies at 47
1932 Aristide Briand 11 x premier of France (Nobel 1926), dies at 69
1939 Amadeo Roldan composer, dies at 38
1941 Arnold Schering German musicologist, dies at 63
1941 Günther Prien German commandant (U-47), dies in battle
1945 Adolf Bartels German writer/racist, dies at 82
1951 Ali Razmara Shah of Iran (1950-51), assassinated
1951 Ivor Novello British writer (Keep the Home Fires Burning), dies at 58
1951 Shah Ali Razmara of Iran assassinated
1951 Shah Ali Razmara of Iran, assassinated
1955 Tom Dugan actor (Pick a Star), dies at 66
1959 Arthur C Pigou English economist (Economics of Welfare), dies
1959 Hinsdale Smith developer of roll-down auto windows, dies at 88
1961 Englebert van Anderlecht Belgian painter, dies at 42
1961 Max Hymans WWII resistance fighter/Head of Air France, dies at 60
1964 Franz Alexander Hungarian/US psycho analyst, dies at 73
1968 Yuri Aleksayevich Gagarin USSR cosmonaut (Vostok I), dies at 31
1973 André de Meulemeester Belgian WWI pilot [Eagle of Flanders], dies at 78
1975 Ben Blue actor (Accidental Family, Frank Sinatra Show), dies at 73
1975 Francine Larrimore actress (John Meade's Woman), dies at 76
1976 Erwin Kroll composer, dies at 90
1979 Guiomar Novaes pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), dies at 84
1979 Klaus Egge Norwegian composer (Fanitullen), dies at 72
1981 John Gnagy artist (Learn to Draw), dies at 73
1981 Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin Russian conductor/composer, dies at 67
1982 Charles Borromeo Mills composer, dies at 68
1983 Igor Markevich composer, dies at 70
1983 Robert Bray actor (Corey-Lassie, Simon-Stagecoach West), dies at 65
1985 George Schick Czechoslovakian conductor (Chicago Symphony), dies at 76
1985 Robert W Woodruff CEO (Coca-Cola), dies at 95
1985 Victor W Farris inventor of paper milk carton, etc, dies
1986 Jacob K Javits (Senator-Republican-NY), dies in Palm Beach FL at 81
1988 Divine [Harris Glenn Milstead] transvestite actor (Hairspray, Polyester, Pink Flamingos), dies in Los Angeles at 42
1988 Robert Livingston actor (Lone Ranger), dies at 83 of emphysema
1990 Max Neuhaus composer, dies at 50
1993 Arnold Franchetti Ital/US composer, dies
1993 Earl Wrightson singer/actor (Pinafore), dies of heart failure at 77
1993 Tony Harris cricketer (8 Tests for South Africa 1947-49, 100 runs), dies
1995 Don Cook British foreign correspondent, dies at 74
1995 Jaap van den Hurk TV-director (NCRV), dies
1995 Jacques Lefebvre Belgian air force general, commits suicide at 64
1995 John Arthur Neill Lambert composer teacher organist, dies at 69
1995 Paul-Emile Victor French pole explorer, dies at 87
1995 Thijmen Kuijt resistance fighter/co-found paper (Typhoon), dies at 82
1996 Aled Eames maritime historian, dies at 74

