Jocko Podcast - 53: WILL CONQUERS ALL, “Colder Than Hell”, Lessons Learned from A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir.

Episode Date: December 14, 2016

0:00:00 - Opening 0:04:40 - "Colder Than Hell", by Joseph R. Owen 2:48:08 - Lessons learned, and other thoughts. 2:52:34 - Helpful perspective.  Comparing our lives to REAL adversity. 2:57:35 - Onnit stuff, Support by using Amazon, Jocko Store stuff, Jocko White Tea, Mugs, Extreme Ownership Book and Muster,  PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE on iTunes, other support.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 53 with Echo Charles and me, Jocco Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. At what point do you quit? At what point you give in? At what point do you surrender? And what is it that makes you surrender? The enemy?

Hunger. Thirst? Bitter, cold. Are these men? that decide that they will not surrender no matter what what will what human will do they have that they decide they are going to fight on no matter what they face these men like me human beings that decide they are going to fight on despite being surrounded by the enemy despite the hunger and the danger and the thirst and the bitter cold,

they decide they will not surrender. We can find examples of these men throughout history. One of the foremost examples comes from the Korean War. In late November and into mid-December of 1950 when 30,000 UN troops, mostly American, were surrounded by 120,000 communist Chinese forces. And these Americans were attacked, attacked by the enemy, and attacked by the bitter, freezing cold, and attacked by hunger and fear. And yet they would not, and they did not surrender. And tonight we're going to hear from a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, Joseph R. Owen, who served as a mortar section commander for Baker Company, First Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, First Marine Division. In his book, which is called Colder Than Hell.

And the book starts off with one of the best short overviews of the Korean War I've ever read, likely because it's written by a man who was there. A man named General Raymond Davis, Ray Davis, who, first of all, he was a battalion commander in World War II at the Battle of Pelivu, awarded the Navy Cross there for leading his men against overwhelming Japanese. Japanese fire. And in Korea, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, as well as two silver stars, a Legion of Merit and a bronze star as the commander of First Battalion's 7th Marines.

And beyond that, he also served as the third Marine Division commander in Vietnam in 1969, where he was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. three Republic of Vietnam gallantry crosses. So when he speaks, I think maybe we should listen. And I'm going to start with that forward by General Davis in the book, Colder Than Hell, by Joe Owen. Twice in 1950. During the first months of the Korean War, the United States faced military catastrophe. Both situations occurred because of American errors of diplomacy and faulty intelligence and because our military was not prepared to meet a determined enemy on the battlefield. North Korea and China were the enemies that exploited our failings.

On two occasions, that year they caught us by surprise, launching massive attacks, first against our ally, South Korea, and then against our own inadequate forces. Both times the consequences were devastating. There were tragic numbers of casualties in the ranks of our soldiers and Marines, and American prestige worldwide was severely impaired. The surprise invasion of South Korea by North Korea with the support of communist China and the Soviet Union was virtually invited by the United States and the South Koreans. South Korea was vulnerable.

soldiers were ill-equipped, poorly trained, and improperly deployed. The American forces at that time, victims of Washington politics and false economies were nearly as bad off. Following the end of World War II drawdown, they were in skeletonized formation, sadly under-trained and inadequately equipped. So there's a little warning for us today. somebody asked me that question. What's your foreign policy?

Can you say it in 140 characters? Somebody asked me that on Twitter? I answered it in one word. My foreign policy is strength. This is why. Back to the book. Moreover, our Secretary of State had proclaimed to the world that the Korean Peninsula was outside the area

of American vital interests. North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union read that message to mean that the United States would not defend South Korea against outside aggression. South Korea would be theirs for the taking. We now know of messages exchanged between Joseph Stalin and the North Korean president, Kim Il-sung, that explored our weakness

and concluded that South Korea could be captured in five days. Subsequently, the North Koreans launched a sudden and massive invasion. Seoul, the North Korean capital, taken and soon all that country was overrun except for one small pocket around the port of Pusan. That pocket was formed by American troops. Unready as they were that President Harry Troopman hurried into Korea in response to the crisis. At great sacrifice, these American soldiers with a follow-on brigade of Marines held the Pusan perimeter long enough to allow forces to assemble for an amphibious assault on Inshan behind the North Carolina.

Korean lines. We recaptured Seoul and the North Koreans were put on the run. Fearing entrapment, they fled back across their border to the North. American and South Korean troops were joined by soldiers from other United Nations countries and pursued the aggressors deep into North Korea. Our mission was twofold to punish the North Koreans and to block the Chinese People's Liberation Army if it threatened to enter the war. Because of a failure of intelligence, however, we were far too late to deter the Chinese.

They had already positioned vast numbers of their well-trained soldiers in the mountains of North Korea. We were soon under heavy attack, fighting a numerically superior enemy in unfavorable terrain and brutally cold weather. The UN forces predominantly American were chased out of North Korea. at the chosen reservoir where we were outnumbered 10 to 1, the Chinese generals prematurely boasted of the destruction of the first Marine division. Yet the opposite happened there. Although the Marines were forced to withdraw, we destroyed several Chinese divisions as we fought our way to the sea and to escape.

Our withdrawal was a successful one, but we paid a terrible price. Casualties reduced the division to nearly half its strength. The three rifle companies of First Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, which I was privileged to command endured losses of even greater proportions. My battalion had been hastily activated in response to President Truman's urgent call to action. It was a thrown-together rifle company,

a collection of regulars gathered from Marine Corps posts and stations all over the world and reservists, mostly untrained, who were suddenly called from their homes, jobs, schools, with only a few days of training. They were embarked aboard a ship heading across the Pacific and thrown into combat. They had to learn to fight while under fire. Their saving grace was that they were led

by disciplined officers and NCOs who showed them by upfront example how to fight like Marines. Although they suffered casualties that proper preparation would have avoided, they learned well and they hardened and defined and defined rifle company.

No North Korean or Chinese force ever stopped them from taking an objective or overcame their position. Let us do all we can to assure that no future generation of young Americans need to go to war unprepared. as were those heroes who went to Korea in 1950.

And again, that is the foreword of the book, which was written by General Raymond Davis Medal of Honor winner. And like I said, the book is written by Joe Owen, Joseph Owen, who was Marine Corps officer. And let's continue on. and now we start hearing from Joe Owen. They're at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Nobody at Camp Lejeune had expected a shooting war, nor we were ready for one.

So they're there, they're just kind of peacetime Marines, you know, kind of doing their thing. And all of a sudden, the North Koreans attack, and here where they would go, they're all sitting around, listen to the radio, a bunch of Marines. The announcer continued. More than 2,000 Americans, military advisors, and civilian workers and their families are said to be in the path of North Koreans' surprise aggression. Their fate is unknown at this time. American involvement in the new war is not clear. War! Yeah!

The possibility of American Marines in a combat role excited us. So these guys are young. Not all of them. There's definitely, we're going to run into many World War II veterans, but the young kids, They don't know. They want to get after it. They're fired up. They're so fired up.

Back to the book, one story alleged that a commando force of volunteers was forming up for an immediate commitment to battle. That one tied up phone lines on the base as we tried to track down the commando headquarters in order to volunteer. They're all ready to rock and roll. Now, then they start seeing what's beginning to occur. They see that we're surrounded. did they see that we're kind of getting, the North Koreans are getting the best, if not routing. Back to the book, Americans at home were stunned by reports that their army, the conqueror of the mighty Germany and Japan only five years before, was outnumbered, outgunned, and outfought by the upstart North Koreans.

General MacArthur called for a full division of Marines to help him turn back the North Koreans. The Marine Corps welcomed the call, but we did not have a. a full division to put in the field. Like all the services, the Corps had been stripped of men and weapons in order to reduce itself to the level of the 1930s. Both the first and second Marine divisions were less than half strength. The Corps would need to draw men from guard detachments, ships, companies, and posts and stations throughout the world.

But it still wouldn't find enough troops to fill a division. President Truman thus authorized the commonon of the Marine Corps to call up the reserves. So it was, again, this is a warning. As a nation and as an individual human, don't let down your guard. Peace time will not last. And the weaker you look, the sooner, the peacetime will end. Now they get the orders standby to ship out On the Saturday evening before we left Camp Lejeune

Dorothy, so that's Jill's wife. Dorothy hired a babysitter and we went to the officers club for dinner. There were candles out at our table which was covered in white linen and set with heavy silverware. The food was delicious and plentiful and I would think about it often in Korea when my men and I were hungry and cold. That night Dorian,

Dorothy's hair glistened like gold in the candlelight, and her eyes smiled bright and blue and warm. We danced and laughed with the other lieutenants and their wives. For some of the couples, our closest friends, it was the last night they would ever have together. So they depart LaJune, and they show up at Camp Pendleton, California. And they get to Camp Pendleton, California. They get to Camp Pendleton.

We'll talk more about this, but Camp Pendleton is a, believe it or not, it's on the coast of California. And there's some pretty aggressive hills in Camp Pendleton, which I've spent many nights on because we would work up there. And they can turn some soft men into some hard men pretty quickly or break men if they're too weak. So back to the book, our ranks were filled by 215 men and seven officers who had never before served together. Half of our enlisted men were infantry-trained regulars. The other half were reservists, most of whom were youngsters who knew little of marine infantry and its methods. Five weeks after we first formed up at Camp Pendleton, we went into the attack against North Korean soldiers who were dug into a hill north of Seoul. and we had spent half of that time on board ship on the way to war.

So let me break that down to you. They have five weeks. So five weeks from when they form up, five weeks later, they're attacking North Korean troops. So just FYI for a seal platoon that's going to Iraq, we used to work up for a full year. This is after we went through seal training and after we went through seal qualification training and after all the guys show up the team and go to special schools and then you get formed up into a platoon and you have a full year. You have an unbelievable workup to prepare. And the Marine Corps does this too.

I mean, the Army, everyone does this now. That's the amount of preparation that it takes to prepare for combat. And here are these guys five weeks, of which, what was it, half that time is spent on a ship just sailing over there. Unbelievable. Back to the book, the sun scorched hills of Camp Pendleton had over the years toughened the legs and tested the spirits of thousands of America's best fighting men. One of those towering hills loomed across the road from our training site. So again, you want to get tough?

Get on some hills with a rucksack on your back. That will do it to you. And I guess I kind of included those little sections about Camp Pendleton Hills for my own pleasure. Thinking about those hills. Back to the book, they're going through this training, and they're getting ready to deploy. and we'll go back to the book now. Dorothy took $75 of our scant resources

and bought an airline ticket from Syracuse to San Diego. Each night after we had dismissed the troops, Bill and I, this is Bill Graber, he's another one of the officers, Bill and I caught a ride to the hotel. Restaurants in the little village of San Clemente were closed that late, but Dorothy would have a cold supper waiting for me. Then we would stroll to the beach and listen to the waves crash across the sand. During those walks, we talked about the babies, and we made plans for my return from Korea.

My next assignment, I assured her, would give us at least two years at a good duty station. Maybe I would be senior enough for us to rate decent quarters. In the mornings, early and still dark, Bill Graber and I would grab a ride back to camp with the other officers. Everyone except the driver slept all the way, crowded against each other in the tight seats of the car. We were very tired, but we were young men, and we did dearly love our beautiful wives. And you're going to see throughout this book that even though his wife was not with him, she was with him the whole time. Like many spouses are when guys are deployed overseas. and now they are on board the ship.

The ship is getting ready to pull out of the San Diego Bay. Back to the book. The wives remained on the dock long after we had gone aboard. The scurl of bagpipes sounded as we waved to them. PFC Timmy Killeen, Abel Company, stood on the fantail of the Okin-Auggen. And his bagpipes filled the fading afternoon with the Marines' hymn. handkerchiefs fluttered from the dock and the ship's horn blasted we were underway there were tears but marines and marine wives aren't ashamed of tears when their hymn plays so now they're heading over to korea they're in cramped quarters i've done a couple uh deployments onboard ships and there's amphibia ships is what they're called and these ships were meant to take people overseas.

The ones that I deployed on were what drove soldiers to Vietnam. We used to deploy on those ships for six months, but it's just really cramped. They're basically like a cattle car, a giant cattle car, a cattle ship. And they just pack everyone on there. It's really tight.

And there's not much to do on there. But you know, you take a bunch of Marines, you put them on a ship, and they figure something out. Back to the book, Staff Sergeant Richard revealed himself to be an all-purpose NCO and an acquituary acquisition specialist. One day he produced a set of boxing gloves,

and the men of Baker-17 immediately became avid pugilists. For three exuberant rounds, to the delight of the company, the little bull bifolk, and the little gorilla, Lupacchini, engaged in mutual annihilation.

When Sergeant Richard clanged his mess gear to end the brawl, the troops and much of the ship's crew were in a cheering frenzy. It had been a grand fight. Both men were covered in blood and bruises, and at the final clang, they wrapped arms and leaned against each other exhausted. My mortar men swarmed into the square, pummeling bifolk with congratulations. Perkins, who had been holding Bifolk's glasses, placed them carefully over his swollen eyes. I saw Burris then gently guide Bifolk out of the ring.

Gene O'Brien, Lupicini's platoon sergeant, followed with his man, and Baker 1-7 was still whistling and cheering when the two fighters and their handlers went through the hatch and down the ladder to sick bay. Joe Krasaba stood next to me. So Joe Krasaba is one of the platoon commanders, stood next to me. This outfit is coming together, he said. Joe rarely smiled, but there was a big grin on his face after that fight. So there's... You notice that in these... Stories about combat.

Wrestling, fighting, boxing, there is something to it. There is something to it that bonds men together. Fact. Back to the book. When we weren't on deck with the troops, the officers spent the waking hours around the wardroom table. So the wardrobe on a ship is where the officers eat. Captain Wilcox, now this is the introduction to Captain Wilcox.

He's the company commander and he's a vet from Iwo Jima. Captain Wilcox led us in review of the principles and lessons of rifle company combat. He and Joe Krasaba used their own battle experience as experiences as illustration. They focused on the chaos of combat and how the best laid plans always disintegrated under enemy fire. That's why we got to keep our plans simple. War is hell, Captain Wilcox, who had much experience at it, would tell us, but you never know what particular kind of hell it is going to be. We studied the after-actions report that had come from the Fifth Marines.

The North Koreans they had faced were tough, skilled fighters, every bit as tenacious in battle as the Japanese had been in the bitter Pacific Island fighting of the last war. The Red soldiers, Fifth Marines called them gooks, were well-trained in the Russian style of combat, with effective use of supporting armor, mortars, and artillery. They were men who also were adept at night fighting. Fighting at night was a combat skill we had yet to learn.

We would do so under fire and at a terrible cost. So Joe Owen is actually, he's not a platoon commander. He is a, he's the mortar section commander. So in a company of, yeah, call it 200, 200 Marines, there's multiple rifle platoons. maybe 40 guys, 50 guys in each one of those rifle platoons. And then there's a little section of mortar guys. And mortars are an indirect fire weapon. So for those of these that don't know anything about mortars,

mortars shoot rounds. You see them in movies, they're a tube. They're basically a tube, and they're at a really high angle, and you drop rounds into it, and they fire at a very high altitude and a high angle, and then they drop down from straight above and hit targets. And so Joe Owen, in this company, is in charge of the mortar. section. Back to the book, when Baker

17 was still on the way to war, the first and fifth Marines forced a landing across the tidal flats at Inchon Harbor. The radio in the ship's wardroom was tuned to the tactical net, and we listened to commanders on the beach

as they reported the action to their senior echelons and made call for air and artillery support and ammunition resupply. Over the static and crackling transmission, we could hear shells exploding, small arms fire, battlefield curses, and the screams of wounded men. The transmissions were piped out onto the deck where the troops also listened to the grim sounds.

I left the wardrum and went out to be with my mortar men. They sat in a tight cluster, staring intently at a loudspeaker as they heard the war that was about to swallow us. That's a real introduction right there. You know you're going to war and you get to listen to guys on the ground and a fierce firefighting. You hear the shouts and screams of the wounded. That's a reality. That's a reality check right there for those guys. So at this point, Owen, he kind of wants to pick up a platoon instead of being in the mortar section.

He kind of feels like mortar section, you know, they're a little bit in the rear, and he wants to be a rifle platoon commander. If you remember what Mack Allen said, the last book we did about the Korean War, and, you know, rifle platoon commander, rifle platoon commander, rifle, platoon commander. That's what, if you're gung-ho, that's what you want to do. And so Joe Owen, he feels kind of like,

you know, I wish I was a platoon, I wish I was a rifle-patoon commander. That's what I want to do. But he's a mortar section commander. Okay, that's fine. Well, he tries to get that job. And he says, he's kind of pressing to get that job

up the chain of command. I should have backed off. I plowed on. Sir, the word is that the first and fifth Marines are running short on lieutenants. I'd like to request transfer as a replacement. The captain turned to Caney. First, Sergeant, if you will excuse us, I'd like a ward alone with Lieutenant Owen. Yes, sir, responded Caney.

