COMBAT STORIES FROM Korea

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  Ralph Puckett - Army +15 Total Videos

  8th Army Ranger Company

  It was called Hill 205. The small Ranger company was told to take and hold the hill. They did that as long as they could but Ralph Puckett and his men had to go through hell to do it. Waves of Chinese attackers had him calling in very close artillery strikes. He lay there, unable to move after three wounds, watching the Chinese bayonet wounded Rangers. Then two figures charged up the hill. For his actions in this battle, he would be awarded the Medal of Honor.

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  Ron Clark - Marines +7 Total Videos

  Mortarman, Baker Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Ron Clark remembers when the Chinese would attack and how the strategies between American and Chinese differed. He also explains one detailed account of an American casualty during battle and his own major injury that permanently disabled his eyesight.

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  Ben Malcom - Army +12 Total Videos

  8240th Army Unit, Special Forces

  Ben Malcom recalls a mission to infiltrate and destroy a 76mm gun hidden inside a North Korean mountain. During the cover of night on July 14, 1952, Malcom managed to sneak 120 guerilla fighters onto the mountain and into the bunker, and describes the combat that ensued.

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  Bill Minnich - Army +2 Total Videos

  C Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division

  When it was time to act, Bill Minnich came through. On a night watch, as he caught sight of a Chinese patrol, the only question was, rifle or grenade? When the unit was pinned down and no one responded to the order to move out, he cussed them all out and charged forward. And when he fell wounded, it was a sure thing that he would get up and scramble through the bullets landing at his feet.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  Ray Davis had distinguished himself in the Pacific campaigns and when he returned stateside, he was assigned to Quantico and the Marine schools. When the next war started, his regiment didn't exist but it was quickly formed and dispatched to Korea. Once the Chinese entered the fray, his battalion trekked up to the Chosin Reservoir where there was nothing but trouble. Part 1 of 2.

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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  For seventeen year old Jim Larkin, what he found after he came ashore at Inchon was fascinating. The novelty of Asia soon wore off since there was a war to fight, but he discovered that the Koreans are a humble and polite people. It's not a bad way to be.

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  Norman Kling - Marines +12 Total Videos

  Marine Corps Reserve

  The trip over to Korea was just a trip on a troop ship. No big deal, but while Norman Kling was docked in Japan, a huge typhoon hit the harbor and ships were coming unmoored and banging into each other.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Nearly everyone in his unit had frostbite to some degree, Marty Letellier had been very careful to take care of his feet, so he avoided the misery that many were feeling. As the Marines withdrew to the coast after the retreat from Chosin, they were followed by thousands of refugees, who were also evacuated to the South.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  His father fought in WWI and he was too young for service in WWII. That may be why Fred Culbreth felt determined to attend a military school like the Citadel. He wanted the military experience but he didn't have a war. Then he got one in 1950.

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  Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Allyn Johnson graduated high school in 1948 and went into the Air Force, figuring it would provide a secure future. He became an aircraft mechanic and then an instructor in rotary wing maintenance.

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  Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  One day, after three hours of picking cotton, Ed Fulghum announced to his father that he was going to join the Army. Well, you can't. You're only sixteen. I will prove I'm seventeen and join up. He went straight to the recruiter and found out what document he needed. Now he had a plan of action.

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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  Jim Larkin had one overriding thought during Marine boot camp at Parris Island. He couldn't get out of there fast enough. One drill instructor in particular seemed to embody the obstacles to doing so. Later on, he understood the importance of the lessons learned there.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Marine boot camp was a shock. The DI wasn't nice. Nothing he did was right. To Marty Letellier, the rigors were all mental and the physical part of it was no big deal. At his next stop, Camp Pendleton, he became a gunner on a 60 mm mortar crew.

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  Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Allyn Johnson was an Air Force mechanic and instructor when he found out that he could apply for flight training. Now that was exciting. He had a phobia about acrobatics but he wanted to fly multi-engine aircraft so they let him slide on that part of the training. He went into Air Rescue because they had B-17's and he really wanted to fly one.