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On this day...
1138 Conrad II von Hohenstaufen re-elected German king
1530 King Henry VIII's divorce request is denied by the Pope Henry then declares that he, not the Pope, is supreme head of England's church
1560 Christian fleet under Gian Andrea lands at Djerba, N Africa
1573 Turkey & Venice signs peace treaty
1621 John Pieterszoon Coen's troops land on Lontor, East Indies
1633 Prince Frederik Henry appoints himself viceroy of Limburg
1644 Massachusetts establishes 1st 2-chamber legislature in colonies
1696 English King Willem III departs Netherlands
1774 British close port of Boston to all commerce
1778 Captain James Cook 1st sights Oregon coast, at Yaquina Bay
1801 Massachusetts enacts 1st state voter registration law
1808 Portugal's regent Dom Juan IV arrives in Rio De Janeiro
1824 Meyerbeers opera "Il Crociati in Egitto" premieres in Venice
1835 HMS Beagle returns from Concepción to Valparaiso
1843 1st Catholic Governor in US, Edward Kavanagh of Maine, takes office
1847 US General Scott occupies Vera Cruz Mexico
1848 In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
1850 Daniel Webster endorses Compromise of 1850
1851 Poll tax levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia ends
1852 Dutch telegraph traffic regulated by law
1854 Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes
1857 Baseball decides 9 innings constitutes an official game, not 9 runs
1862 Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, Day 2, Generals McCulloch & McIntosh killed
1865 Battles round Kinston NC
1870 Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1st pro BB team, begin 8-mo tour of Midwest & East
1872 -8º F in Boston MA
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone
1876 Battle at Gura: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians
1896 Gilbert & Sullivan's last operette "Grand Duke" premieres in London
1900 Battle at Poplar Grove South Africa, President Kruger flees
1900 Stanley Cup: Montréal Shamrocks sweep Halifax Crescents in 2 games
1902 Boers beat British troop in Tweebosch Transvaal
1906 Finnish Senate accepts universal suffrage, except for poor
1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council & announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles"
1911 US sent 20,000 troops to Mexican border
1911 Willis Farnsworth, Petaluma CA, patents coin-operated locker
1912 Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole
1914 Prince Wilhelm von Wied becomes King of Albania
1917 1st jazz record "Dixie Jazz Band One Step", recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden NJ
1918 H Carroll & J McCarthy's musical "Oh, Look!" premieres in New York NY
1918 President Wilson authorizes US Army's Distinguished Service Medal
1921 Red Army under Trotsky attack sailors of Kronstadt
1922 US Ladies Figure Skating Championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard
1922 US Men's Figure Skating Championship won by Sherwin Badger
1925 American Negro Congress organizes
1926 1st transatlantic telephone call (London-New York)
1927 Earthquake measuring 8 on Richter scale strikes Tango, Japan
1930 Georgetown High of Chicago defeats Homer 1-0 in basketball
1932 Riots at Ford-factory Dearborn MI, kills 4
1933 Game of "Monopoly" invented
1935 Saar incorporated into Germany
1936 Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles, sends troops to Rhineland
1937 Bucharin, Jagoda & Rykov pushed out of CPSU in USSR
1939 Glamour magazine begins publishing
1939 Guy Lombardo & Royal Canadians 1st record "Auld Lang Syne"
1940 Montréal Canadiens lose record tying NHL 15th straight game at home
1940 Ray Steele beats B Nagurski in St Louis, to become wrestling champion
1941 3rd largest snowfall in New York NY history (18.1")
1941 50,000 British soldiers lands in Greece
1941 British troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1942 15 Mk-VB Spitfires reach Malta
1942 1st cadets graduated from flying school at Tuskegee
1943 General-Major Patton arrives in Djebel Kouif Tunisia
1944 Japans begins offensive in Burma
1945 Cologne taken by allied armies
1945 US 9th Armoured Division attacks Remagen Germany, crosses Rhine
1945 Yugoslavia government of Tito forms
1946 "Three to Make Ready" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 323 performances
1946 Max Frisch' "Santa Cruz" premieres in Zürich
1950 World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in London won by Karol Kennedy & Peter Kennedy (USA)
1950 World Ladies Figure Skating Championship in London won by Alena Vrzanova (Czechoslovakia)
1950 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in London won by Richard Button (USA); this is his 3rd consecutive win
1951 Ezzard Charles wins 15-round heavyweight decision against Jersey Joe Walcott
1951 Lillian Hellman's "Autumn Garden" premieres in New York NY
1953 Jackie McGlew scores 255 vs New Zealand at Wellington
1954 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Open