So kind of gets rid of the senior enlisted guy. He knew I was about to get reamed and he smirked at me as he disappeared behind the pile of crates. Captain Wilcox gave me that glare once again. you want to transfer out of Baker one seven sir it's the only that I want to put my training to some use before the fighting ends and to hell with your men to hell with the company is that right lieutenant no sir captain it's just that it's just that you want to jump ship on us the skipper's face glistened with perspiration and he turned into a steaming red

he'd been angry with me before but never like this sir i okay lieutenant here's what you do you put your request for transfer in writing and I'll forward it. Approved. No sense holding back a gung-ho hot shot second lieutenant. Sir, it's not that I want to leave the outfit. It's just that I thought that put your request in writing. That's all, lieutenant, dismissed. Sir, I dismissed.

So this is your typical, typical little meatball that thinks he's going to, you know, he's just being gung-ho, he's trying to make something happen. Yeah, it's not a good way to be. And you can see that. So that's another thing. You've got to think about other people's perspective. You have to think about your boss's perspective. Your boss is sitting here trying to get this company together

and then one of his section leaders goes, oh, I want to go to some more else. Right, right. Kind of for himself. What is meatball? Meatball. Oh, sorry, that's just an expression for, it's an expression for a new guy in the SEAL teams.

Meatball or meat stick or FNG. Any one of those can be utilized. So I guess I threw it on the new guy here. It kind of slipped out. Yeah, man, all good. Now, they get on. on shore. And back to the book, we passed a company of 3rd Battalion that had been pulled off the line.

Its men were sprawled along the road, unshaven and ragged, wearied by days of fighting. So there's another little wake-up call, seeing the guys that are coming off the line. Now they get into a position. This is Baker 6. Move forward. Out. Captain Wilcox ordered when we all reported ready. As we started across the bean field, we were greeted by a fusillade of fawacking sounds,

North Korean bullets tearing through the bean plants. Thack! Thack! Thack! Fack! All around us. I kept an eye on my men. They crouched low, but they stayed together and moved ahead. Then the cry, Corman! God, I'm hit! A few feet from me. A Marine from Kaiser's platoon writhed on the ground, his hands clutching his belly. Grayish red intestines pushed through his fingers and blood stained the ground as he thrashed about, screaming in his pain and terror. For the first time, I felt the shivers of dread, the awful fear that comes with combat.

I froze a second. How many seconds? Until I once again became aware of the thawking sounds and the bean plants and I yelled at the men, move it, you people, keep moving. They bent lower to the ground as we went forward. The North Korean mortars came. Bouts of earth and black smoke leaped about us, laced with flame and screaming shrapnel. The leaves from bean plants spun and flurries, and the ground shook.

I was suddenly in the midst of a frenzied storm of noise. Mortars whistled and crashed. Bullets whined and leaves thwacked. Men shouted prayers and blasphemies. At the far end of the beanfield was the dyke of a rice paddy. We headed for its cover. A string of mortar shells exploded around us, and a man threw it. He threw himself to the ground, kicking and screaming.

Can't take this! I can't take this! Screeched the fear-stricken Marine, and he curled up himself into a fetal ball. I ran to him and prodded him with the butt of my carbine. On your feet! His head was buried in his arms. Can't take this, he wailed.

Get up or I'll shoot you. The sound of the words coming from my mouth was unreal to me. Jesus, don't shoot me, the man whined. Tears cut pale streaks through the duff. on his cheeks as he stared in horror at my carbine, which was inches from his face. I grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him up to his feet. Move, I yelled. Sergeant Dale from the first platoon ran toward us.

I got him, Lieutenant. He's from my platoon. Dale said. So there's fear. And you can see Joe Owen is feeling fear and he's dealing with it. And this other young Marine is feeling fear and he's not dealing with it. Then they finally get to that dike across the field. Back to the book, I crawled up the dike to peer over the top.

Smoke obscured my view, but far ahead and across the road I detected some movement. The enemy positions were difficult to locate. No flash came from their weapons when they fired. I raised my binoculars. Before I could focus on the target, however, a flurry of bullets pelted the dike, and spurts of pebbles and dirt stung my face. I jerked my head back down into cover. beside me a rifleman tumbled away from the dyke he made a choking sound and his helmet bounced to the ground blood gushed from his head which suddenly became a wet crimson pulp another wave of fear shuddered through me a massive paralyzing force again i froze aware only of that blood-drenched face and head captain wilcox voiced crackled out of my walkie-talkie baker five this is

Six, come in. The voice snapped me from my paralysis. Baker six, this is five. Come in, six. I was scrambling back up the dyke. I knew the skipper wanted the 60s. The 60s are his mortar, 60 millimeter mortars, to bear on the North Koreans who had us under fire. Get those guns cranked up. Five over. Roger that six, I said to the radio, on the double. Sergeant Winget's gun was a few yards away behind the dyke, and I crawled over to get in front of it. Stand by for H.E. Fire mission, I called to wing it. Number one gun standing by, H.E. Fire Mission, the staunch wing it called back. With all the will I could muster, I forced my head above the dike binoculars at the ready. The terror of having my head blown off to a pulp

was diminished by fear of losing the respect of my men. So there's a couple things there. You've heard me say you train how you fight. What they go back to is the fundamentals that they practice and trained and we didn't dive too much in the training. But if you ever, if you've ever seen Marines in the field with a 60 millimeter mortar, I haven't seen Army guys. I'm sure they're outstanding too, but when you see the Marines setting up a mortar for a fire mission, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. And this is exactly what it's like even in, even in the 90s, you know, 40 years after the Korean War when I would watch the mortarmen set up a mortar to shoot. It was just like that. They'd be standby for fire mission. And then, you know, one of the sergeant,

call out number one gun standing by H.E. Fire mission. You go back to your training and those fundamental basics that you learn, the simple commands, that's what you go back to. That's why you train. That's why you use repetition. So when that fear comes up, you go back to what you know. Your instinct becomes, instead of cowering, your instinct becomes to do what you've trained out of do. Back to the book, all along the Dykes, our Marines were sprawled heads below the edge. The corpsman had moved their wounded alongside the road waiting for the ambulance jeeps, the meat wagons, to come up. There were two bodies face covered by ponchos.

They were Baker 1-7's first killed in action, the KIAs. So Baker's the company that they're in. That's why they keep referring to Baker-17, First Battalion, Baker Company. Back to the book. Someone said, won't be nothing left up there by the time the artillery gets it. So what's going on here is they call in some big guns, some big, so a 60 millimeter more is small.

And then when you start calling in howitzers, big giant bombs are coming from the sky, that's what, so they call some of those in. And, you know, they're sitting there watching the mountain where these North Koreans are, and they're seeing massive explosions. And so now back to the book, someone said,

won't be nothing left of them up there by the time that artillery lets up. Staff Sergeant Richard, the company, armor was crouched near us, don't fool yourself, he said. Artillery never wipes out the gooks, softens them up and keeps their head down, but they'll be there waiting when the guns let up. This is another lesson we learned a lot about. You know, you think that no one could survive something, and they do survive it.

We used to, when we were running training, we had the Humvees. We'd be shooting blanks, it's training, so the Humvees would be big 50s. caliber machine guns and they'd shoot blanks into a building and then the guys in the building would come and shoot back at them and the guys going through the training the seals be oh you know we we shot a bunch of 50 cow in there those guys wouldn't be alive and you know I would say no actually they will be alive they will be alive because I've seen it and those 50 cows they're an awesome weapon but there's a guy two rooms deep inside that building you can shoot all those rounds in there he's going to be okay and as soon as you let up he's going to be there shooting back at you and it's the same

thing with obviously with the big artillery and the North Koreans are dug in. I scrambled to my feet. Keep moving. The men were all up and they ran after me bent under the weight of their guns and ammo. Get us the hell out of here. Someone cried. And so what do they do? They attack. So when you're pinned down, it's just another example when you're pinned down attack. And here's what it looks like. Back to the book. Two of Kaiser squads moved up in short bounds while a third laid a base of fire. Cover move. You're going to see cover move. all throughout this book and every time we bring it up, I'm going to mention it because I want to make sure everyone that's listening,

those folks that are in the military, you hear it every single time. This is the first one of many. Two of Kaiser squaws moved up in short bounds while third laid a base of fire. The first 50 yards went easily. Then the North Koreans popped out of cover and took us under fire.

Suddenly the ground before us was scathed with torrents of bullets. Mortar shells whistled in and exploded along Kaiser's line. Korman! Korman! So if you don't know, a Corman is a medic in the Army. It's a medic in the Navy. It's called a Corman. And Navy Corman are the ones that go and deploy with the Marine Corps as medics.

So that's when you hear those Corman calls. That's what it is. Corman, Corman came a despairing wail. Ed Topple lurched up from prone position and ran toward the wounded man as enemy bullets spurred it around him. Beside me, another man went down with a grunt and did not move. fear slammed my gut once more and I was flat on the deck Nichols was down there with me what do you want to do lieutenant Nichols plump young face streaked with dirt and sweat

showed the same fear that had me in its terrible grip Jesus the boy depends on me I forced my head up that's a classic what do you want to do lieutenant i was i think i might have talked about this but i was in when i was in sri lanka and i was a young kid and there was all those guys that were hardcore combat veterans and one of the captains army captains again sri lankan army captain who'd been in tons of combat and i was talking almost trying to like garner information about war because i hadn't been in any

and he'd been in a ton he was wounded and trapped on his face and I'm talking to him, you know, about it. And he said, you know, when you're in a war, he goes, it's pretty easy to take care of yourself. You can take care of yourself. Like he said if I was in a war, when we were in a firefight, if I just had to take care of myself, I'd be okay. But when you're in charge of everyone, it's totally different.

And now all of a sudden, you got people saying, what do you want us to do, Lieutenant? And that's the pressure, which I, I will never forget him telling me that story. And that's a great example of it right there. Sure, he's scared. He's scared. But he's got a mortar section waiting for him to tell him what to do, to save them.

Now we get introduced to a guy named Lieutenant Lee, who's a Chinese-American guy. Very by the book and very hardcore. You're going to hear plenty about Lieutenant Lee here. Lieutenant Lee came upon Baldwin's gun. Sir, I think we should move this gun, Baldwin said to his lieutenant. It's kicking up dust. You have a good position here, Baldwin, responded Lieutenant Lee. I'll show you how to handle the dust problem.

Lee opened up his canteen and walked around the machine gun sprinkling precious water as he went. Now fire off a burst, ordered Lee. The machine gun fired but raised no dust. Lieutenant Lee walked on up the hill, ignoring enemy bullets that hit around him. Moving forward a little bit, hey Lee, called Bifolk. Get down. We're getting shot at. Bifolk had Lieutenant Lee's attention. The lieutenant dashed to where Bifolk was hugging the ground.

You address me as Lee. He asked, standing over the astonished young Marine. Jesus, yeah, get down. You're drawing fire. You, on your feet, demanded Lee. Bullets zip through the air, punctuating the bizarre scene of a lieutenant, bracing a PFC to attention in the midst of a firefight. You call me Lieutenant Lee or, sir.

You understand that, Marine? Yes, yes, yes, sir. stammered Bifolk wishing that he were in a very deep foxhole. And you never forget that, understand? Now carry on, said the lieutenant. And he proceeded to walk further up the hill seemingly oblivious to the enemy fire. What the hell, thought Bifolk. And he got up to walk behind Lee. The rest of the mortar squad arose and followed.

So like I said, Lee is by the book. and that's an extreme example. I don't think I necessarily agree with that example either, but Lee's going to hold the line. And maybe there was much danger as he thought, but instilling that discipline, he's given no slack. Back to the book, while the mortars obscured the enemy's view,

Van Winkle moved his people up. So you got the mortars dropping fire, and that allows Van Winkle to move his people. That's called Cover and Move, by the way. Nearing the top of the ravine, Hank Kaiser positioned his assault squad to follow a barrage of grenades into the enemy positions as soon as the mortars lifted. So you've got three situations. You got the mortars are going in, that's the first cover. Then once the mortars lift, they're going to throw grenades. That's your second cover. The ammo carriers for the Marine machine guns filled in with riflemen on the line of assault ready to charge up the last few yards of ground. Lee was with them, bayonet fixed to the top of his carbine. The mortars fired a final barren. Raj. Their explosions were followed by the sharper impact of grenades thrown at enemy holes. Shouts and war cries swelled from charging Marines who leaped, bayonets pointed into the enemy

positions that were dug in along the face of the ridge. Some of the North Koreans stood to fight, their bayonets also fixed, but they were cut down. Others scurried over the hill. Many were shot from behind as they tried to escape. We all knew had been a far from perfect exercise. Some of the men had been slow to respond to direction. Not all of our orders were clear enough for quick and effective fire and movement. We were fortunate that the enemy had not chosen a fight to the death defense of this hill as they would have advanced, as they would when we advanced further north. So think about this point. Not all of our orders were clear enough for quick and effective fire and movement. He's not even blaming the guys. He knows that the mistake was that they weren't

being simple, clear, concise with their orders. And that makes everything lag. Back to the book, when we had nearly reached the top, Captain Wilcox pushed Weaver's platoon through Kaiser's for the final assault. Platoon Sergeant King led the charge, and we could hear his piercing rebel yells all over the hill. Once again, it was a ragged performance. Orders confused in the hellish noise, men who bunched close together and some who hesitated to risk the move against enemy fire. However clumsy we were, though, we had the fundamentals right. The NCOs directed their sectors of fire. The fire teams went forward in bounds, covering each other as they progressed,

and our machine gun and mortar fire stayed ahead of the advance and kept the enemy heads down. that's what that's what small unit tactics are it's cover move cover move cover move now they're digging in some some night defenses and because they're these peaks I mean this huge mountainous terrain steep cliffs they end up disaggregated across the battlefield so they're not they're not right next to each other because there's valleys between them back to the book we had to set our own isolated perimeter and we couldn't tie our flanks to the other companies for mutual support. The same held true for attack. Almost always the battalion was channeled, channeled into attacking

some with one company, one hill at a time. This sort of isolated fighting made it difficult to communicate with battalion and other companies. That problem was not solved. Much of the time, we company level officers were on our own initiative. decentralized command. Just decentralized command. So imagine this. You can't talk to battalion. There's a hill that cuts your radio signal.

You have to know what the intent is of the operation, and you have to be out there ready to execute on your own to the best of your ability underneath the commander's intent. Back to the book, I learned how to deflect the fear. After the first jolt of it, which came with the initial shock of coming under fire, I would force myself upright and attempt to read the situation. before the Skipper's voice came crackling out of the walkie-talkie.

Once I had rammed myself into action, the fear subsided. It never completely went away, though. So people ask this all the time, how are we going to overcome fear? And what did he do to overcome fear? He forced himself into action. Didn't wait. You start feeling that fear. Go.

Go, get up, take a look at that situation, try and analyze it. And in his own clock, what he made for himself, the timer that he made for himself was I'm going to assess the situation before the boss calls me. So that's the timer he put on himself. That forced him into action. So we say this over and over again. You're afraid of something? Step into it. Take action.

Don't wait. Back to the book. There was no deflecting the confusion that came with every firefight. Bewildering patterns of noise and grotesque scenes exploded all around. men screamed in rage and pain and fear. Swarms of bullets whined and splattered close by, the mortars blasted, hurled flames and slices of steel, and raised clouds of greasy black smoke.

The sparing voices yelled, Corman, and someone would surely call, What do we do, Lieutenant? In the turmoil, the officers and sergeants made themselves visible and we shouted orders, watch your sector, or move up, or bear on me, or gook machine gun, 10 o'clock, 300 yards. We subdued the fear and showed the men that we were in command. And I've talked about this one before, too. I talk all the time about, oh, you've got to explain to everybody why.

You got to explain to why. You want people to form the plan with you and you want to be their plan. You want them to take ownership. And then I also say that when you have a critical situation, you're not. You have to lead. And that's what he's talking about right here. You have to lead. And that's what they do.

They would give these to orders, simple, clear, direct orders of what to do in this situation. And show the men that they were in command. Back to the book, we could have alleviated some of the confusion if our walkie-talkies had worked at that as advertised. The handheld two-way radios were supposed to transmit and receive up to a mile in distance. we found that they rarely functioned over 100 yards, never over uneven terrain. We carried them because they were all we had, but we had little faith in them.

Instead, just like frontline military leadership throughout history, we relied on line-of-sight communications, arm and hand signals, and we sent runners back and forth. In those first five days of combat, I learned to stay visible, and I learned the value of a good runner.

The North Koreans used to whistles and bugles for battlefield command, more effective by far than our walkie-talkies. And I'm a huge proponent of verbal commands. And I think Laf's told this story a bunch of times where I'm telling me, he's trying to tell his guys what to do over the radio. And I said, hey, Leif, give him verbal commands. and because when guys are, when you're working,

there's just weird, everyone's talking on the radio and it turns into white noise. And so they're not responding. But when you give a verbal command in the SEAL teams and the military, you get trained that if I tell Echo,

peel right, you're gonna, when you hear that, your instinct and your training tells you to repeat that command. So you're gonna repeat it the next person. When they hear it,

they're gonna repeat it. So everyone repeats the verbal command. So when you say verbal command, And it's like off the radio. It's like, yeah, it's yelling. Yeah, it's yelling. It's talking, but in all actuality, it's yelling. Yeah.