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  Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

  28th Infantry Division

  He had to weigh 120 pounds but he only weighed 116. Ed Fulghum's induction physical was the next day and, as usual, he came up with a plan. It was knee deep snow where he did his basic training. When some joker didn't turn in his pistol at the range, the recruits were sent outside to stand in the snowy Indiana weather.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  His uncle was in the Army and had this piece of advice, don't volunteer for anything. Ray Bohn remembered that and never did, especially after he learned about his uncle's fate in New Guinea. The Korean War brought him into the Army and, after basic, he was trained in cryptography.

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  Don Wussler - Army +4 Total Videos

  17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division

  It took a while for Dan Wussler to talk to anyone about the war. After the crazy dreams had stopped and his kids were asking questions, he began to open up about his experience in Korea. He joined the family business for a few years, then he found a good career in banking.

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  LTG (Ret) Charles Cleveland - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

  Fighter Pilot Charles Cleveland compares the aircraft he flew, the F-86 Sabre, to the aircraft flown by the enemy, the MiG-15. The plane flown by the Communists had the edge in armament but they had lousy gun sights. By the end of the war, the victory in combat ratio was not in their favor.

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  Ed Price - Army +8 Total Videos

  68th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (90MM)

  Ed Price thought he made a pretty slick move. By becoming a clerk in the personnel section, he wouldn't have to be out in that cold Korean weather. Somehow, he still found himself manning a .50 caliber machine gun from time to time.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  Korean civilians were filtering back into areas which had recently seen combat. Engineering officer Fred Culbreth engaged in a strange interplay with one farmer. Every day, his men would have to move a homemade irrigation line to work on a bridge and, every night, the farmer would rebuild it.

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  Ed Price - Army +8 Total Videos

  68th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (90MM)

  When Ed Price went for his first guard duty in Korea, he was surprised that some men had nicely pressed uniforms at the inspection. Why? This was a war zone. Then he found out that, each night, one man was selected to be the supernumerary, who got to stay inside where it was warm. He now had a new goal.

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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Chesty Puller was already a legend when Jim Bolan met him in Korea. It wasn't long after that that he stood on the bank of the Yalu River and it wasn't long after that there was a long retreat back down the peninsula. He had some good friends there, including one who earned the Medal of Honor and one who maybe should have.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  7th Marine Regiment

  Based on his service in Korea and on his many trips back there, Ray Davis developed a great deal of admiration for the Korean people. It is nothing short of a miracle what they have done in their country since that war.

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  Ed Price - Army +8 Total Videos

  68th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (90MM)

  What do you do in the personnel section? Ed Price answers that question and then describes some strange and funny incidents from his time in Korea, like the time half the country went on red alert because of a funeral.

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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Jim Bolan returned to Korea as an officer where he witnessed a huge display of celebratory firepower on the last day of the war. While there, a reporter for a Dallas newspaper interviewed a home town boy and wound up causing a scandal.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  Ray Bohn never really left the front line while he was in Korea. He never saw the cities, ate a lot of C-rations and took up smoking. As the company courier, he had to visit a lot of different locations and it was at one of these near the coast that he was treated to a display of naval gunfire.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  The combat group's headquarters area had a stage for USO shows and every time there was a show, the men stationed there got a little thrill that didn't involve showtime.

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  Ed Price - Army +8 Total Videos

  68th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (90MM)

  Ed Price expresses sympathy for those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, who have to face uncertainties that he didn't experience in Korea. He didn't even carry a weapon when he went into town.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  A bridge was washed out on his route, but Fred Culbreth didn't want to waste hours on the detour. He knew that there were rocks and a hand cable at a certain point, so he plotted a route on the map and headed for the spot. When he saw that the ford was flooded, he decided to go for it, anyway.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  As a courier, Ray Bohn had to deliver his messages no matter how much live fire was happening. This could get dangerous, like the time he negotiated a terrible mountain road that was right in the sights of the Chinese artillery. What was his secret that kept him alive?