1954 Russia wins title in their 1st international ice hockey competition
1955 7th Emmy Awards: Make Room for Daddy, Danny Thomas & Loretta Young
1955 Baseball commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of spitter
1955 Mary Martin as "Peter Pan" televised
1958 Chicago Cardinals announce they will play their 1958 opener in Buffalo
1959 "Bells Are Ringing" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 925 performances
1959 1st aviator to fly a million miles (1.61 Mkm) in a jet (MC Garlow)
1959 West Indies all out 76 vs Pakistan at Dacca, Fazal Mahmood 6-34
1960 Dutch Builders strike for CLA
1962 Beatles made their broadcasting debut on BBC radio
1962 Launch of OSO 1, 1st astronomy satellite (solar flare data)
1965 Alabama state troopers & 600 black protestors clash in Selma
1965 Bruce Taylor takes 5-86 in debut innings for New Zealand after ton
1965 Christian-democrats win parliament in Chile
1966 "Wait A Minim!" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 457 performances
1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 Clark Gesner's musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" premieres in New York NY
1967 Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa begins 8-year jail sentence for defrauding the union & jury tampering (commuted Dec 23, 1971)
1969 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 World Ice Dance Championship in Ljubljana won by Liudmila Pakhomova & Alexandr Gorshkov (USSR)
1970 World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Irina Rodnina & Alexei Ulanov (USSR)
1970 World Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Gabriele Seyfert (German Democratic Republic)
1970 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Tim Wood (USA)
1970 WXOW TV channel 19 in La Crosse WI (ABC) begins broadcasting
1971 Egypt refuses to renew the Suez ceasefire
1973 Comet (Lubos) Kohoutek discovered at Hamburg Observatory
1973 Sheik Mujib ur-Rahman's Awami League wins election in Bangladesh
1974 "Monitor" (US Civil War Ship) restored at Cape Hatteras NC
1974 1st general striking in Ethiopia
1975 Senate revises filibuster rule, allows 60 senators to limit debate
1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1976 Morocco & Mauretania break diplomatic relations with Algeria
1977 Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party wins elections
1977 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets President Carter
1978 Belgian baron Charles Bracht kidnapped
1978 Canuck's Ron Sedlbauer fails on 5th penalty shot against Islanders
1978 Dutch 2nd Chamber votes against neutron bomb
1979 Baseball exhibition season opens with semipro & amateur umpires
1979 Warren Giles & Hack Wilson selected to baseball Hall of Fame
1981 "Bring Back Birdie" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 4 performances
1981 1st homicide at Disneyland, 18 year old is stabbed to death
1982 Beth Daniel wins LPGA American Express Sun City Golf Classic
1982 Jarmilla Kratochvilova run world record 400 meter indoor (49.59 seconds)
1982 NCAA Tournament Selection televised live for 1st time
1983 TNN (The Nashville Network) begins on Cable TV
1985 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.1 (update) released
1986 South-Africa emergency crisis in Brabant & Limburg ends
1986 Wayne Gretzky breaks own NHL season record with 136th assist
1987 Gavaskar becomes 1st cricket batsman to score 10,000 Test runs
1987 Mike Tyson beats Bonecrusher Smith in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1988 Howard Stern's 1st pay-per-view "Underpants & Negligee Party"
1988 Jim Abbott, 1-handed pitcher, wins 58th James E Sullivan Award
1989 Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses"
1989 Partial eclipse of the Sun (Hawaii, NW North America, Greenland)
1990 3 passengers killed & 162 injured as subway train derails (Philadelphia)
1990 H Wayne Huizenga buys ½ Joe Robbie Stadium & 15% of Dolphins for $30M
1991 Iraq continues to explode oil fields in Kuwait
1992 Nicole Stevenson swims world record 200 meter backstroke (2 :6.78)
1993 23rd Easter Seal Telethon raises
1993 Diff'rent Stroke actor Todd Bridges arrested for stabbing a tenant
1994 8th American Comedy Awards: Carrot Top wins
1994 ANC chief Nelson Mandela rejects demand by white right-wingers for separate homeland in South Africa
1994 Charles Taylor resigns as President of Liberia
1994 David Platt appointed captain of English football team
1994 US Navy issues 1st permanent order assigning women on combat ship
1995 Dollar worth 1.5330 Dutch guilder (record)
1995 New York becomes 38th state to have the death penalty
1996 1st surface photos of Pluto (photographed by Hubble Space Telescope)
1996 British Steel in Workington wins Lithuanian multi-million £ order
1996 Magic Johnson is 2nd NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists
1997 11th Soul Train Music Awards
1997 5 sue Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life
1997 Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome & Stockholm are finalists for 2004 Olympics site