It's yelling. And so the radios just sometimes, you know, and our radios are infinitely better than these radios. And even while I was in, the radio's made vast improvements. And by the, by the time I retired, the radios were pretty damn good. But there are times if the radio is not working, you've got to go with the verbal commands. And that's why you've got to train. You've got to train for the verbal. train without radios, a bunch.

I always tell guys, yeah, take the rails off. Make sure you can do without the radios. How's it going to go if their communication net goes down? You've got to have that backup communication plan all the time. Now, here we are in another, another firefight. This is basically a massive book of firefights. Back to the book, the North Koreans disappeared into the deep ditch that ran along the other side of the road. They were moving in our direction, and we dove for our own ditch.

Grenades flew toward us but landed wide. There was a machine gun up ahead. However, I couldn't locate it, and it started to fire down on us. I tossed two grenades in the ditch where the North Koreans were concealed and told Burris to have his men crawl up, crawl over a clump of boulders 20 paces away. When the squad and its mortar were in, I told Nicholas to go for it. We were crouched together, but as Nichols turned to crawl away, a bullet speared his chest and threw him backward against him, against me.

His blood spattered my dungarees. The boy made a terrible, rattling sound, and then was still. His teenage face, expressionless. Burris watched, horrified, and I waved him back when he began to crawl towards us. Then I took a deep breath, pressed myself flat to the ground, and crept rapidly away from the ditch. I left Nichols behind me, where he had died. harsh fire fights and they wrap up this.

They keep taking their objectives. They're taking a lot of casualties. And this section here is after the fight is over. Back to the book, we grew silent thinking of our families. I took the snapshots from the webbing inside my helmet and remembered their images one by one. Then I thought about the day's next mission and reviewed the fighting we had done that day. I tried to blank out the blood screams, men killing each other and dying, the ground exploding, bursts of flame and stabbing tracers, the hot smell of weapons at full automatic, the stench of guts and feces oozing from a dead marine,

and the shuddering fear. They continue pushing. They're pushing north, and they're on one of these patrols heading north, and we'll go back to the book, Through my binoculars I saw bearded old Korean emerge from one of the huts. Papa son we called these grandpas who wore traditional garb of high black top hat and flowing white robes. The old fellow stood before his doorway watching bewildered as weapons-laden marines passed through his village. Crack! Went Branick's carbine.

Only a few inches from me and the old man felled the ground. The tall black hat. fell beside him. Got the bastard! exclaimed Brannick. His carbine was still up searching for another target. God damn fool! I yelled,

astonished at the murderous act. Without thought, I slammed the butt of my own carbine into Brannick's ribs. Brainick screamed with pain and went down to the ground writhing. I stood over him poised to deliver another butt stroke. God damn fool! I screamed again as Wright came from

behind me and held my arms. Wing it, was with Wright and pulled my carbine away. Hold it, Lieutenant. Wright shouted in my ear. Hold it. What the hell happened? You see what he did? I screamed.

I'll kill the... Daktorski, the corpsman, was already kneeling beside Brannick. He snapped a seret of morphine and jabed Brannick's arm. I endeavored to control myself, deep breaths. Okay, Sergeant, I said, and Wright released his hold. The men were circling looking from me to Brannick. They were silent. God damn it.

He shot that old man for nothing, I yelled. Through the pain, Brannick groaned. I thought he was a goddamn gook. I thought he had a weapon. Any of you seen what happened? Wing had asked the men. No one responded. No witnesses, Wright, said softly to me.

Whatever happened, nobody saw anything. The realization hit me. No one except me had witnessed Brannick's shooting that old man. But if someone had seen me hit Brannick, I could be subject to a court-martial for striking an enlisted man. No witnesses, Wright said again. No one saw anything. This stays in the mortars, I heard someone say.

Meaning, we're just going to keep this amongst ourselves. Yeah, someone else responded. This stays with us. There was a murmur of assent. Shall I move them out, Lieutenant Wright asked? Yeah, Sergeant, I answered dumbly. Move them out. The morphine had not yet.

taken his effect on Braenick. He ground his teeth together to hold back cries of pain, and he was scared. I bent over him and said, you and I know what happened, Brannick. And you're going to have to live with it. Braenick nodded his head. He said nothing but blinked his tear-filled eyes and nodded his head. Take care of him, Doc. Then I went to catch up with the mortar men.

When I walked past the old man's hut, a circle of women and children surrounded the body, crying their sorrow. An old woman caught my eye. I'm sorry, I said, although she wouldn't understand my words. We're all very sorry. And again, you young military leaders out there, you've got to watch you people, and you've got to give them good commander's intent.

They got to understand. They got to understand what's right and what's wrong, and that's going to come from you. Now, at this point in the book, and again, Obviously, I'm not reading the entire book, but you all should so you can capture everything that's in between, but I'm jumping forward a little bit here. They get relieved by the army. They move to the rear.

And they start getting word on what they're going to be doing. Back to the book, under the glare of the lantern, Captain Wilcox spread a map on the hood, and we jostled for a view. Maps of this part of the world were scarce. This is the first one we had seen of the country beyond Ham Hung. It was a topographic chart made by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. The characters and language on the map were Japanese placed names and legends had no meaning for us, but we could read the physical features and the contour lines.

The terrain they showed was a military nightmare, roadblock and ambush territory. It was a country of high, steep hills, deep valleys, and sharp ridge lines. The lower elevations were largely forested. Settlements were sparse, and the few roads twisted snake-like through tight passes and along riverbeds. At the northern extremity,

the map at the end of 70 miles of a narrow corkscrew roadway was a meandering blue dot. That was the chosen reservoir. The Chinese have committed themselves to this war, began Captain Wilcox. They are in force. They are slicing through the Republic of North Korea army up north like a hot knife through

butter. Up here, he used his bayonet as a pointer to indicate the Chinese advance. The people we will fight are the 124th division of the regular Chinese army, definite and confirmed, no matter what Tokyo wants to believe. So the military command was in Japan. They weren't in Korea. the military was the military command the generals were over in Tokyo so he's saying no matter what Tokyo wants to believe this is who we're fighting back to the book they're tough well-trained

soldiers 10,000 of them and all of their officers are combat experienced their very best after the briefing I requested a word alone with captain Wilcox to ask him if we could leave sergeant right so sergeant right you've heard his name mentioned a few times he was the senior enlisted guy working directly for Captain, for Lieutenant Owen. And it's, it's actually time for him to go home. I requested a word alone with Captain Wilcox to ask him if we could leave Sergeant right behind when the company moved out. Sergeant White has done a good job for us, but he's a short timer just waiting for

paperwork I offered. Furthermore, sir, it's not good for the troops to see him with his morale down. I'd like to replace him with Sergeant Winget before we hit anything serious up ahead. Good idea, the captain said, except it's too late. Battalion says we mount out as we are. I'm not about to snarl up with them on a transfer detail right now. You tell Sergeant Wright that I'm sorry, we can't do anything for him. Aye, aye, sir.

So that was a little opportunity for Sergeant Wright to get out of there. But it didn't work out. And now, just talking about kind of the morale of the troops, back to the book. there was a great energy in the ranks, strong, healthy young men on the way to adventure. We cleaned and recleaned weapons and earnestly sharpened our bayonets and fighting knives. The old salts retold stories of Japanese ferocity

on the Pacific Islands. Others remembered pitched battle with the Chinese bandits along with the pleasures of the North China occupation. The newly blooded veterans of last month's fight boasted to the replacements about their triumphs the stubborn North Koreans. All hands speculated about whether the quality of the Chinese army would be equal to that of the North Koreans we had beaten down south. The fear that settles in the gut before combat had not yet surfaced.

On that crisp morning with our clean shaven faces, clean dungarees, squared away gear, full canteens, full bellies, and full issue of ammunition, the Marines of Baker-17 feared no one. They start heading up north and one of the colonels is out. Colonel Litsenberg was there. He stood beside the road as we passed nodding and smiling at his fighters. You're looking good, Marine, he kept saying. And all the men waved and smiled back at him. The veterans from down south were all recognized Old Homer.

They had seen him frequently up on the line. Good hunting, Owen. Good hunting, young man, he called to me as I passed by. Now he has that opportunity now To maybe figure out a way out for Wright Who had the opportunity to go away While the men were loading up on ammo I talked to Sergeant Wright

No sense for you to go up I told him Your orders could come down from battalion any time now Stay here with the gunny I appreciate that lieutenant Responded Sergeant Wright But I do want to stay with the mortars If it's okay with you That's what I'll do

I nodded. It's okay with me, Sergeant. I just don't want you wasting time getting back to your kids. He said stiffly, I'll stay with the section, sir. He didn't like my favoring him. He went back to the mortarman and told them to get ready to move out. I'm telling you, there's a certain bond. There's a certain bond.

And obviously, in this case, it's a bond that's even stronger than the bond he has with his kids. It is the bond that he knows his brothers in arms are going into harms away and he's going with him no matter what. So now we get Baker 1-7. They're dug into some positions. They've moved and now they're dug into some positions. Back to the book. In the brush below Kaiser's platoon, Chinese assault squads waited in disciplined silence for the rockets and bugles that would signal them to attack. Their quilted uniforms kept them from shivering in the chill night. They already knew in detail how Kaiser's defenses were set up and the location of each forward hole and our weapons. During the later afternoon, their officers had watched Baker-17 dig in,

and they knew our line as well as we did. Under cover of darkness, the assault teams had crept soundlessly into their jump-off positions within grenade range of the Marine line. These soldiers were honored that they would be the first Chinese to attack American Marines. So these guys are staged and ready, and here we go. The sound of a rocket ripping through the air close above us jolted me awake and brought me upright in our hole. Kelly was with me. A streak of fluorescent green crossed our line, followed by a red rocket from the other direction. Bugles blared and whistles shrilled down the Sudan Valley.

The luminous hands of my watch said zero, 030. Baker-17 was under attack. A sudden clamor erupted from Hank Kaiser's side of the hill. The eerie chant, Maline die! Maline die! Issuing from a chorus of Chinese voices, then the crash of mortars, the boom of concussion of grenades, and the sharp sputter of burp guns. Seconds later, there was the deeper sound of answering marine rifles and bars, joined by the pounding of armed machine guns and the explosion of the explosion of,

of marine grenades. The screams of wounded men soon added to the mulage of sounds, along with profanities of rage in both languages. Asked forward a little bit, Chinese grenades exploded into the line and their burp guns blazed. The first wave of enemy soldiers rushed in and forward holes were buried in mounds of quilted uniforms. Clubbing and stabbing, the Chinese surged up the third platoon's hill. Behind them were left dead Marines and wounded men who cried for the help of their corpsmen.

And one of the things that they talk about in here is one of the tactics that the Chinese used is not everyone would even carry a weapon when they would attack. And if you were a guy that wasn't carrying a weapon, you would go attack. And as soon as someone got shot, you would take their weapon and carry on. So that's how many people they had, number one. They also didn't have, you know, a weapon for every guy. Obviously, they would have given them. But they also said, you know what? Here's the plan.

But then think about how now light you are. You're not even carrying a weapon. They're even carrying any ammunition or anything. You're just able to travel. And it's hard for people that were never, have never put on gear. It burdens you down so much. It just makes you so. And you get used to it, sure.

But when you, you can get as used to it as you want. When you take it off, you feel like Superman. Yeah. So these Koreans are, sorry, the Chinese. are feeling like Superman sneaking up into these positions all quiet they also had real legit winter gear at least this group we're gonna run in some groups that didn't have it but they got these nice quilted uniforms and jackets so that's they they're just bringing it they're bringing it back to the book van winkle readied the marines near him for the next chinese attack putting his people into recaptured fighting holes the men stacked Chinese bodies in front of their holes for greater protection somebody yelled to Van Winkle that his own shoulder was bleeding the big sergeant felt his arm and found a Chinese bullet had indeed passed through his shoulder

he didn't care nobody near sorry nearby a man on the ground sobbing and shaking my buddy my buddy gooks shot his head clean off the orange glare of a Chinese grenade illuminated the sobbing marine van Winkle crawled over to the man grasped his arm saying come on kid Come with me. You'll be all right. He rose from the ground and pulled the kid up with him. Leadership. Going forward a little bit, Archie Van Winkle now found himself on the lower fringes of the Chinese attack. He ignored his wounded shoulder and fired his carbine one-handed. He called for nearby Marines to follow and launched his own attack into the flank of the Chinese who were moving up towards Kaiser. So you got a guy's wounded, just picking up young Marines, getting them back in the game, firing his rifle with one hand, and leading an attack on the flank of the Chinese that are attacking his buddy.

Higher up the hill, Gunny Foster brought Sherman Richter's two machine guns from first platoon, and they commenced to pounding down Kaiser's slope, withering fire and exploding grenades now from both flanks and above stymied the Chinese attack. There was a series of whistle signals, and the attackers fell back. They crawled over their dead, but pulled their wounded with them as they backed down to the bottom of the hill and into the woods. They were supported by well-directed covering fire, and they held good order as they withdrew. When the Chinese were finally off the hill, the Marines ceased their fire, and both Marines went silent. So the Chinese are also doing cover and move, even as they leave, as they withdrawing. draw they they're they're in another little fire fight and owen's trying to quickly get his mortar up

and they drop a they drop a mortar round the way a mortar works you drop the mortar into the round into the tube and it fires if there's a misfire it's really it's a scary situation because so if if you drop the mortar into the tube and it doesn't come out it doesn't shoot well now you've got a live round inside the mortar tube so you have to literally pick up the tube and let gravity pull like let the let the mortar round slide out and you put your hands there to catch it yeah wait why does it explode it's not like a timer or nothing no it's like hits it's got a little detonator that makes it shoot and you got a little propellant um around the fin that makes no different ranges yeah yeah but essentially you drop this thing in there and it's supposed to shoot out and it when it doesn't it's a scary situation because now you got a live round inside your mortar tube and in order to get it out, you just lift the mortar tube up and you kind of pour it out into your hands.

So they get a dud round, and there's a bunch of things that can cause a dud round. Some of it can be, you know, a bad batch of ammunition. But that's what's going on here. They get a dud round. Dud round, try another one, I told Winget. Again, they're trying to get some mortars downrange

so they're in a panic situation, and they're getting shot at, by the way, too. Dud round, try another one I told Winget. Kelly yelled for us to hurry up. Winget asked me to wait while, he checked the tube for an obstruction. He grabbed a long stick, which he shoved into the tube. He pulled out a cleaning rag, the cause of our misfire.

It was careless that we had not checked the tube for an obstruction before we fired. Winget said, I won't tell anybody about this if you don't. And he says, shut up, damn it. I yelled at him. And this is the reason I highlighted this, because he said, my fear showed itself in anger. And I think that's an important thing to think about. We all know, we all know when someone's getting mad that they're probably afraid, right?

They're afraid of something. So we all see that. So if you're in a leadership position and you start losing your temper, it's very visible to everywhere that you're just scared. Yeah, you might be also frustrated, but it's showing you, what it's showing is that you're losing control of your emotions. And that's why we can't do that in leadership positions. You can't do that. That's why it's so much infinitely better to remain calm. Yeah.

When frustration, like all this stuff. So if you go into a situation where you're scared, you know, so a lot of times, especially if you're like an alpha type person or a powerful person, you go and you feel that fear. It's basically the fear kind of is this feeling of weakness. So a natural tendency, this goes for pretty much everybody. Overcompensate? Yeah, it's to bounce back.

So your natural way to invoke power is like this anger, aggression type attitude. So when leaders or whatever, when they feel that fear, it's like, oh, my powerless, it's like a subconscious thing. I'm powerless right now. So I got to fight back. So comes anger in this point. And the thing is, what you just said, we all humans know that instinctively. So when you see a leader start to act like that, it becomes very clear that there's some emotion there, some fear, some frustration, some anxiety. And that's going to spread, by the way.

If I start panicking and start getting crazy, Echo, you got to get this done. You know I'm scared. So now you're saying, wait, if Jocco is scared, I'm scared too. And now we start having issues. So try and remain calm is the basic principle. So they get done with that particular firefight. And we got a little debrief here on it. Back to the book, Baker 1-7 lost more men that night than we had in the first five days of our campaign against the North Koreans.

Captain Wilcox raised hell when he heard Sergeant Dale and his men had been killed in their sleeping bags. I didn't cover this section, but one of the small elements, they were in their sleeping bags, got overrun and killed. So Captain Wilcox raised hell when he heard that Sergeant Dale and his men had been killed in their sleeping bags. He made its standard operating procedure that the company stayed out of sleeping bags at night and when we were on the line. Tell your people that they can put their feet in the bags and loosen their boondockers. That's as far as they go, he told us. From then on, no matter how cold it became, we slept outside of our bags and our boots only came off to change socks. Now, I didn't cover this part where this happens,

but one of these guys, Sergeant Lundy, he had taken a patrol to another area in one of the mortars, and when he went, they got lost. And then when they got lost, they got overrun, and instead of fighting or doing anything, they just all ran. They just all ran in different directions. Now, actually, all of them lived.

Miracle, all of them lived. I shouldn't say they got an overrun. But fighting broke out, And instead of doing something organized, they just all took off. And so Sergeant Lundy, he's, they come back and they say, what, you know, Owen says, hey, what happened out there? And they said, Sergeant Lundy just, you know, basically said every man for himself. And so he's about to get relieved of his command, which means you got fired in the military.

Back to the book. Sergeant Lundy, I am relieving you of your squad. He looks straight ahead, but his eyes moist. You let your men down last night. You abandoned your responsibilities. It's only good luck that the squad wasn't wiped out. They could all be dead or taken prisoner. Lundy's voice trembled.

Lieutenant, it was pitch black down there. We were lost. I used my best judgment. I can understand getting lost, I said. But you set no security. When the Chinese came through, you forgot your men to take yourself. Lieutenant, I penit. I admit that, but if you give me another chance, tears streamed down his cheeks and he looked to the ground.

I can't give you another chance. Your men don't respect you. You report to the CP. They'll give you orders from there. His head bowed. Sergeant Lundy said, I'm sorry, sir. I'm very sorry. I'm sorry too, Sergeant. Dismissed. Sergeant Lundy walked back to the section perimeter, gathered his gear. than trudged uphill to the CP. No one said goodbye to him. I felt sorry for the man, and I couldn't forget the times that fear had taken me close to the edge of panic too.

And that's why I included that, because Owen was going through all kinds of fearful situations. He knows that he's been close to that edge, but he doesn't cross the line. He holds the line. And that's the difference. Now, they're pressing forward. Again, this entire book is them either pressing forward

or you're going to see quickly that it becomes them trying to leave. Once they're surrounded. Back to the book, Baker 1-7 took point and marched for more than an hour without any sign of the Chinese. A single file of each of us on the side of the road, the men moving easily. So they're pushing forward and nothing's happening. all of a sudden don't like this one damn bit lieutenant Owen oh brian said to me he was a reservist

combat experienced from the Pacific war it is a natural for the gooks to let us move up this easy we're walking into their trap all I know is that MacArthur says the first marine division is going to go for the Yalu Yalu River I said the Yalu river was North Korea's border with China So they've been ordered. Hey, you're going to the Yalu River. And pretty much they're all saying at this point, they all kind of feel like it's a trap. But they're walking.

They're not getting any resistance. Back to the book, the troops were in good humor. They joked and laughed as we marched and made obscene comments about the things that were central to their lives. The chow, the terrain, the enemy, the lack of women. Second thing I'm going to do when I see my wife again is take off my pack.

said one of the married reservists in the column. Oh yeah? Came the answer by the time you see her again. You'll forget what the first thing was. Hell, it'll be so long before we get back toad you'll be too old for that stuff. Someone else joked to the married man who is nearly 30 years old.

I'm telling you guys keep up the good spirits and that is, it's impossible. You know, I got to include this because I always had fun on deployments. I was saying this the other day. We laughed out loud like once a day in Iraq, laughed out loud hysterically at something. So for those of you that are civilians or don't have any comprehension of this kind of thing,

guys that are in the military, they have a good time. Even in the worst situations, they're having, we have fun. You have to. And you know, you can apply that to your job, to your job when things get stressful, when things start getting hard. As a leader, if you're just bearing more stress on everybody, it's not going to help. One of the best ways to alleviate stress is to have some fun,

and that's exactly what's going on here. The guys are on patrol. Okay, we're not getting shot at. So guess what? Let's bust this guy's ass about missing his wife. No problem. That alleviates some of that stress. You don't need to just bear down and create more stress on your people.

I've been asked that. A couple people have asked me that on social media. Can you tell us about, you know, humor in as a leader when do you use humor humor and I'm like yeah absolutely we always have fun and you know there's obviously a time to be serious but there's plenty of time when you're gonna joke around and have fun and poke fun each each other all the time yeah do you ever run into like situations where you know some people they just joke more than other people and then there's a you know the opposite guys joke less you ever run into a situation where you are serious

and then someone's like trying to make jokes, you know, and it does get annoying or in the way of... I don't know that people, when I'm serious, I don't get a lot of jokesters in the game. I'm just, I'm saying most of the time, when I'm, when I mean, and I think there's a pretty, I mean, maybe that happens in, you know, in a school setting, you know,

or I guess in a business setting it could happen, but if you got a good team that works a lot together, People know when it's seriously when it's not, you know. And once you tell a joke or you crack a wise crack and nobody laughs and you just get a look from people going, hey, man, shut up. That's it. You know, so maybe that's happened to me a dozen times in my career where somebody said something. It's, you know, everyone just said, okay, we're, you know, enough. And everybody feels it.

Yeah. Yeah, I would imagine, too, working that close with important tasks like that important. People are going to be pretty much in tune with the comedy dynamic. Exactly. Now, I had a guy that I worked with when I was the Admiral's aide, and he and I, he was older than me. He was actually retired captain. He's one of my favorite guys. But I was the Admiral's aide, so I was a young, you know, a young lieutenant, and he was a retired captain. And we would go back and forth all day long, regardless of what the situation was. We would never say a serious thing to each other the entire day for months on end. Nothing. Everything was a sarcastic. kind of comment to each other. And it made a pretty miserable job of being the Admiral's aide. It's not a fun job.

It made it like we just had a good time. So once again, we're even in a situation where, hey, I'm in a uniform, in an office all day from 6 o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock at night every day, day on day.

You know, in the military and in a civilian world, when you come back from a trip from somewhere, they're like, oh, you're on a trip. Hey, you know, don't come in tomorrow morning. You come in a little bit late because you got back at midnight. You're Admiral's aide.

No, you're coming. You're coming in at six. That's the way it is. There's no, there's no, oh, you haven't seen your family in two weeks? That's cool. We'll see it at six o'clock in the morning tomorrow. Oh, you want to take your daughter to school? No, not happening.

Good. So it's like that. And yet, I had this one guy that I work with who, we just, we just never said anything serious to each other. And it always kept it light and fun. And that's, that was pretty awesome. Was that, do you, I mean, thinking back, do you think that that was on purpose? Or did it just kind of shake itself out like that? It just shook itself out.

Yeah. We just had funny the way our relationship was, was we were just two guys that liked to give each other a hard time about stuff and set each other up for stuff and just, just, we both knew. I mean, he was under a stressful job as well. You know, he's got, he's got a lot of pressure on him. And so what are we going to do?

Sit there and be miserable all day? No, you know what? We're going to have a good time. Even in this, you know, fairly miserable administrative scenario that we're living in. Yeah. We have a good time with it. Because some people do it on purpose where, it's like oh dang things are getting real tense here at work or whatever and then so they'll throw in jokes

they're gonna be on that fine line between okay you're right now things are tense why'd you say that joke that's inappropriate and the other side which is like it it helps you know sometimes like and like this guy and I we would be even in the really stressful situation where no one else was joking I might like you know shoot him a look across the room and roll my eyes at him like you didn't see this coming did you a tough guy and we would just be laughing so even in the really stressful stuff, we would, we would lighten it up. But that's because, you know, that's the first time that we had. Yeah, yeah. All right. Speaking of no joke whatsoever, back to the book, Major Ty, the operations officer told us

that there were increasing reports of heavy enemy concentrations on all sides of the battalion. However, General MacArthur himself was expressing impatience with a slow pace made by the first Marine division in its progress toward the Chinese border. the army was trying to light a fire under General Smith, the division commander. So you got the Marines are saying, hey, look, it looks like we're starting to get surrounded here. And it talks a little bit about this in the book. The Marines were kind of slow rolling. They weren't making any great effort to go as fast as they could because they felt like they were going to be trapped.

So they weren't trying to move as fast as they could. And MacArthur's General McCarthy in Tokyo, by the way, saying, hey, hurry up. Come on, Marines. You know, Army's pushing up there real quick. What's wrong with you guys? but they're starting to get intel reports that they're being surrounded and oh by the way

Lieutenant Lee who I talked about earlier the real by the book guy he actually got wounded and when he got wounded taking the hospital he went on he went on he went absent without leave

AWOL he went AWOL from the hospital to get back to the line oh dang yeah he's oh no I'm fine my arm can't move it it's in a sling

doesn't matter going to fight and speaking of Lee, talking about Lee's, Lee's platoon here, when they weren't on patrol, Lee put his men through a rigorous training program of small unit tactics.

They maneuvered all over the nearby hills and they bitched at some extra work. Lee paid little heed to the grumbling. Soon we will meet the enemy, he predicted to his men, we will be ready. So Lee is a hard ass and his guys, everyone else is doing,

you know, they're moving up north, and it was an easy day of patrol, because remember the Chinese aren't pushing hard against him right now. So what does he do at night? Oh, guys, we're going to go do some work. We're going to go with some tactical drills.

Back to the book. It was an article of faith with Lee that combat leadership came from the front. In the attack, he positioned himself with the most advanced squad just behind the point. He wore a bright, fluorescent pink vest fashioned of cloth panels that he obtained from the tactical air team.

The intended purpose of the brilliantly colored panels was to mark the forward extent of our lines for supporting aircraft. Lee wore his vessel so that his men could locate him quickly during a firefight. He still had a sling on his wounded right arm and he carried his carbine in his left hand. He fired from the hip using it to shoot tracers that marked sectors. So Lee is just, I mean, a whole other level. A whole other level. Cheween Lee. That's his full name. Chu E. Lee. Now we get into a situation.

The Chinese were dug in above Lee. They had a machine gun and a line of rifles more formidable than their usual defensive formations. They were expertly deployed below the crest and their automatic weapons fired short, disciplined bursts. Tracers streaked and bullets and shrapnel swept down the slope. It took Lee some time to locate the machine gun that was giving the most trouble when he found. it, he fired one-handed to put a tracer on it. His squads moved into skirmish lines, and the NCOs sent their own tracers to mark for their sectors. The bar and rifles followed, sending a great volume of fire up the slope at the Chinese. Winget waved to me to let me know

the mortar was ready. I aimed a tracer toward the machine gun and pumped my arm four times, the signal for 400 yards. I saw a round leave the tube and followed its path. It disappeared over the ridge line. Winget realized that he was too long and without need for my correction, he came up a turn. So he's adjusting the where the mortar rounds hitting on his own. His second round was close and I waved them to fire for effect. We seldom wasted ammo bracketing a target. Ammo carried up the hills was too valuable to be wasted on the niceties. The enemy gun slackened as Winget pounded them. Lee's squad moved upward, responding to the NCO signal.

with short bounds. Fire team by fire team. Five, ten yards at a dash. Then to ground, bearing fire on the enemy, as the next fire team went in closer. Cover and move. It's happening again. The mortars are covering for them

and then each individual fire team is covering for each other. It was the classic Marine rifle tactic that Lee had drilled into his platoon during his extra training sessions. A Marine went down and writhed on the ground. The platoon's corpsman Bill Davis dashed, low across the slope and crashed at the wounded man's side.

Another Marine fell and didn't move again. His buddy stabbed the dead man's rifle into the earth by its bayonet, then continued forward. The Chinese found it difficult to defend against Lee's energetic tactics. Our coordinated mortar and machine gun fire kept them pinned to the ground. They were no longer able to apply aimed fire and their effectiveness diminished as our riflemen push closer in on them. Cover and move. By the way, there's a reason why when I wrote down the four laws of combat, the number one rule is cover and move. This is why.

Lee sent a squad crawling forward into grenade range. I signaled the wing it to cease fire and the mortar stopped exploding along the forward crest of the hill. The Chinese soldiers heaved the barrage of their potato masher concussion grenades down the slope. The Marines threw a responding volley. Our grenades were more powerful, filling the air with bits of hot. flying steel. Both sides dove for holes. Another volley was thrown. Lee ran forward, waving the carbine over his head and calling for his Marines to follow. They surged for the top, screaming their gung-ho and rebel yells. The Chinese withdrew. They pulled their wounded away but left their dead on the slope.

Lee pushed his men over the ridgeline where they prepared to defend against a counter-attack. Lu Pachini stood beside Lee, his bar at the ready. Lupuccini had appointed himself Lee's bodyguard. Sergeant Bondarant, the platoon guide, rifled through the pockets of the dead Chinese, gathering material for our intelligence people. I sent Kelly for a detail of the ammo carriers to bear the casualties. Bill Davis had two wounded men, doped up with morphine and out of pain. And there was one Marine dead already covered by a...

as poncho when he was certain that the chinese would not counterattack lee ordered us off the hill end of patrol on the return march to the company perimeter no one complained about lieutenant lee's excessive training methods he walked along the column and thanked the men for their good work i wondered to myself how many firefighters lee would survive standing at the front of his troops clad in that brilliant pink vest. So the excessive training, everyone's complaining when they're training, then you get into a firefight

and everyone's thankful that they had good discipline leadership. A little bit more of Lee now at this point, again, they're continuing to get pressed by the Chinese. Back to the book, more Chinese fired broken out far to our right in front of Lee's line. They fired from a sharp, short hill

that rose from the meadow. Lee wheeled one. one of his rifle squads to face the rise and maneuvered them forward. Burris's gun was with Lee and he traversed the face of the hill with H.E.s before the squad moved up. So H.E.'s is high explosive mortars and Burris is one of the mortarmen and he's covering for the movement of Lee as they're pushing up. The Chinese ceased fire and withdrew quickly, a familiar tactic. Lee stayed with the main body of his platoon and sent a fire team up to reconnoiter the top. When they reached the top of the rise, the four men walked along the ridge in search of the vanished enemy.

Looking up, Lee saw his men silhouetted against the skyline and yelled for them to get down. They were perfectly outlined targets. The Chinese saw them too. And already had the ridgeline registered for their mortars. Their first rounds blew a marine to pieces. The next barrage claimed two more. The fourth man dove from the ridge and leaped, rolled, and stumbled down the hill. he came to a halt at the feet of Lieutenant Lee

Lee had seen three of his men needlessly killed and he stood in silent fury his good hand gripped his car being so tight that his knuckles went white stupid he hissed through his clenched teeth stupid stupid over and over again stupid he turned to Gene O'Brien his platoon sergeant

see to it that this never happens again sergeant you tell the men if you if I see a another Marine on the skyline, I will shoot him myself. Lieutenant Lee strode off to be by himself until his fury and frustration subsided. So you got guys making big mistakes and for those you don't understand what happened, when you stand up on a ridge line, you're completely obvious. It's very clear. And Lee's watching this happen and sees that his guys were a ripe target.

He's yelling at him, but it's too late and the mortar's hit. Now we get the company here moving a little bit forward now the company is actually pinned down The company's pinned down Back to the book when the skipper had artillery's fire control on the radio he called in the coordinates for a registration round The battery of a 105 millimeter howitzers that supported was dug in a mile and a half away so in a mile and a half away You got these 105 millimeter Howitzers, big giant cannons.

Less than a minute later, and you got the company commander that's calling in, calling in to tell them where to shoot these, because a mile, obviously, you can't see. There's no satellite back then. You can't see, so you're just going off of bearing in distance. Back to the book, less than a minute later, we heard the heavy ripping sound of the first round cutting the air over our heads. It landed 100 yards in front of where Lee, the captain and I stood. Stabs of flame

Like lightning from a black cloud Leaped off the ground And we felt the earth tremble from the explosion Close god damn it too close shouted the skipper Then into the mic he said add three zero Repeat add three zero zero So he's telling them that means add It means shoot 300 meters further

The next round landed further away And we barely saw the stabs of flame It was where the stabs of flame It was where the skipper wanted it. The enemy machine gun fire had stopped. The Chinese knew what would be coming at them. Repeat range. Give me concentration fire.

Three volleys on my command. The concentration fire would saturate the area where the Chinese were concealed. The captain waited to give the order to fire until Sergeant King had positioned the covering squad in front of us. Fire! Twenty seconds later, the first rounds of the barrage. landed less than 50 yards away short rounds meaning that the rounds didn't go as far as they were supposed to we dove for the deck all of us even Lee the following rounds dropped among the front of the squad that first platoon had positioned to cover the company withdrawal

screams from our own men mud and flame and crashing thunder the skipper yelled into the radio cease fire cease fire short rounds Short rounds. Friendly fire. The worst thing that can happen in combat, our dismal day turned to horror. Cries and moans and agonized screams pierced the black smoke that drifted over the broken ground. Doc Mickens and Joe King were already working among the wounded and mangled and dead Marines. Bill Davis and Ed Toppel, the other platoon corpsman, sprinted across the field to have.

help. Captain Wilcox yelled into the radio as the next line of shells exploded, now away from us farther to our front. They had been in the air before the gunners could comply with the order to cease fire. They did us no further damage, but their noise added to the hellish scene. I arose, shaken, and not sure what to do. I saw Sergeant Wright at the edge of the field and called for him to bring the ammo carriers forward. We would use them to carry. the casualties away. Joe Krasaba had already brought the company headquarters people to lend a

hand with the grizzly work. We had four more dead and three wounded. Kersaba went to the skipper and said that we should get the company out of this place and back down the road. The captain shook his head a few times to clear it and thought

about Joe's suggestion for several seconds. Then he got Kaiser and Lee on the walkie-talkies and told them to prepare their Toons to move back. He told me to walk a screen of H.E.'s 200 yards out to discourage any Chinese from following us. When I reported to him that the mortars were ready for the fire mission, I thought I saw tears coming down his face, although it could have been the drizzling rain. Eight dead Marines for the day, more wounded, and nothing accomplished.