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

California : Burbank Day/Bird & Arbor Day (1849)
Laos : Veteran's Day

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Religious Observances
Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Perpetua & her companions, martyrs
old Roman Catholic, Lutheran : Commemoration of St Thomas Aquinas, confessor/dr [or 1321]

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Religious History
1638 Controversial colonial churchwoman Anne Hutchinson, 47, and nineteen other exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in Rhode Island, at the site of modern Portsmouth.
1782 Ohio Territory militiamen began a two_day massacre of the Moravian Indian town of Gnadenhutten (modern New Philadelphia, Ohio). In all, 96 Christian Indians of the Delaware tribe were slaughtered, in retaliation for Indian raids made elsewhere in the Ohio Territory.
1802 In Washington, D.C., the first Baptist church was organized with six charter members. Their first pastor Obadiah Brown was hired five years later, and Brown remained in that pulpit while involving himself in every important local Baptist program for the next 43 years!
1825 Birth of Alfred Edersheim, English biblical scholar. Converted to Christianity from Judaism before age 20, Edersheim later published "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" (1883A90), a Christian classic still in print!
1867 Birth of Peter Cameron Scott, founder of the Africa Inland Mission. In 1895, Scott led the first band of missionaries to reach Kenya. He died in Africa the following year, at 29, of blackwater fever. Over 700 AIM missionaries have since followed in Scott's footsteps.

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Thought for the day :
"If you continually give you will continually have."

[Jen]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, please send me a blank private reply with "REMOVE" in the subject line! Thanks! Jen

[A Navy Vet]

My apologies for not visiting more often. Bump for our Armed Services.

[aomagrat]

Today's classic warship, USS Gregory (DD-82)

Wickes class destroyer
Displacement. 1,191 t.
Lenght. 314'4"
Beam. 30'11"
Draft. 9'2"
Speed. 34.75 kt.
Complement. 141
Armament. 4 4", 12 21" tt.

USS Gregory, (DD-82) was launched 27 January 1915 by the Fore River Ship Building Co., Quincy, Mass.; sponsored by Mrs. George S. Trevor, great granddaughter of Admiral Gregory; and commissioned 1 June 1918, Comdr. Arthur P. Fairfield in command.

Joining a convoy at New York, Gregory sailed for Brest, France, 25 June 1918. She spent the final summer of the war escorting convoys from the French port to various Allied ports in Britain and France. As the war neared its close, Gregory was assigned to the patrol squadron at Gibraltar 2 November 1918. In addition to patrolling in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Gregory carried passengers and supplies to the Adriatic and aided in the execution of the terms of the Austrian armistice. After six months of this duty, the flush-deck destroyer joined naval forces taking part in relief missions to the western Mediterranean 28 April 1919. In company with USS Arizona, Gregory carried supplies and passengers to Smyrna. Constantinople, and Batum. She then sailed for Gibraltar with the American counsul from Tiflis, Russia and some British army officers. Debarking her passengers on the rocky fortress, Gregory sailed for New York reaching the States 13 June 1919.

After brief tours in reserve at Tompkinsville, N.Y., the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Gregory sailed to Charleston, S.C., 4 January 1921. A year of local training operations out of the southern port ended 12 April 1922 when Gregory entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She decommissioned 7 July 1922 and went into reserve.

As war broke again over Europe, threatening to involve the United States, Gregory and three other four-stackers were taken out of mothballs for conversion to high-speed transports. The DDs were stripped of virtually all their armament to make room for boats, while other important modifications were made for troops and cargo. Gregory recommissioned 4 November 1940 as APD-3 and joined Little, Colhoun, and McKean to form Transport Division 12. None of these valiant ships were to live through the Pacific war all but McKean were lost during the Guadalcanal campaign.