The rain and sleep turned to snow, wet sticky stuff that coated the ponchos, covering the dead men. The troops struggled down a wet, slippery trail to the road, bearing the dead and wounded. They were soaked through and spoke no words except to blaspheme the goddamn fools who sent us into this miserable, wet, cold country. Friendly fire.

Blue on blue. Think about it. Try and keep it in the front of your head. When you're in combat situations, try and keep it in the front of your head. try and keep it as a real possibility. It's not impossible to have it happen. And it's kind of like in fighting,

when they say it's the punch that you didn't see that that's the one that's going to knock you out, it's the same thing in this situation. If you could see that a blue-on-blue was going to take place, you would stop it. You can't see it. It's not, it's something that's going to be unexpected. that's why it happens it happens because it's unexpected and this one there's a lot of things that can happen

when you start bringing artillery in there's a bunch of variables there that are really hard to control but it is obviously it's a nightmare it's a it's a nightmare and in i was having this conversation with one of my seal buddies the other day that's why you train hard that's why you prepare for it. That's why you create chaos and confusion inside of your training so that you actually force blue on blue on blues to happen. You force blue on blues to happen. You force these fratricides situations to happen so that they happen in training so that they don't happen on the battlefield. And it's, you know, same thing with the police department. The police department sometimes has, has blue on blues. Train hard, set up the crazy scenarios, make people do

unexpected things. All right. They come down from that scenario and they get a day arrest. You might think, hey, you know, you took eight killed and multiple more wounded. We'll give you some time off. They got time off one day, one day arrest. And then they're back on the march. Back to the book, the column marched north in a cold, swirling wind that swept the road

clear of snow. We put on the ponchos again to help ward off the wind. They soon froze stiff and crackled as we were. walked and if you notice as they left that other situation the rain turned to sleep and then to snow so that's like in one hour winter was here and so now you're gonna now you're gonna start hearing about the cold big time the men were in a foul temper what kind of stupid bastards we got running this goddamn war came from the column don't worry about them guys running this goddamn war they're sitting by a stove someplace sticking pins in their maps yeah and they'll get

their pick of cold weather gear before they send us send it up to us poor suckers guy in the battalion mess lines said them rear echelon bastards are already wearing big fur coats and winter issue boots that's okay we'll get the stuff next spring sure what's left of it by the time it gets to us we'll be needing jungle gear so these guys are just letting out their frustration and anger the worst suffering that day came from our feet we only had thin cotton size under the boondockers, little protection from the cold, especially as they were still damp under our leggings. We stomped away the freezing toes, the pain of the freezing toes and kept the blood circulating. There were complaints of numbness. Some men felt as if they had pebbles in their socks.

We didn't know about frostbite yet. If you don't know what boondockers are, they're your basic, like the most basic form of a boot. Leather, rubber sole. That's it. That's what boondockers are. They got cotton socks. Now, they get some new gear. And one of the pieces that they get is called shoe packs. Going to the book.

Shoe packs would change the way we walked and bring us the crippling scourge of frostbite. They were big and cumbersome twice the weight of our boondockers. They had thick, molded rubber bottoms with heavily cleated soles. tops from the ankle up to the shin were made of stiff leather that laced tightly shoe packs were clumsy for climbing climbing and slippery on the ice the worst thing about them however was that they were laced when they were laced up no air could circulate on a steep climb or in a long marsh our feet would sweat no matter how cold it was when we stopped moving and the cold said in the sweat-soaked felt inserts and socks would freeze.

Long stretches of wet, frozen feet spelled frostbite. I don't know if you remember this from the last one we did, and I didn't include it. But one of the videos that they showed later to the soldiers and Marines that were going over to Korea was to warn them of frostbite, and it was the doctors with the frostbitten feet, and they weren't surgically removing the toes, they would just like break them off

because they were just frozen dead toes and they would just break it. That's the video they showed them, hey, keep your feet dry. But it was these poorly designed shoes was one of the problems that they try. Oh, we'll make these guys these super warm boots. It's not that easy.

It's not that easy. You make them so warm and so waterproof, no air escapes from them. Now you've got sweaty feet. Now your feet are going to freeze. Now we get this, one of the replacements that comes in is a guy named Woody Taylor.

You're going to hear a little bit about him. And there's a little firefight that takes place. And Captain Wilcox, who's the company commander, maneuvers some of Woody Taylor's guys. He says, hey, you guys go check that out over there. Woody Taylor doesn't like it. Those are my men, says Woody Taylor. So here we go.

Captain Wilcox, Taylor called loudly to the skipper. If you don't, I've used the word skipper a bunch. I should have explained what it is. Skipper means the commanding officer of the company, just like the skipper of a ship. Captain Wilcox, Taylor called loudly to the skipper. He was red-faced and out of breath from the run up the column. That's a squad from my platoon you sent over there on the flank. Yeah, Lieutenant, I saw a few bandits over there.

Captain, those are my men, Taylor interrupted. My platoon moves on my orders. Captain Wilcox glared at Lieutenant Taylor. I had seen that cold look many times before when it had been leveled on me. I figured that Woody Taylor would not be long with Baker 1-7. Our new lieutenant and the captain stared at each other. Woody calmed down a notch. Sir, he said, I'd much appreciate it if you put any orders to my men through me.

Colonel Davis set me up here to run this platoon. That's what I reckon to do. Taylor and the skipper were eyeball to eyeball. And the skipper realized that he had indeed violated the chain of command. Yep, Lieutenant. He said, you're right. That's your platoon. And I guess we understand each other.

I guess we do, Captain, said Woody Taylor. All right, then, carry on. The skipper dismissed his new platoon leader. We figured Woody Taylor was going to have was going to be one hell of a fighter. He was the last replacement officer to come to back. Baker won seven and he was with us to stay. So a little standoff. But there's a lot of little things that go on there, right?

Number one, Taylor was too aggressive out of the gate. You know, hey, those were my guys. Yeah, that was too aggressive. He was able to catch himself and back off and say, hey, sir, I'd really appreciate it. If he'd have come with that attitude from the beginning, he would have had a better chance of making what he wanted to have happen with no risk, because there was a risk here. There was a risk here that Captain Wilcox was a day. Shut up.

It might be your platoon. It's my company. Don't talk to me about this again. He could have said that. But also, he's a good leader. That wind got pressed on this. He said, let me detach. Instead of getting mad, he was getting mad.

He detached. He said, okay, wait a second. What's going on here? This young lieutenant that's in charge of the platoon, I just ordered his guys around without telling him. Now he's mad about it. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

He's calmed down. He's he's tauner. talking to me in a better tone now. He's just asking me that he's appreciated. I can accept that. I was a little out of line. Cool. Yep, you got it.

And they were able to solve that problem. So just a little dynamics. Some dynamics out on the battlefield going on. More firefights happen. More madness going on. They get through the next situation. And now we have Colonel Davis. Again, this is the Medal of Honor winner who's in charge here.

Back to the book. Colonel Davis came up to Baker once. to inform us that we were moving out again. Tomorrow morning we would advance up the west side of the chosen reservoir. Our objective was the town of Udomni, 14 miles away. This was not a patrol. Our battalion commander told us it was an attack and we should expect the fighting to get serious, right?

So they haven't had any serious fighting, right? Oh no, yes, they have. But expected to get more serious. When he finished briefing the officers, Colonel Davis asked me to bring Sergeant Wright to him. The hardship transfer order had finally come through, and our colonel wanted to say goodbye personally

to a good Marine NCO. It was a great moment for Sergeant Wright. All the company officers were there, and the colonel expressed his appreciation and best wishes to my departing sergeant. Captain Wilcox and the lieutenants added their own well-duns. Sergeant Wright had done a good job

of whipping the mortar section into shape and keeping them squared away. The mortars had a farewell party for their sergeant, who had been up with them since the first day at Camp Pendleton. The rifle platoon corpsman came by, Mickens and Davis and Toppel, each bringing a canteen of sick bay alcohol. The skipper and Joe Kursaba joined us in for a few tastes.

Toes. When he was ready to leave, weapon and gear all squared away like a proud, like a parade ground Marine, Sergeant Wright approached me. His eyes glistened. Probably mine did too. Sir, I think we did some good with these people. I want to thank you for giving me a chance to serve in your outfit.

Thank you, Sergeant Wright. You're a fine Marine NCO. God bless you and your family. Sergeant Wright snapped the salute at me and strode off. I would never see him again, and I would miss him very much. So Sergeant Wright headed home. I guess it was his time that he pushed on when he could have gone home a lot earlier, but he pushed on and now they're getting ready to make this next move and he has his orders

now in hand and orders are orders so he heads out back to the book the weather turned ugly again as we formed up to resume the attack to the north a bitter cold wind greeted us filled with a stinging gritty snow it was my birthday after the troops were squared away i crouched in the ditch alongside the road and took some time to go through my snapshots i thought a door Dorothy teaching the happy birthday song to the babies and how they would try and sing it. I saw their little pink cheeks and blue eyes and Dorothy's golden hair. Rough way for him to spend his birthday. And as you sit here today, wherever you're listening to this,

know that somewhere in the world there's an American servicemen that's out there celebrating their birthday in a similar manner, I guarantee it. away from his family and his loved ones. What else does he get out for his birthday? He gets some enemy activity. Back to the book, the enemy fire became heavy. About 50 Chinese were dug in against us, and they were serious about defending this place.

Lee took his platoon off the road to extend our firing line. Captain Wilcox came forward with Garcia and the big radio and set up in the ditch just behind Kaiser. I marveled at his easy, ambling gait during, firefights. He always stood up straight. He's like JP. The static of the SCR 300 radio added to the pounding of our own machine guns and bars. Rifles cracked. Johnson's mortar thumped out H.E.s and enemy bullets zinged through the air and spun off chips of boulders. Soon came the urgent cries. Corman, oh God, Corman! And the fear came.

As it did to me on the onset of every fight, the Corman cries, the booming explosions, and the wine of bullets, blood-trenched parkas, dear God, not this time, please. Platoon Sergeant King from Taylor's platoon crouched among some large boulders above me. He shouted down that there was a machine gun near the spike of rocks that marked the Chinese main position. I willed myself to climb up and get a better look. The fears submerged and the cold was forgotten. overcome that fear take action now they continue in this little firefight and then finally we get and I've talked about them before we get some air support some Marine Corps air support we got some Marines on the ground that are pilots what we now call Anglico the Marines are on the ground these

are fighter pilots that go out and do infantry work and call for fire and so here we go back to the book Bob Wilson brought in the corsairs that were on station to cover our advance I called down to burst to lay down a round of white phosphorus to mark the Chinese guns, and the flyers came in on the column of white smoke. They flew in low, barely above us. Their great racketing noise overpowered all other sounds as they flashed by. On the first pass as they fired the machine guns and cannons. These had a little effect. The Chinese were dug in too well. They followed with a napalm run, a spectacle of awesome and terrible beauty. The pod slid, slid, from the plains, tumbled across the ground, then exploded.

Black smoke billowed, and red flame leaped against the white snow, and seconds later we felt the blast of heat that consumed the ground 200 yards away. Chinese soldiers were aflame running about in frenzied circles. They threw themselves flailing into the snow. There was sudden silence. The Chinese ceased fire and her own weapons were quiet. we were stunned by the power of that close end flaming strike 200 yards away that's not a big distance that might seem like a big distance that is not a big distance when you're in an airplane and you're coming down to drop napalm and kill a bunch of people that's a tiny distance marine corps pilots just getting after it it's called danger close by the way so if you're going to call in an airstrike that's close to your positions you have to say on the radio you say danger close Meaning look I know it's close by you got to do it

Right right Go in so they they snifle out that one but guess what the the Chinese are far from done back to the book the Chinese show that they would not hibernate from the war because of the cold weather The farther we advanced the stiffer was their resistance The hills continued to grow steeper and each climb we made encumbered with the heavy clothing became its own ordeal Most of our fights were platoon sized and Kaiser or Lee or Taylor maneuvering up a slippery snow-covered slope to dislodge a force of Chinese who fired at us down the road. So as they're moving down this road, they're just having to go into the high ground all the time and take out the Chinese. Here's a cool little anecdotal story.

They get pinned down and Colonel Davis is there and they're trying to figure out what to do. I'm going to the book. Colonel Davis was at the head of our column with Captain Wilcox. when the Chinese opened up from across a chasm, 300 yards away. The skipper called me up front. Can you knock out those guns? Captain Wilcox asked. He and the colonel crouched their acknowledgement of machine gun slugs that tore into the slope above our heads.

Yes, sir, I answered, crouching alongside my two commanders. So there's a machine gun up on the hill, and they can't get it with their guns, but they want him to get his mortar tubes up there and then drop mortar rounds on the machine gun position. So he yells out to his runner. So his runner is just a guy that spreads word. He runs out to his runner. Kelly, bring up Johnson's gun, I commanded. Hugo was with Kaiser's platoon leading the column that day.

They were just behind the bend. I, I, sir, snapped my runner in a way to impress the colonel. Colonel Davis and Captain Wilcox continued to scan the opposite slope. 11 o'clock, said the colonel, indicating slight movement in an outcropping of boulders. Yes, sir, I have it. I told my colonel as I located the enemy machine gun through my own binoculars. And another one at 10 o'clock, 50 yards higher, sir. Good eyes, Lieutenant, said Colonel Davis.

There was a sudden commotion behind us, the sound of Marines singing as they double-timed up the road. Kelly was leading the mortar men forward, and he had them sounding cadence with his parody of an army marching song, marching song, sound off. How can a mortar man survive following a man who's six foot five? Sound off. Put your rifles and machine guns away. The 60 mortars are all in the way. Sound off.

Sound off. So they're in a firefight. They're pinned down. And these guys come running up the road singing cadence. And by the way, I forgot to mention this, that Owen is six foot five. So that's who they're talking about. There was no ditch. So Hugo could not take cover from enemy fire while setting up his gun.

He and Dean Westberg spread the bipod. on the rear edge of the flat open road surface. I stood behind the gun as they worked quickly. The volume of bullets increased. 11 o'clock, Hugo, I said, give me 3.50. I fired a tracer from my shoulder. Westberg had a mortar round ready. Hugo, with his sharp shooter's eye, spotted the target and said,

3.50 plus a hair. He laid the tube in the direction of the machine gun and cranked his elevation. Fire, he said to Westberg. The round thumped out, and we followed its arc, ignoring the Chinese bullets that were bouncing off the frozen surface of the road and the slope behind us. The first round was a direct hit. God bless you, Hugo Johnson. Captain Wilcox called out for the platoon to continue the march. Colonel Davis approached the gun.

He had a big smile. You tell your men they're shooting is right on, lieutenant, he said. He glanced at our choir director Kelly and added, but tell him that they're singing is way off key. Like I said, even having a good time in madness of firefights. The cold is getting brutal. Back to the book, we seldom removed our knitted gloves that we wore under the canvas mittens. Bare fingers we found froze to metal. They froze to weapons, bayonets, buckles, whatever we touched.

The cold forced the corpsmen to change their way of doing business. With the first sounds of a firefight, they would take several serets of morphine and put them into their mouths. This kept the morphine liquid until the serets were jabbed into the wounded man's flesh to relieve his pain. The cormann were the only ones who worked with bare hands in the severe cold, and they found a way to keep their fingers nimble while attending to a wounded man. The heat of the man's blood did the trick, or his guts as they were stuffed back into his belly. Freezing coat. Back to the book, despite our efforts to keep the men in clean dry socks,

losing the fight against frostbite, which resulted from damp, cold feet. The men would complain of pains or numbness in their feet, and when they limped badly, we sent them to battalion aid station. Many never returned. Some had waited too long to turn themselves in, and by the time the doctors saw them, their toes had become purplish black and had to be amputated. Because the ground was frozen hard, digging good fighting holes was nearly impossible. Digging in became a matter of chipping a shallow pit in the unyielding earth beneath the snow,

then barricading it with rocks or tree branches. If any dead Chinese were found on the hill, we added their stiff corpses to the barricades. To make level places for their guns, the mortarmen took turns at the concrete-like dirt with entrenching tools and combat knives. and they're continuing in this freezing cold. They get to a point where they're in sort of an open area. And we'll go to the book. The Chinese maneuvered down from the ridge lines all around us. They ran across the snow in squad columns,

then formed firing lines among the boulders or prone in the snow. Chinese mortars began to fall on us in the CP, which was 50 yards, or us and the CP, which was 50 yards behind us. A round exploded close by and lifted me off the ground. I was dazed for a while, and when full awareness returned, Kelly had me by the arm leading me toward the CP. Where are we going, Kelly? I didn't understand why we were heading away from the line.