Gregory and her sister APD's trained along the East. Coast for the following year perfecting landing techniques with various Marine divisions. On 27 January 27 with war already raging in the Pacific, she departed Charleston for Pearl Harbor. Exercises in Hawaiian waters kept TransDiv 12 in the Pacific through the spring, after which they returned to San Diego for repairs. They sailed for the Pacific again 7 June, reaching Pearl Harbor a week later to train for the upcoming invasion of Guadalcanal, America's first offensive effort in the long Pacific campaign.

Departing Noumea 31 July 1942, Gregory joined TF 62 (Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher) and steamed for Guadalcanal. After sending her Marines ashore in the first assault waves 7 August, Gregory and her sister APD's remained in the area performing a variety of tasks in one of history's most desperately fought over areas. The versatile ships patrolled the waters around the hotly contested islands waters which were to gain notoriety as "Iron Bottom Sound" and brought up ammunition & supplies from Espiritu Santo.

On 4 September Gregory and Little were returning to their anchorage at Tulagi after transferring a Marine Raider Battalion to Savo Island. The night was inky black with a low haze obscuring all landmarks. and the ships decided to remain on patrol rather than risk threading their way through the dangerous channel. As they steamed between Guadalcanal and Savo Island at ten knots, three Japanese destroyers ( Yudachi, Hatsuyuki and Murakumo) entered the Slot undetected to bombard American shore positions. At 0056 on the morning of 5 September, Gregory and Little saw dashes of gunfire which they assumed came from a Japanese submarine until radar showed four targets apparently a cruiser had Joined the three DD's. While the two outgunned but gallant ships were debating whether to close for action or depart quietly and undetected, the decision was taken out of their hands.

A Navy pilot had also seen the gunfire and, assuming it came from a Japanese submarine, dropped a string of five flares almost On top of the two APD's. Gregory and Little, silhouetted against the blackness, were spotted immediately by the Japanese destroyers, who opened fire at 0100. Gregory brought all her guns to bear but was desperately overmatched and less than 3 minutes after the fatal flares had been dropped, was dead in the water and beginning to sink. Two boilers had burst and her decks were a mass of fames. Her skipper, LT. Comdr. H. F Bauer, himself seriously wounded, gave the word to abandon ship, and Gregory's crew reluctantly took to the water. Bauer ordered two companions to aid another crewman yelling for help and was never seen again; for his brave and gallant conduct he posthumously received the Silver Star.

At 0123, with all of Gregory's and most of Little's crew in the water, the Japanese ships began shelling again aiming not at the crippled ships but at their helpless crews in the water. All but 11 of Gregory's crew Survived, 6 of them swimming through the night all the way to Guadalcanal. Gregory sank stern first some 40 minutes after the firing had begun, and was followed 2 hours later by Little. Fleet Admiral Nimitz, in praising the courageous ships after their loss, wrote that "both of these small vessels fought as well as possible against the overwhelming odds . . . With little means, they performed duties vital to the success of the campaign." Gregory's name was struck from the Navy List 2 October 1942.

Gregory received two battle stars for service in World War II.

In July 1992, nearly fifty years after her loss, a sunken U.S. Navy high-speed transport was discovered and briefly examined on the sea floor some miles off Lunga Point. Though its specific indentity could not be determined, this ship is either USS Gregory or her sister, USS Little.

[SpookBrat]

I'm so confused.