Get a Corman to look at you. I thought you were a goner back there. He pointed to my park of flapping around my knees. It had shrapnel holes in it. They don't get closer than, that to tearing your balls off it's a good thing you got me around lieutenant the corpsman at the cp was far too busy with the seriously wounded to tend to my mild concussion the casualties lay in blanket covered rose doctorsky davis and topple those of the corpsmen went from one to the other

they jabbed morphine slowed bleeding cleaned out holes blasted in flesh patched them and wrapped them as best they could. The Corman had their mouths filled with, mouths filled with serets of morphine, and their bare hands were bloody. When they worked with enemy mortars exploding, bullets stabbing the air two feet above them. Weak, frightened voices called for their help. Doc Mickens from first platoon took some shrapnel,

then a slug in the leg where he was patching the wounded in action on Woody Taylor's line. This stretcher bearers dragged Mickens to the CP and laid him in the line of casualties. Next to him, damning the Chinese in his Arkansas drawl was Sergeant King, who had been blasted by grenades and hit by a burp gun. Paul Rendon, a machine gunner with the platoon, lay there too. A leg shot up. The first platoon was being rapidly depleted and was having a hell of a fight holding their end of their perimeter. So these guys were in a perimeter, like I said, in sort of an open area, and the Chinese just come down and they're in a full-on attack on them, full-on. Back to the book, the afternoon light faded and we worried about whether the ammo would run out.

The Chinese had fully encircled us. Their volume of fire was just enough to keep us pinned down. They would wait for dark, then swarm over our lines. They had plenty of people to do the job. Our bayonets were fixed and our grenades ready. Every man had a target sector and we kept fire discipline to conserve ammo. We began to settle in and wait for dark. As bullets zinged, grenades exploded and Marines cried for help.

Someone yelled out that cop Captain Wilcox had been hit. He had taken a bullet to the face and a piece of shrapnel and shattered his arm. Joe Kersaba took over as our skipper As soon as we heard about the captain We ran to the CP We found him there His head wrapped in a big white ball Of a bandage unable to speak

His blood soaked sleeve Dangled beside him He kept struggling to get on his feet When the docks put him down On his spread-out poncho After a while the morphine kicked in And the skipper nodded off groaning softly Before they stabilized

the line around us, the Chinese pushed the first platoon back almost to the CP. So you got the Paltunes, the CP is the, kind of like the brains of the unit, right? They got the different platoons are out in the perimeter in 360 degrees. And then in the center of that, you got the command post, the CP. And you have the radio men in there. You have the people that are going to do fire support, maybe the mortar sections in there. And then you have the leadership is in that CP, but now we start to see that the, the platoons are getting pushed back towards the CP. They're losing their perimeter. Just as Joe Krasaba came in to take over command of the company, Woody Taylor stormed in,

demanding that we get the hell out of here. The gooks have all the high ground. They got us surrounded. He boomed. They're going to pick us to pieces tonight. Joe Kersaba answered him quietly. We need air support to run interference for us. then we might be able to make a break for the road.

They better get to work mighty fast, said Woody. We only have a few minutes of daylight left. So there's Joe Krasabas keeping it cool. Again, World War II vet, now just out here getting after it. And that's what they need. So what they need is they need the Corsairs to come in, which if you don't know what a Corsair, Corsair is an awesome aircraft, World War II vintage. And you can tell them because they have very distinctive wings

that have a distinctive bend in them. And they're very, very distinctive-looking aircraft and obviously very good at close air support. Back to the book, all afternoon, Joe Hedrick, the air controller, had attempted to get a piece of the air support dedicated to the fifth Marines.

So there was aircraft working on another group of Marines, working for another group of Marines. Now, in the remaining minutes of daylight, he caught a flight of four Corsairs in search of action. and he calls those things in, gets them on the horn, calls them in, and here we go. The four Corsairs streaked in low above us, pointing themselves at the Chinese position less than a hundred yards away.

They dropped their big earth-shaking bombs, and they scade the long, deep valley with rockets and heavy caliber slugs. The Chinese took cover, and we moved out. So that's cover and move. once again, all they needed to do to get out of the situation was they needed someone to cover for their movement. That's what they needed and they couldn't supply it themselves because they're shooting uphill, didn't have the firepower. Income the corsairs to get after it and give them cover to move. Back to the book, I lost Grauman that day, the lad who had tried hard to be a good combat marine.

He was running toward me carrying a helmet filled with grenades taken from the wounded when a bullet tore through his throat. The shot didn't knock him down at first, just threw his head back and I saw a fountain of blood spurt from his neck. He staggered a few steps, then fell face forward in the snow, which quickly turned red. When I got to him, he was already dead. It took hours more for a Baker-17 to make its way the mile down the road. Colonel Davis brought elements of Charlie Company out to meet us.

We loaded our dead and wounded on waiting trucks and sent them back to Udomni. The Chinese had cut off the MSR that's a main supply route between Udomney and Hagaruri, the colonel informed us. So now they are truly trapped. On the march back into the Udomni perimeter past midnight, the men were silent, spent from this cold, brutal day. And Captain Wilcox, had been a good skipper.

And when they get there, Lee was waiting for us when we staggered into Udomni perimeter. Many of the men limped with the first stages of frostbite and there were some walking wounded who had elected this day with the company. Undisguised tears ran down Lee's face when he saw the column make its way in. And that was the reason that Lee wasn't with them

was because he literally got ordered. that he couldn't go because his arm was becoming infected and he was he could not they would not let him go and so he's there and undisguised tears ran down his face as he saw the column make its way in Joe Krasabre formed us up at first light

while the corsairs were blazing at enemy hills he told us that we were going to aid Charlie Company which had been posted on Turkey Hill to guard the MSR last night after we marched away from that area the Chinese had poured out of the hills and surrounded Charlie. Charlie was fighting for its life when we went to pull them out.

So there's a there's a small company of Marines, Charlie company, and they are surrounded. They go up and one of the one of the able company, so you got able Baker and Charlie, able company sets up on the flank and then Baker also patrols up and kind of sets up to to to come to their aid. Back to the book. Through my binoculars, I had a good view of Charlie's perimeter. 400 yards away.

They were in a tight circle, not more than 75 yards across, halfway up the slope of Turkey Hill. Chinese machine guns and rifles infested the hill around them, firing at any Marine who moved. Charlie's people were thoroughly pinned down. So picture this, a little circle. All your whole company, maybe there's 100,

maybe there could be 150, but I think they've taken a bunch of wounded at this point. They got 100 guys in a little 75 meter circle. And you're all pinned down, and no matter, every time you move, every time his head gets stuck up, you're getting shot at. Back to the book, Lee put his machine guns on the Chinese who were firing into Charlie's perimeter from the lower slope. My three mortars had the same target.

Abel's machine gun and mortars raked the hill above the perimeter. Soon our tracers lie in the sky and puffs of black smoke from the mortars dotted the rocky hill. Then the big shells from artillery and the battalion's 81 started fall and the hill rocked with their explosions. Chinese soldiers scurried for cover. My classmate, pay attention to this, my classmate Jim Stemple led Abel's assault down the ridge line and into the Chinese. The enemy soldiers had their heads down from the heavy covering fire, once again covering fire,

and Stemple's platoon tore into them. Through the binoculars, I observed one squad of Temple's Marines. led by a giant of a man in a flapping parka who swung a huge double-headed axe. The Chinese soldiers seeing this great maniacal devil charge it them brandishing a bloody axe abandoned their positions in terror. So there you have it. I never, I never, I don't even know where you get a battle axe in the midst of the Korean War, but this Marine right here attacks the Chinese not with grenades, not with a bar, not with a machine gun.

He attacks with a freaking battle axe. Back to the book, the Chinese quickly lifted their siege of Charlie Company and made a rapid retreat from Turkey Hill. As they fled, Abel Company's downhill assault, they had to cross Baker's line of fire. Woody Taylor's platoon had come up to extend our line and every weapon we had was trained on the Chinese as they ran to the protection. on the other side of the valley. Turkey shoot at Turkey Hill, our people called it. We were at rapid fire with the mortars and machine guns and machine guns, the bars and the rifles, even Kovar's rocket launcher.

Few Chinese made it all the way across the gauntlet of exploding flame and steel. They dropped in heaps even before the Australian planes came down on them. We hadn't worked with the Australians before, and they were out to prove that they were as gung-ho as our own Marine Corps. pilots. They came roaring low along the valley from behind us and when they passed above these glowing pink vest they dropped even closer to the ground. They're low enough to cut off the chinks pig tails. Kelly quipped. The planes had their guns blazing and the Chinese went down in bunches. The Australians made two passes at the end of their second low level assault. There

were no Chinese soldiers left to shoot at. It took almost every able. bodied man that Charlie Company had to bring down their dead and wounded. Their overnight defense of Turkey Hill had cost dearly. And they got one more rescue mission basically to do. There was a Fox Company is now in another situation, in a horrible scenario. And first, Baker 1-7 needs to get to them. And it is a treacherous, treacherous movement. And they decide, you remember early in the book,

he said, you know, we weren't used to night fighting. They'd mostly work during the day. Well, they decide that they need to do this at night. So they go on this patrol at night, going back to the book. Under the heavy parkas, our body sweated with the strain, but our hands and feet were frozen numb. The wind-borne cold attacked with terrible fury. When we stopped for bearings, we stood silent and motionless.

Because we needed to maintain Silas, we could not slap our hands against our sides or stomp our feet for circulation. The cold gnawed at our toes and fingers and ate into our bodies. The sweat we had generated while climbing froze against our skin. We shivered violently. Men muttered through their clenched teeth. Let's move out. God damn it.

We're freezing to death here. And they push on. I return to the side of the column. Many men had collapsed in the snow, curled into balls like Eskimo dogs. NCOs moved along the fallen, prodding and kicking, urging them to their feet. I collided with another Marine churning forward through the snow. Both of us fell, and as we wearily recovered, I realized that I had knocked down Colonel Davis. What's the hold up, Lieutenant?

Was all my battalion commander said. Then he continued breaking through the snow to the head of the column. Time had no meaning. We labored through infinite darkness in ghostly clouds of snow Over an icy path that rose and fell but seemed to lead nowhere We saw only the back of a man's head a hunched figure in a long shapeless parka Whose every tortured step was an act of will We carried on with the only strength that was left to us

Marine Corps discipline they finally get within range after this brutal freezing march and here we go the night exploded with the flash and sound of the fight the marines had the advantage of surprise and momentum they fought with fierce energy now released from hours of cold and misery the chinese could do little more than try to escape many of them were unarmed and most ran off to the south so the the the chinese run there's some firing there's some shooting but it's pretty much a route because they had gone at night and they had pushed hard and they had that surprise and violence of action back to the book dawn arrived gray and cold and we jumped off the second phase of the breakthrough Abel and Baker attacked online headed out for

Foxhill a thousand yards away minutes after we moved out Kaiser's platoon on the left walked into heavy small arms machine gun fire from a ridge on his flank. The 60s responded with A.E. on the ridge, and Kaiser's people broke through the deep snow to mount the hill. When they neared the ridge line, we lifted mortar fire and the platoon drove through the enemy position on its own firepower. Cover and move added again, we were astonished by our first view of Fox Hill. The snowfield that led up to the embattled company's position was covered with hundreds of dead Chinese soldiers. Many of them seemed to sleep,

under blankets of drifted snow, but their bodies were frozen in spasms of pain. There were jumbles of corpses in padded green uniforms. A white-clad column had fallen in the formation that had attracted the attention of Fox Company's machine gunners. Craters of dirt and snow made by the big guns were rimmed with bodies and parts of men. Thick bands of dead Chinese lay at the base of Fox Company's. perimeter. We stood in wonder. Men bowed their heads in prayer. Some fell to their knees, other breathed quiet oaths of disbelief. Tears came to the eyes of raggedy Marines who had endured bitter cold and savage battle to reach this place of suffering and courage. Someone let loose a wild

cheer and we broke forward in a jubilant run. Across the snow covered and corpse-filled battlefield, the Marines of Fox Company waved brightly colored banners, the blue, yellow, and red remnants of the parachute drops that had sustained them for nearly a week. Around their perimeter, Fox Company had constructed barricades of frozen Chinese bodies. From behind these walls of the, from behind these walls of dead. The Marines had mounted their weapons and maintained a fight against an enemy

whose numbers never ceased. Now the men of Fox Company arose from behind these gruesome piles to join us. Arms slings and blood-soaked compresses were common among them. Men hobbled about with makeshift leg splints. All hands were haggard and dirty, as were we. We exchanged profane greetings

that did not conceal the love that we Marines Marines felt for each other. The sun came out and Marines appeared along the skylines to the north. Then we saw Marines marching down the MSR towards us. There were columns of riflemen at first, followed by a long trail of vehicles and artillery pieces. Our corsairs swooped in close, their crooked wings wagging in salute. The fifth and seventh Marines had broken out of Udomney. Now, they broke out.

They have a path, but they still have to go 14 miles to get out of there. Back to the book, all the platoon sergeants had been hit. As were most of the squad leaders, we had corporals and private stepping into leadership billets, but they were combat experienced Marines, and they knew the work. The Marine column that came out of the besieged Udomney had hundreds of jeeps, ambulances, and trucks as well as the big guns of the artillery regiment. Many of the trucks were filled with wounded men and some were stacked with the corpses of our own killed in action.

The walking wounded, so now you've got a picture of this column, almost like a mad max looking column. The walking wounded who could carry a weapon were turned to as riflemen to protect the column. Every man who could walk, hobble, or limp was ordered off the trucks. The only riders were those serious cases. The gut wounds and blinded men, along with severe leg wounds, and men with frostbites so bad that they would need amputation.

Many of the wounded died in the trucks. Some froze to death, and some were shot by the infiltrators. The 14-mile ride was three days and nights of grim survival. The rifle companies of the 5th and 7th Marines stayed in the hills guarding the MSR as the column pulled in to Hagaruri. The garrison town came out to meet the bedraggled Marines who had run the 14-mile gauntlet of fire and ice. As the walking wounded came within sight of the town, someone commanded them to fall into ranks. Maybe it was the limping sergeant who gave the command, the old salt who had set the defenses along Bob Fisher's stretch of the column. It could have been Father Griffin or Sergeant Winget or Corporal Burrus or Corporal Johnson, the wounded men,

and some who were unharmed but who staggered from exhaustion formed up into three files, shouldered their weapons and marched in ragged step. Slowly the tread of their thick rubber-sou-sou-packs on the icy road became a steady sure cadence, and the haggard and hurt Marines put their heads high. Captain Wilcox, who couldn't carry a weapon, was in the forward ranks. His arm was in a huge cast and splinted, so it was horizontal to the deck. His head and face were a cocoon of bandages, but holding himself erect, he picked up the cadence and marched standing straight into Hagaruri.

A battalion sergeant, a battalion surgeon, took time away from the hundreds of wounded men he tended in the aid station to witness the column's arrival. Those bastards, those magnificent bastards, were the words the doctor used to describe the worn and torn Marines from Udomni. And I want you to picture that. image that image of these hundreds of men just battered wounded barely even able to walk frostbitten and they're meandering into camp and when they get close someone says hey fall in and they fall into ranks

and they begin to march the will that's human will and it's human will under the power of leadership and he doesn't even know who gave that order. Somebody said, fall into ranks, it's the right thing to do. And they do it. They find more. They find, they dig deeper to fall into ranks and hold their heads high as they walk back into town, back to the book.

Except for the road we had opened, Hagorri was under siege, surrounded by many thousands of Chinese soldiers. They had been held off by a, Italian of the first Marines and hundreds of rear echelon people who had reverted to riflemen. For three days and nights, the cooks and bakers, truck drivers and artillerymen, office, pinkies, and technicians dug in alongside infantry Marines. They threw back every thrust the Chinese made against the Hagaruri perimeter.

American soldiers were there too. Army technical support people who picked up rifles, and bars and went up the hills and filled in the marine lines. Wherever there were gaps, the artillery threw in massive bombardments. During daylight hours, the corsairs flew in low with bombs, rockets, and napalm to help hold the attackers at bay. The three divisions of Chinese who tried to isolate the fifth and seventh Marines, plus those who had been at Fox Hill, followed us south. and now they added their numbers to the encirclement of Hagaru Rhee. The single road, the MSR to Koto Rhee, and our only way out was cut off.

The hills that flanked that road were high and steep, and there were as many Chinese embedded in them as their head been at Udomni, so they're still completely surrounded. But all this stuff is happening, they're still surrounded. The engineers, with their heavy earth-moving equipment, had dynamited the frozen ground and leveled an airfield large enough for cargo planes to fly in and out of Hagaroo-Ree. Air Force pilots flew in the big, clumsy planes loaded with replacements, rations, and ammunition. For the return trip, they filled the planes with the most seriously wounded.

When they landed and took off, they had to fly low between the hills that line the valley, planes became slow-moving targets for the Chinese guns in the hills. And everyone that left, Hagaroo-Ree was perforated with bullet holes. The men on the ground marveled at the courage of the Air Force pilots who kept flying in and out of there. So you got just cargo pilots flying into this place. Insanity. Now, they're in a position on a perimeter.