[Light Speed]

‘YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH’
by James E. Van Zandt
Long buried in the bowels of the bureaucracy, the little-known report produced by the 1953 Potter hearings pertaining to Communist atrocities in Korea deserves to see light. Fortunately, its key findings were revealed and preserved in VFWmagazine. Here is a recap presented by then-Pennsylvania Rep. James E. Van Zandt. (Senate Report 848, 83rd Congress, 2nd session, Jan. 11, 1954.) Sgt. Berry F. Rhoden was handed a card before being shot in the back. The legend on the card said: “You are about to die the most horrible kind of death.” Rhoden barely survived, but many Americans did not make it through the North Korean atrocity mill. “The Communist enemy committed a series of war crimes against American and U.N. personnel which constituted one of the most heinous and barbaric epochs in recorded history,” so concluded the Potter report. Sen. Charles E. Potter, of Michigan, who lost both legs in WWII, made a determined and persistent inquiry into Communist atrocities. More than 200 pages of testimony were recorded during his hearings in December 1953. On Jan. 11, 1954, came the formal report, documenting murder, starvation, torture, experimental medical operations and many other crimes against humanity. “Virtually every provision of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners of war was purposely violated or ignored by the North Korean and Chinese forces,” the Potter report declared. “More than 5,000 American prisoners of war died because of Communist war atrocitiesand more than a thousand who survived were victims of war crimes.” According to Potter’s report, “Approximately two-thirds of all American prisoners of war in Korea died due to war crimes.” The Potter report also documented 35,459 war crimes against civilian victims in Korea, plus a total of 20,785 war crimes against military personnel in all the United Nations forces combined, including U.S. troops. War Crimes Division During three days of hearings, the Potter committee took the testimony of 29 witnesses, 23 of whom were American military personnel who were either survivors or eyewitnesses of Communist atrocities. The other witnesses were former Army field commanders in Korea, and officers of the War Crimes Division (WCD). Hundreds of photographs were presented in evidence from the files of the WCD in Korea. First reports of atrocities committed by the Communists in Korea against captured Americans began to trickle into Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in July 1950, before North Korean aggression had been under way two weeks. MacArthur at once set up the WCD in the Korean Command, with a view to preparing on-the-spot evidence for presentation to the U. N. With the signing of the Korean War armistice in July 1953, the WCD in Korea did not terminate operations. It continued to pile up new evidence of Communist brutalities. Stated the findings: “The evidence before the subcommittee conclusively proves that American prisoners of war who were not deliberately murdered at the time of capture or shortly after capture, were beaten, wounded, starved, and tortured; molested, displayed, and humiliated before the civilian populace and/or forced to march long distances without benefit of adequate food, water, shelter, clothing or medical care to Communist prison camps, and there to experience further acts of human indignities. “Communist massacres, and the wholesale extermination of their victims, is a calculated part of Communist psychological warfare. The atrocities perpetrated in Korea against the United Nations troops by Chinese and North Korean Communists are not unique in Communist history.” Potter emphasized that several blood-chilling methods discovered in the Korean atrocities were exactly those used by Russian forces against the Poles in the notorious Katyn Forest Massacre, which had been investigated earlier by another committee of Congress. The House committee which investigated the WWII Katyn Massacre said in its report: “Communist methods being used in Korea are identical to those followed at Katyn.” The Katyn Massacre has gone down in history as one of the most brutal blood purges ever. In that single operation, in the winter of 1940-41, the Russians liquidated some 15,000 Polish army officers, thus removing the last obstacle of resistance to control of all Poland by the Kremlin. Hill 303 & Sunchon Tunnel One case in Korea illustrates the Communist technique of massacre. On Aug. 14-16, 1950, 45 Americans were captured by North Koreans on Hill 303. “On the fourth day all of the prisoners were led to a ravine and without warning, while their hands were tied, they were shot in cold blood. Only five survived,” recorded the committee. The Sunchon tunnel massacre was even more brutal. On Oct. 30, 1950, 180 American POWs who had survived the Seoul-Pyongyang death march and