Just because they survived all that, they still going to go back out. Hold Perimeter. They get out to hold perimeter, and here we go. Back to the book, through my glasses, I saw a column of 15 riflemen marching toward us out of Hagaruri. There were two files of them moving at a brisk pace alongside the road, but alongside both sides of the road. They wore crisp white parkas and swung their arms smartly.

Because they were clean, shaven, and energetic, we assumed they were fresh replacements flown in from the airstrip. We found out later that these clean and jaunty troops were Royal British Marines. who had fought their way into Hagaroo Rhee from the south. They too had found the MSR blocked, and they had punched through the Chinese forces far superior to them in number. They were the 41st Commando, a unit that roughly compared in size to one of our own rifle companies. Like us, these Marines had suffered heavy casualties.

The Royal Marine column halted and spread into ditches along the road near our CP. A freshly groomed young officer strode toward Kelly, Topple and me. With the young officer was a grizzled sergeant whose proper military bearing could have come straight from the pages of Kipling. The sergeant had a meticulously trimmed broad mustache that would have stirred Gunny Buckley's envy. Like the lieutenant, the sergeant was dazzling clean and squared away.

My binoculars hung around my neck, which is how the lieutenant distinguished me as an officer. Certainly there was little other difference among Kippel. Kelly and Topol and me. Our parkers were all stained with blood, food, gun, oil, dirt. Our filthy faces were matted with bristly beards that bore icicles of mucus and spittle. The lieutenant concealed his disdain for her appearance, braced himself, and delivered a broad hand salute.

I say, sir, we've ordered to extend our patrol beyond your lines. I'm to get up the covering machine guns, and I would be able to. most grateful for your suggestions. I appreciated the British lieutenant's courtesy and if I possessed a rager I would have shaved on the spot to make myself more presentable.

This is one of the reasons I included this because people always ask me you ever work with any other militaries and I've worked with the British and people say, you know, how are they? Well, this is how the British are. The British are outstanding. The British are so professional.

It's so impressive. They're like impeccable. Just the way they're described here. That's the way the British are. That's the way the British military is. They're outstanding. Back to the book, the Royal Marine Lieutenant and his sergeant followed me

to our machine gun positions, and they checked out the fields of fire for their own mission. As we walked the line together, we exchanged observations about fighting the Chinese. The British lieutenant knew what he was talking about. Talk a little bit about the army units, the army outfit.

that went east of the reservoir were hurriedly patched together and poorly equipped for their mission. The artillery and tanks that were to support their advance were not organized in time to accompany them when they moved north of how out of hagueruri. The heavy weapons that aided the marine breakout west of the reservoir were not there for the army. And many of the soldiers in that fight had not yet received cold weather gear. Scores of them froze to death. It was the Army's bad fortune, too, that a large number of its officers and experienced NCOs had been knocked out of the battle at the onset.

The two senior commanders, a colonel and a lieutenant colonel were killed at the front of their troops. Most of the company commanders and platoon leaders went down in a short time. The casualties of all ranks outnumbered the able-bodied, and some of the wounded had to be left behind. Platoons and squads dwindled to a few men and coalesced into small bands that fought until their ammunition was gone. Those who could walk or crawl then made their way back across the frozen reservoir to the marine lines at Hagaroo Rhee. For the soldiers, it was a disastrous fight, but it had one good effect. The Chinese division that mauled them was aimed at the attack on Hagaru Rui. The fight the soldiers put up on the east side of the reservoir had slowed their advance,

and that bought valuable time for the Marines. When the army survivors made their way into Hagaroo Rhee, those who could still carry on were re-equipped and formed into a provisional battalion that became part of the first Marine Division. They fought alongside us for the remainder of the campaign. Now, like I said, at this point, they're still surrounded. and they need to now break out to get south to a town called Hungnam, where there's a port where they're going to be extracted.

They're going to be pulled out. Back to the book, 1-7, our battalion and 2-7, were to lead the breakout from Koto-Wi. 1-7 was to take the high ground east of the road, 2-7 the west. Four miles on the MSR, the Chinese had blown out a bridge over a deep chasm. The battalion of First Marines coming from the south would take the ground that commanded the other side of that gap. Then the engineers were put in a new bridge. Beyond that was a full army division, the third waiting to give us cover.

After we crossed the bridge, the army would take over the fighting. All we needed to do was get a few more divisions, get through a few more divisions of Chinese soldiers. So even on the division level, 10,000, we're talking cover and move, even on the division level. So it's an individual thing, it's a squad thing, it's a platoon thing, it goes all the way up to the division level because they need to have the cover of the army to get out of there. Here we go. Abel Company went out in front. The Chinese, the waiting Chinese immediately put down a sheet of fire. Mortars, machine guns, burp guns, rifles.

Abel's casualties soon started to return. We huddled against the blowing. clouds of snow and prayed to God that Abel wouldn't get so badly mauled that we would have to take their place. Our prayers were not answered. Battalion ordered us to pass through Abel and continue the attack. Although it was daylight, we could barely see where we were going. The Chinese did not need to see us. There was only one way for us to get at them straight along the road. They had our brooch well marked and covered with their weapons. As soon as we went past Abel, the Chinese mortars began to drop and their machine guns opened.

The tracers were weird streaks of orange that flew out of the blinding snow clouds. Our new corpsman was quickly put to work. The Chinese were shooting down from a hill that flanked Woody as well as from straight ahead. Joe didn't want to send anyone up that hill fearing he would lose them in the heavy snow You're just getting shot at the there's clouds up there at altitude and so you're just getting shot from snow It's like a cloud that's shooting machine gun fire at you It's a nightmare Back to the book we were getting nowhere

Joe Krasaba was standing alongside the road behind Lee's platoon He called me over to him Bullets zinged and shrapnel wind around us but Joe stood straight and I stood with him He had decided to risk move up the hill on the left flank. Move your platoon up there, Joe. Oh, by the way, at this point, Joe had taken over a platoon.

He was no longer just in charge of the mortars. Now one of the sergeants was in charge of the mortars. So he's now in charge of a rifle platoon. Move your platoon up there, Joe, he instructed me. See if you can take those guns out. They're killing us. He spread out his map and traced the route that I was to follow. He fell silent.

A Chinese bullet had found its target. Just below the rim of his helmet in the center of his forehead. A small black hole appeared there. Joe Krasaba's dead eyes stared at me for several seconds before he slumped slowly to the ground. I caught him in my arms as he fell and held him for a moment. Then I lowered him gently into the snow. Jesus, God. Joe Krasaba, my friend, Joe, who had helped me so much, shown me so much, who had gone to bat for me with Captain Wilcox,

who had been my big brother, Joe Krasaba, whom I loved. Taking the mat from his mitten hands, I went forward to give it to Lee and inform him that he was the new company commander. On the way over, I got on my walkie-talkie to tell battalion that Krasaba was KIA. Their CP was close behind and the walkie-talkie worked. Through the murk, I spotted Lee's vest. He was walking the line behind his men who were prone. in the snow covering 50 yards of front lupecini with the bar was with him i felt alone without

kelly the chinese fire was passing overhead high the enemy couldn't see us either krasaba's dead i told lee caught one in the head damn was all lee said in response you're the new skipper i added giving him the map joe told me to go up the hill on woody's flank see if i can get around those guns and take them out you still want me to do that we must do something lee said they're killing us up from up there that's what joe said yes see what you can do is your radio working yeah i just talked to battalion on it okay let me know the situation when you make it and when you're ready to attack if we can get artillery i don't want you to run into friendly fire i i skipper i said first lieutenant lee gave me a ironic little smile at that so they're going to go up this hill

and try and take out that machine gun. And as they're going up the hill, he starts hearing something. Someone called from behind us, Sir, Lieutenant Owen. It was Woody Taylor's runner. He was breathing hard from the effort he had made to catch up with us.

Sir, Lieutenant Taylor wants you back down with the company. Lieutenant Lee's been hit. And Lieutenant Taylor wants you. On the double, he says. Damn it to hell. I might have been able to roll the Chinese from the flank and take out the guns that were holding back the company. I tried to get Woody on my walkie-talkie.

I got more static. I waved for Morrison to rejoin us, and the tiny platoon slipped and slid back down the hill. As they came behind me, the men cursed and complained about the second lieutenants making up their mind. Woody Taylor waited for us at the base of the slope. He was senior to me in Rankin. And with Lee Down, he was our new company commander.

He said that battalion had sent up a pair of tanks, and their firepower would cover a front. assault up the hill so here we go finally we get tanks and anyone that doesn't know I am a huge fan of tanks I love tanks and all you tankers out there thank you for being out there for these ground pounders so he can the old school tanks had a little phone on the back of the on the back of the tank to talk to the guys that were inside the tank he picks up that tank as they get prepared to do this assault and he says put your 30s up below the ridge gook machine gun at 10 clock then on my command hit them with the cannons we'll jump off on that a tinny voice came from within the

tank hear you loud and clear the 30 caliber twin machine guns of both tanks began their jackhammer pounding i watched red tracers stabbing up the snow covered hill toward the dug in chinese gun that we could now see dimly now they under that firepower they start to attack our line moved up the hill 25 yards above me, two Chinese soldiers appeared from behind a large boulder. One had a rifle, the other a burp gun. As I swung my carbine toward them, I heard a grunt from Lu Puccini. He fired his bar straight into the air, and he fell forward in the snow. He did not move, and I knew he was dead.

The best bar man we had. God damn it, you've lost Lu Puccini. I couldn't get my weapon on the two Chinese above me fast enough. the one with a rifle put around in my left shoulder that spun me around. Its impact generated a shock like a powerful jolt of electricity that went through my entire body. Damn, how could I be hit? After all this, how could I get hit? I saw the burp gun trigger burst at me.

The snout of his weapon flashed, and I could not lift my feet above the knee-deep snow to get out of the path of his bullets. Two slugs tore into my right arm. Two more of the electric jolts and my carbine flung itself away from my grasp. I saw it rise into the air as I fell into the snow. This cannot be happening. I tried to raise my head and reach to retrieve my carbine.

Get the bastards. My arms wouldn't move. I could not raise myself. Joe's down, someone shouted. Bill Fook's voice, get the bastards. I heard myself yelling. Get the bastards. I screamed in pain and overwhelming anger, and my Marines rushed past me and up the hill,

leaving Lupicini and me in the snow. Get the bastards, I yelled again and again. It was all I could think to do. The young corpsman who had been assigned to us for the day's battle cry, for the day's battle heard my screams. Although the enemy fire still flayed the hill, he ran clumsily through the snow to reach my side. I was flat on my back, and he crouched beside me. Okay, Lieutenant.

He gasped for air with the exertion of the run laden with his aid kit and cold weather gear. His breath made puffs of white steam and his smooth, shaven face was red with 25 below zero cold. With bullets zinging all around of the new Corman cut away my parka. The bullet through the shoulder had nicked my lung

and blood was gushed and blood gushed from my mouth and down the front of my parca covering his bare hands. give me some morphine i told the kid the pain was terrible i i can't sir i'm sorry he shook with the cold and with his own fear bullets stung the air and raised little fountains of snow a few feet away give me some goddamn morphine i yelled spraying my blood on him sir the morphine is frozen i can't give it to you what the hell's wrong with you carry the goddamn stuff in your mouth don't you boots no yes sir i'm sorry sir he put the sirret in his mouth and continued to cut away at my clothing just

just try and be still sir even with the pain and the rage i realized that no one had told the new doc how to take care of casualties in below zero weather i gritted my teeth and tried to shut up i didn't feel the jab when he shoved the serent serret into my flesh but i soon felt a wave of warmth come over me me. The pain flowed away and the noise of the fighting above us receded. You're a good lad, I told the Corman. I felt his hands doing something. You'll be a good Marine. Yes, sir, he sounded far away. Before I drifted off, I remembered the photos in my helmet. Those are the photos of his wife and his two kids. My pictures, I said. That's my wife and kids. Don't let the gooks get them.

I won't, sir, said the corpsman, who had risked his life to save mine, and whose name I never knew. Woody Taylor was the only officer left with the company. He led the troops to the crest of the hill, fighting as a rifle man himself. The Chinese were on the run, and battalion ordered Bacon 1-7 to keep after them. The troops were frozen and exhausted, but Woody pushed them on. Late in the day, they reach their objective. With their small number, they set a tight perimeter on the high ground, overlooking the gap in the road that the engineers would bridge the next day.

So they get that target secure, they get that hilltop, and now they're overlooking the gap where the engineers are going to build that bridge, and they set into a security perimeter. Woody Taylor put the weary company on Facebook. 50% watch against the enemy assault he knew would come in the dark. It was the coldest night that the men had yet endured, a reported 30 degrees below zero. The wind howled at them in every direction, all through the unbearably cold hours until Don Taylor and Sergeant Richard moved from man to man to assure that no one froze to death.

A detail of Korean soldiers who had been attached to the army arrived to bolster the perennial, but most of them filtered away during the night several times Marines heard the enemy moving around their lines in the darkness but no attack came would he put out patrols early in the morning before light within a hundred yards of a line they found frozen dozens of frozen Chinese soldiers whose feet and hands were frozen to ice the extreme cold had been on our side holding back the attack and the next day Woody Taylor brought the remnants of the company down from the hills marched them across the bridge and into the shelter of the town of Chin Hong-kney their battle ended there sergeant Richard took roll call his final count was

27 men, 27 men. And that's out of the original 200 plus men of the company. And then on top of that, another 100 replacements that filled their ranks in this battle. So that's 300 men and only 27 remained. 27. Now we'll ever face those kind of odds and few of us are ever going to face those hellish demands of us will ever stare at hell like these men did i want you to think about something i want you to imagine imagine what we can accomplish if we apply even a fraction of the will that these men displayed, the iron will, a will that is stronger than their bodies,

a will that is stronger than their minds. Because clearly, let's face it, their bodies, their bodies were broken, and their minds in many cases were broken. He didn't want to go on, but their will, their will prevailed. Will, will conquers all. And our will is delivered through discipline. And as Joe Owen stated many times in the book,

sometimes the only thing that pressed them on was discipline, discipline, the discipline yourself. And you know, we or I incapable of more. You are capable of more. You can overcome the obstacles and the challenges and the enemy. And you can overcome your own weaknesses. And you can overcome your own desire to quit. Let these men, let these men be our examples.

Your will and how to drive on. Let these men be our examples of how to live. Let these men down. And I think that's all I've got for tonight. Echo. If you want to give me a second here to recover and talk about some stuff over there, I'd be much obliged.

Yeah, man. This could be one of the rougher of transitions. Yeah. You know, you've got to remind yourself, this is a book. This happened. This happened. This happened. This happened.

And the fact that these guys could endure this and fight on, if that doesn't give you the inspiration that you need to step past whatever pathetic little challenges in front of you, you're wrong. Don't listen to this podcast anymore. somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah, it's easy to forget it because of the kind of the contrast of your problem or whatever you want to call it, your challenge, your task, your issue that you're trying to overcome.

And then contrast with basically the luxury that you live in. And that luxury is kind of put on you this kind of way of feeling on a habitual level. So now you're faced with this task Comparatively Habitual comfort Is what we experience Yes habitual comfort Exactly right

I woke up early in the morning Yeah You know what I mean Hey I worked out real hard and sweated a lot Like okay Really? Is that all I got? I need to step it up man Yeah I need to step it up

Yeah and I woke up early in the morning Or you know I didn't get that much sleep So my day is hard. Cool. Your foot's not freezing off your body. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And what's incredible about this is every single time you go, damn, you know, I'm glad they made it out of that. Didn't it make it out of anything. They're still just surrounded. Yeah. Yeah. And what's interesting is when you do remind yourself of this kind of stuff, like right now,

if anyone feels the way I do, I feel like, oh, I feel pretty much. much rejuvenated when I kind of flash back to my life for a second. I'm like, oh, man, I'm kind of stoked. Yeah, I can go, you know, if I got a workout, I'm going to crush that work out because I got all my limbs right now. They didn't freeze off all this stuff. So the point there is when you are reminded of real adversity, whether you remind yourself or a book or something you see or hear about, like it gives you that, like that added will to overcome. Maybe you actually can take some of their will. You can learn it.

You can learn it. You can say, oh, you know what? Oh, I'm cold right now. You're not cold. Yeah. You are not cold. Yeah. You are not.

You're tired right now? No, you are not tired. No. You're afraid right now? No, you are not afraid. Mm-hmm. Learn. Yeah.

Yeah. Learn. Increase your will through knowledge. It's a real thing. Yeah. It's true. And when you do, my point being, when you do remind you,

yourself of this kind of stuff and it helps it'll help you do whatever it is or or overcome the fact that yeah because you realize that you that human beings are capable of more way more than what you than what you know more than I know I'm capable of more than what I've done I'm going to do more yeah I'm going to get after it harder that's the that's what I take away from this these kind of books obviously besides there's incredible tactical lessons in there there's incredible leadership there's incredible, but the testament of human will is unbelievable. Unbelievable testament to human will. Yeah.

So now I feel like, or it seems like anyway, that when we're faced or when I'm faced with, like, oh, this is too hard. Or dang, I got all this ahead of me, damn, I got to do all that. Really, all that is, now looking at it seems like all it is is a deviation from my habitual. comfort. Yeah. That's all that is. And I'll tell you what is awesome, the way that he reinforced several times because

people talk about fear. I've talked about fear on this podcast before, but, you know, I kind of say, hey, take action if you're afraid, you've got to step into it. And he said that over and over again. He actually had a methodology. Okay, if I'm afraid, I'm going to, I'm going to get, I'm going to stand up. I'm going to get erect. I'm going to find out what's going on.

And I'm going to get, I'm going to find out, I'm going to assess the situation before my boss calls me. That's my timeline that I'm working on. And that forces him to take action. So many great lessons learned in there Yeah Well yeah I feel like yeah we can transition over to

Waste to support Well yeah if we want If people do want to support the podcast out there I guess you could inform them of how to do that Yeah so The first way and this is kind of a two-way street You know Okay on it supplements right supplements

All kinds of cool stuff In fact my friend from Quiet Cameron He hit me up and was like, hey, what's, on it has this, it's a new pre-workout, you know, but it's non-stimulent. Usually pre-workouts, they crush up a bunch of fedra and they feed it to you. They don't actually do that, but it seems like they do. I'm not saying that's all a bad thing, but it's not like healthy, you know? So anyway, this one is like a healthy one.

It's like, oh, I got, I just got it. I haven't tried it yet. I'm going to get after it. Report back to us once you've tried it. Yeah. But if you're into like you know sometimes you go on the website and you get like caught up reading all the cool stuff and all this stuff like it It's on there so you can look at it. You know you mentioned that a lot you actually mentioned that a lot how you go to the on it website Yeah, I'm maybe I just don't do as thorough research as you when it comes to checking out where my krill oil comes from

Sure I know what I'm looking for it and I go do it But if you're more like echo and you want to spend time on the website reading and researching which is a good place to do is on it.com. Throw a slash jaco on there if you want to get a little money saved. Yeah, if you want to save 10%, 10% off slash jaco. So it's onet.com slash jaco. Anyway, they got some good stuff. You can pretty much rest it.

Not pretty much. You can rest assured that it's all good stuff. It's not a bunch of a fedra crushed in to powder form, you know, and they're selling it as a, I don't know. It's chrylo. Vesodilator or something like this. It's not that. Big words, echo.

I read now. So anyway, yeah, 10% off. On it.com slash jaco. Shroom tech is dope to. Alpha Brain. These are all part of the, what do you call it, EDC? Everyday, everyday consumption. Everyday consumption.

I like that. Right, EDC. Yeah, krill oil took that today already. Alpha brain, that's like every other day. It depends. Some people get on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get on Alpha Brain.

Yeah, every day. Some people take it every day. Yeah. Some people take Shroom Tech every day. Yeah. I take Shroom Tech when needed. Yeah. When anticipated needed.

Yeah. Crill oil every day. Crile oil every day. For sure. Without question. Strong bone every day. Yeah. I got this peanut butter.

Warrior bar? When needed. Bro. Yeah. When I've been having one every day. Yeah. Two every day for the past like three, four days. Yeah.

It's because it's so easy. Yeah. Oh, I want to eat something healthy and that tastes good and I'm kind of hungry and I want to get it really quickly without having to do anything but peel open a wrapper boom worry bars in the house yeah yeah guaranteed but yeah there's some cool stuff I got this peanut butter it's not peanut butter it's cashew almond and I don't know something else but it's real good I got it's real gourmet too MCT oil it's all up in there anyway good stuff on it I do have an MCT oil too by the way yeah I take the coconut MCT oil from on it and I mix it with heavy whipping cream I don't I don't do that until it's

whipped cream. Right. I just poured it a little bit in there. I stir it up and I drink heavy whipping cream, which is just all fat, which is awesome. Yeah. With MCT, which is more fat and I drink all that. Yeah, and it's good fat. Yeah, it's good fat.

But it also, it's very, very fulfilling. Very, very. And I'm talking, I almost, it's a little bit bigger where I have little glasses that I mix it in. They're bigger than a shot glass, but they're smaller than a cocktail glass. Right. It's called the rocks glass. class. Perhaps.

In the bar industry. Okay, yeah, you know more about that stuff. Yeah. It's bigger than, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, MCT,

I mean, not to go into all the fats and good fats first, but it's more fulfilling fat has nine calories per gram. Yeah. Carbhydrates and protein. Have four.

Four, yeah. Alcohol. Seven. That's a little trivia. I was not aware of that. Yeah. It's all good. Alcohol's not,

I don't think they sell alcohol on it, so you're all good there. But that's a good way. I feel like I'm repeating. in on it.com slash jaco but if you do want the 10% off you got to add the slash jocco if you want to pay the full price which is cool too by the way just go on it dot com anyway another way to support if you're in the mood to support the amazon link click through it's christmas christmas coming up what is today whatever the date is today christmas coming up within within what three weeks

two weeks whatever anyway when you do your shopping if you're like hey i'm going to shop for or my friends, family, whatever, and it's in your mind that you want to support podcast. Just go to our website, jocco store.com, or jacojopodcast.com. A lot of people ask me, hey, where are your favorite books that you've read? Can you send us a list of those?

And I say, yeah, go to www.jocopodcast.com. All the books that we've talked about on the podcast. The book that I read today, go and buy it. Go and buy it. Colder than hell. A Marine Rifle Company at Chosen Reservoir by Jill. Joseph R. Owen. Buy it, read it.

I could have, I could have just read the entire book on air. Obviously, I'm not going to do that, but it would take a long time. But there's so much stuff that I absolutely had to skip and say, you know,

I was like struggling with myself going, I used up most of a highlighter and a half highlighting this book. So, you know, order this book, you'll have it on the website. Yeah,

it's a whole page. All of it. of them are on there. Yeah, on the pit. You go top menu, you know, books from the podcast, I think it's called, you click on it, there's links directly to Amazon. So yeah, boom, there's another way to support, but it's all Amazon, you click through, if you're

just doing regular shopping, there's a banner on the kind of on the right side, you click through there, do your shopping. And it supports the podcast to two birds, one stone. Kind of thing. Anyway, also, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. We, Jock will

probably, well, no, you already mention this. Oh, we got on the top podcasts of 2016 list. iTunes, big deal. Anyway, subscribe to their YouTube, not YouTube, but iTunes. We were on the top

podcast of 2016 list from iTunes, is your statement. Correct, yeah. That just popped in my head because when you subscribe, you subscribe on iTunes. Leave a review if you're in the mood. Actually, leave a review in

sure it's awesome. Not awesome in terms of good, but just make sure that it's fun for me to read. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll invoke more the will to read. Or if it's not fun to read some good points that you like or don't like. And yeah, I like reading those reviews. I do, I've read every single review. So I'm reading them. It's good. And then, uh, YouTube, keeps me a check. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure we're delivering. Yeah, you got to deliver, I guess. Um, so it's to the YouTube channel. So we've been slowly putting more videos on there. You know, excerpts and whatnot.

Jocco McNuggets where you can or share, you know, with your friends or whatever. Quickly. I'll put more, we'll put more today even. And then, yeah, some good excerpts, I think. Subscribe to that. Stay informed video-wise. Also, we have a store.

Jocko is a store. It's called jocco store.com. So if ever we all wear clothes T-shirts, right? Why not make it a Jocko T-shirt? That's kind of a good thing, you know? It's a thing. It's a thing, you know?

How's this? So Chris, I don't know if I showed you this. So Chris Rue is our friend. Fellow Black Belt. He's at, I want to say, I don't even know the whole story. I was trying to call him. He was like, traveling. Oh, there's no.

I totally know this story. Yeah. So, yeah, he's one of the cadets. Yeah, cadet at West Point. Yeah. So he's, I don't know how, do you know how he saw him? I don't know how he saw him or whatever, but a cadet at West Point, and I don't have, I don't have his name right now. In uniform.

Yeah, yeah, he's in uniform, but the uniform that they wear, it's cold up there, so they wear these, basically it's like a giant cape. Right, right, right. And underneath the cape, he had a, a jaco podcast shirt on. He had actually, he actually had the straight up jocco face on that thing. And it was, you see, he posted an awesome picture on social. media of him of him pulling up his cape and he had that that that that t-shirt on yeah jocco's face maybe that was the secret weapon that led the army to the first victory in 14 years over navy in football tom neal tom neil yes he's that he was the cadet doing it yeah representing in the wild in the wild

really in the wild double in the wild yeah well that's even beyond the wild that's i mean i don't know what the regulations are but i'm fairly certain the the t-shirt the jockel podcast t-shirt is not part of army regulations unless it is now. I'm just saying you never know. Perhaps. But yeah. He's been actually in touch

before he went to West Point. When he was getting ready to go, he was like reaching out and he was getting after it. Yeah. Go crush it at the West Point. So good for him. Into some no-ghi jiu-jitsu as well.

True. True. Anyway, yeah. So jocco store.com, that's where you can get. Like cool shirts. Discipline equals freedom. You know, all these things. some women's stuff on there, some hoodies on there,

some rash guards on there for, for, yeah, some activity. You know what I'm talking about. And some patches on there, the regulation one, you know, that one, the Velcro that's on there, some other stuff. So, yeah, go on there, look at it.

You don't have to buy nothing. Just look at it. If you like something, go ahead, get it. Good way to support. And boom, you've got a shirt. Also, okay, so here's a, a thing this started a while ago okay so I'll tell this story I'll keep it sure but so I was like I don't have echo went rogue again yeah so and it started with kind of nothing so you know okay we're talking about luxury and like okay I only got six hours sleep I'm usually used to

eight and a half or something like that right so but I know I can do a workout and I know you don't get that much sleep or if you're tired and not tired of what are you still push through the workout something but I'm thinking yeah yeah you're hard your money whatever but you got to there has to be times where you got to basically talk yourself into it basically so I'm like all right like what do you say you got to you know be honest like what do you say you know to yourself and I figured it it would have you know like a lot of stuff that you can always say like you know we have this luxury and all this stuff I'm like all right but let me so I asked you and what you told me, I was like, okay, that, that was good.

That was legit right there. And it worked. It totally worked. So what I did, you know, one thing led to another kind of in my head. So I was like, all right, you know what we're going to do? We're going to record that. You're going to say that? I'm going to record it.

And on top of that, not just the working out. And usually, like, with food and stuff, like donuts and I joke around that I eat, like, whole things of Oreos. Because it kind of, that's just a joke. Like sometimes I do. But you do. Yeah, but I have will pot. Like, that's not a problem with it. But some people don't.

So I'm like, yeah, if that workout thing that you just said could apply to like all these other things, we're going to record that too. Then you start thinking. And, you know, a lot of people have been saying, hey, what about like a ringtone? You should have ringtones, you know, for my alarm and all this stuff. So I'm like, all right. Well, basically one thing led to another. We recorded them. And I put them on iTunes.

Called it psychological warfare. Good move, I think. So it's on iTunes. Yes, on iTunes. It's like, yeah, so we're charging. And here's an, so this kind of ties it back to how you can support the podcast. Look, so we hit about eight to ten birds with one stone with this. It's 99 cents for a track.

Or you can buy like the whole thing. There's like 13, 14 tracks on there for nine bucks. I think that's kind of standard. But so that's how much. I put it or I listed it as and you just download it you can put it as your ring to there's one for waking up actually there's

two for waking up right so isn't there three for waking up maybe yeah but there's a few because I in my mind I pictured people like oh you want to wake up cool we can come down on that I go through that every day waking up well so yeah

so it's sort of like a song that you could buy it's like a song that you could buy on iTunes yeah same process or an album yes same process yeah you just download you can buy one track, two tracks, or the whole thing, it's 99 cents, so it's not like you're supporting the podcast.

Yes, exactly right. Here's a little tip I was thinking about, though. So you need your wake up. There's like a few wake-up ones, right? I mentioned that. If you put that as your alarm, clear it with your wife or whoever you're sleeping with. I'll tell you right now, if that thing,

but if she don't know about it and that comes on, it'll freak her out, man. So, dude, that's a little pro take. it right there if you're using it. But I will almost, I'll say it's 100% guarantee. If you're, if you felt like how I felt with workouts, like I'm really not in the mood to go do a workout. And you listen to the workout one. I will say with 100% certainty, you will not skip the work.

I'll say that right now. That's legit. You know, anyway, psychological warfare. Who's the artist? I think it's Junkah. Okay. I think. Because that's how they list them by artist, right?

Yeah. I think so. Did I just, did I just become an artist real quick there? That's scary. Let's call it something else. You kind of got, can I be something else?

You kind of got flanks and pushed into it though. So, you know, artist, author, a podcaster, technically. Is that a thing?

Yeah, I think so. I heard it. Anyway, yeah, give your wife the heads up. These guys are fighting a war in Korea. I'm over here being an artist.

What happened to me? But it's all here. No, wrong. Not going to happen. It's all for good cause, though, I'm telling you,

because if anyone's like, I am, which I'm, I'm straight up, it's more than an assumption. I am of the belief that some people are like me in that way where you just don't feel like it. I know we just read this and now we all feel like it. I understand that. But you don't have that feeling every single day. I'm telling me right now, this helps. This helps you get after it.

Help me for sure. Anyway. Psychological warfare. You know. All right. Also, hey, on iTunes, or sorry, not on iTunes, but on Amazon. You can get some white tea. It's, like I said, we're working through the supply chain issues,

but it's been popping up every couple days. They refill. You can order it. It tastes good, and it makes you feel good, and it will increase your deadlift capabilities to a minimum of 7,000 pounds. Many are getting up to 8,000 pound deadlifts from drinking chocolate white tea. You can get a get after it mug, by the way, too. So those are they're bigger than normal.

I'll say that. They're bigger than a normal mug. A normal mug is not as big as a get after a mug. So it's like with every sip, like you're actually, you're doing bicep girls. You're getting a little. Actually, that's not my joke.

I could stole that from Twitter. So that's that. Also on Amazon, you can pick up colder than hell, the book I read today, do it. Put it in your collection of badass books. You can pick up another book

that's called Extreme Owners. that's written by me and my brother Laif Babin. It is also a book that's about combat, but it's more of a book about leadership. And if you want to give someone, speaking of the holiday season, if you want to give someone a gift, that's going to,

you know some gifts that you get, they go in the drawer that doesn't get opened anymore, right? And then it takes you a couple of years and you finally throw it away. Don't give that gift. Give the gift that someone's going to say, man, you gave me that book. It's legit.

I read it. Oh, I implemented this. Hey, what did you think about the gift? Give them a gift that's going to have long-term value. Long-term value. Give them a little book called Extreme Ownership. You can get on Amazon.com. Hey, speaking of Extreme Ownership, also, we got the muster.

Number 2,002, May 4th and 5th at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Now, the last one that we had, we had. had people from 42 different states. We had people from five foreign countries and we had leaders at every level of the chain of command in every size business that you could imagine. So it was a super diverse group of people that are all together with. They had one similarity and that is they want to get better and crush it in leadership, in their business and in their life. So that's what we do with the muster. Laif and I,

who are there, obviously. When I say we're there, I don't mean we're there, meaning we're in the same building, but we're hiding somewhere. No, no,

we're there. We are actually with you. We are sitting down with you. We are talking. We're not hiding behind the curtain. We don't even have a backstage. They said, well, where do you want your backstage area?

We don't need one. We're not going backstage. People want to come and talk and learn. We want to learn from them. So come and get it. I've said this every time. This is going to sell out. It's going to sell out, and then you won't be able to go.

And also the prices are going up. So as you get close to the event, the prices go up. The reason we do that is so we incentivize you to buy the tickets now so that we can plan better, right? We like to be planned and we prepare things. If all of you sign up, you know, April 22nd, we got some logistics problems. I don't want to be in the same boat. I'm in with Jock, White.

where I've failed logistically. And it takes me a while to get it back on track. So sign up early, save yourself some money, and let us be better prepared for that. If you got questions, you can email muster at echelonfront.com, or you can check out the website www.w.w.com. And we will see you there. And you will see me, and you'll see Leif, you'll see Echo Charles. and you'll see everybody else.

We'll all be there getting after it. While you're waiting to hang out with us at the muster, if you want to kind of hang out with us virtually, well, Echo and I are both kind of cruising the interwebs. Twitter, yep, we're there. Instagram, we're there. And you even going to see us. you even going to see us on that Facebook you boy echo is at echo charles and i am at jocco

willink and finally we appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast and of course spreading the word but don't just listen do execute take a look at your life and see where you can apply the kind of human will we heard about tonight the kind of human will that overcomes challenges and obstacles whether you're fighting a war or you're fighting a fire or you're fighting crime or you're building a bridge or you're building a piece of software or whether you're doing HVAC work or retail work or whether you're healing kids or you're teaching kids no matter what you are doing what can you do to do it better what can you do to make you better ask yourself that question apply

why that will and get after it. So until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.