had been without food for four or five days were killed in this way: “Late in the afternoon, the prisoners were taken from the railroad cars in alternate groups of approximately 40 to nearby ravines, ostensibly to receive their first food in several days, and they were ruthlessly shot by North Korean soldiers using Russian burp guns. One hundred and thirty-eight U.S. soldiers lost their lives in these atrocities.” Pfc. John E. Martin of Ferndale, Mich., attached to the 29th Regimental Combat Team, was one of the survivors of the Sunchon tunnel massacre. He described the entire Communist operation to the Potter committee. He related that prisoners were ordered to crouch, as against an air attack. “So when we all ducked down, some more of them came up over a little rice paddie and just opened up,” he said. After the volley, a member of the firing squad went into the ditch to check, Martin told the committee. “They went down and kicked somebody, and if he groaned they shot him again or bayoneted him, and then kicked somebody else.” Taejon & Muju Massacres Other atrocities documented in this report include the Taejon massacre of 60 Americans on Sept. 27, 1950. In Taejon, civilians numbering 7,000 were slaughtered in the prison yard by gunfire between Sept. 23-27. Only one American soldier survived this massacre. He was Sgt. Carey Weinel, of Kansas City, Mo., attached to the 23rd Inf. Regt., 2nd Div. He told the story to the Potter committee: “They hit me three times, aiming at my head. I have a scar on my neck, another on my collar bone and another hit my hand. After they thought everybody was dead, they started burying us. … I came close to getting panicky but somehow or other I figured as long as I had some breath there was hope.” Sen. Potter: “In other words, you were buried alive?” Sgt. Weinel: “That is right, sir.” “How long were you buried alive?” Sgt. Weinel: “That is hard to say, sir; as I say, I was shot around 5 a.m. and I stayed in the ditch until it was dark that evening.” In another case, the bodies of five American airmen were discovered in the Muju area late in December 1950. Their flesh had been punctured in as many as 20 different areas with sharpened, bamboo spears. Under such torture, no one perforation was sufficient to cause death by itself. Lt. Col. James T. Rogers of Greenwood, S.C., a medical officer attached to the First Corps, told of his post-mortem examination after the bodies had been found by a South Korean patrol. “By the nature of the wounds, I am of the opinion that the instrument of torture had been previously heated. After torturing them with the superficial wounds, they bayoneted them with the same instruments and these fellows were left to bleed to death.” Ordeal of Sgt. Treffery The detailed picture presented by Sgt. Wendell Treffery of Terryville, Conn., fairly presents the whole pattern of Communist atrocities. Treffery was an Army hospital corpsman attached to the 1st Marines at Inchon, Sept. 18, 1950. Captured by Chinese forces while enroute to the Chosin Reservoir, American prisoners were marched up the mountain to the Communist prison camp, comprising three unheated sheds. Treffery related to Potter: “They took our heavy clothing, and shoes, and left us with only a pair of fatigues. It was about 20 below zero … we found out, when we backtracked on Dec. 1 to the point of capture, that our wounded had not been returned to the American lines, as promised in the surrender agreement. “Our wounded were still lying there, all frozen … we marched two days. The first night we got some hay and slept in the hay, cuddling together to keep warm. The second night we slept in pigpens. That night I froze my feet. … I got marching the next 16 days after that. During that march all the meat had worn off my feet, all the skin had dropped off, nothing but the bones showing. After arriving at Kanggye, they put us up in mud huts. There we remained until early January 1951. Then they moved us in oxcarts about 10 miles south of Kanggye, until April 25. “A Chinese nurse came around to care for the wounded the first three days. She had a bag at her side stuffed full of newspapers, and a big pair of shears like we cut hedges with around the house. She said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I stuck my feet out from under the blankets and showed her the raw bones of my feet. She told me to lay down on my back, so I slid down. “She started to clip off my toes. She missed the joint about a 16th of an inch, and hit the solid bone. She crunched them off, took them all off except the two big toes. Then she took that dirty newspaper and wrapped it over the blood and pus and tied it on with a piece of string. Then she went out. “I said to the other fellows: ‘How do you like that?’ I tore my comforter open and ripped out some cotton. Then I ripped up a pair of fatigues and made bandages over the cotton. I took care of my feet all winter long. The other three men who were with me died. By April 25, I was the only one alive in our group.” During the winter of 1950, Treffery related, the prisoners got a “very small bowl, about half a coffee cup, of food once in the morning and once in the night.” “They wouldn’t give us water. Why, I don’t know.” “In the springtime, a lot of greens were growing out in the field, and I took them and boiled them down and got the juice and ate the greens.” Q. Sergeant, could you tell us how many American POWs died in Camp 1? A. I’d say about 800 total. Q. That would be in what period of time? A. May 1951, sir, until August 1951. Q. What was the cause of their deaths? A. Dysentery, lack of medicine, malnutrition. But the Communists were able to supply reading matter for the American POW camps. Treffery testified that the Communist Daily Worker arrived regularly from New York; also the Daily Worker from San Francisco and from London. At Seoul, prisoners were subjected to cruel and unusual punishments, often publicly humiliated before the civilian population, Treffery continued. “One of the men was put in jail for trying to escape. He was put in confinement. All during the day he sat at attention, with his arms like this [demonstrating], and his legs under him. Once or twice during the day they’d stand him on his right foot and get the civilians in off the street, and then they’d slap him to the floor. That happened once or twice a day during every day he was in prison … about five or six months.” Torture of Pvt. Kinard Pvt. Charles E. Kinard of Quincy, Fla., told of being captured, after being wounded about July 10, 1950, in the Battle of Seoul. After being stripped of his watch, money, equipment and clothing, he was systematically tortured. “I was taken out to the hills and they gave me some more treatment. First they put rocks in my shoes, and then they would chase me around until I would fall. I had lost quite a bit of blood. When I would come to, they would give me the lighted cigarettes to my feet, legs and other places. “Then giving me all this, they decided to try something new. They took the C-ration can opener which was hanging on my dog tag around my neck and inserted it into the wound in my left shoulder and gave it a half-twist. And one of them said ‘ptomaine poison!’ I don’t know where he heard the words. “After he inserted this into my wound, I took it out. He slapped me and hit me on my shoulder, on the wound, with the butt of his rifle, and put the can opener back in there. I decided it would be best if I left it there.” When the exhibition was over, Kinard grasped the can opener with his right hand and removed it from the wound. He never received any medical attention, beyond his own improvised ministrations to the battle wound. Feats of Courage The Potter hearings carried more than 200 pages of testimony along these lines. It is a record of brutality. “The feats of courage and bravery demonstrated by our GIs throughout the atrocities are without equal,” Potter reported. “They have shown a strength which is compounded of personal physical courage and the spiritual power of Almighty God. I don’t think the Communists can, or ever will, understand this force. This is our greatest and most potent weapon. It makes us proud to be Americans.” J Editor’s Note: Unlike WWII, no war crimes trials were held after the inconclusive Korean War. Thus, the North Koreans and Chinese were never held accountable. James E. Van Zandt, who died in 1986, served as VFWcommander-in-chief three times and was elected to 11 terms in the House of Representatives beginning in 1938. His article (this has been modified) appeared in the October 1954 issue of VFW. Memorial on Hill 303 Executed in a ravine by North Koreans more than 50 years ago, 40 GIs of the 81mm Mortar Plt., H Co., 5th Cav Regt., 1st Cav Div., and other units remained long forgotten. That is until VFWPost 10033 (“Hill 303 Memorial”) in Taegu, Korea, helped recognize them with a memorial. The Post donated $500, assists in its upkeep and made the three survivors VFW life members. On June 23, 2000, with two survivors present, a long overdue, permanent tribute to the Americans was dedicated. “The memorial contains five posts, one for each survivor,” according to then-VFW Post Commander Rick Fletcher. “The chain that circles the five posts contains 40 links, one for each soldier killed on Hill 303.” The memory of Aug. 17, 1950, at Waegwan was burned into the memories of the five survivors. Veterans Roy Manring (who died in early 2002) and Fred Ryan were on hand to participate in the ceremony. One year earlier, they had also returned to Korea to identify the massacre site’s precise location. Shot five times, Ryan recalled the men’s spirit in the face of death. “They died that day cussing out the other side,” he said. Manring was hit 13 times, yet still felt compelled to say, “I feel guilty I survived.”