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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  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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  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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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Jim Bolan was attached to the Marines for a while as a sniper. He used an M-1 for the closer stuff but for anything really distant, he used his own rifle that his father had sent to him. Then a general got a look at it. Son, that's an illegal weapon.

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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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  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

  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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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  The lines were static during Fred Culbreth's time in Korea. There wasn't much movement in battle but the combat engineer was kept busy building and maintaining the many temporary bridges necessary to move men and materials around a country full of hills and rivers.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  It had been a hard battle and the Marines were stripping down to get in the Miryang River for a much needed bath. That's when a lady journalist happened along. After a short rest, they were sent right back to the place on the Pusan Perimeter they'd just left. Another hill to take.

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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

  When it came time for Ray Bohn to come home from Korea, some of the guys were sore because, as a draftee, he was eligible and they were not. When he got home, he went to work with his father at a hardware firm where he started out sweeping floors and then rose to be president of the company.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  A Marine and a North Korean were both approaching the corner of a building from opposite directions. What could happen? Marty Letellier laughed when he saw it. He and a buddy liberated some swords from a factory in Inchon, just before they were sent into the demolished city of Seoul.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  When asked if he met anyone during his service who inspired him, Ray Bohn responds with two stories that both speak well of race relations in the Army.

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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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  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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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  Ray Bohn made a decision in his life. He wasn't going to take a back step to anybody. This led to his leaving the Catholic school he attended after clashing with one of the brothers. His trouble continued in the working world and that was fine with him.

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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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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  The severity of the winter weather during the Korean War was over exaggerated, according to Jim Larkin. He suffered from it at times but combat keeps your mind on more immediate concerns. He also scoffs at criticism of the weapon he carried, the M-1 rifle.

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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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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  Besides being the company courier, Ray Bohn had other tasks. Once, while escorting some newly captured Chinese prisoners, he was ambushed by their comrades. Before it was over, he had earned the nickname Headhunter.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Regiment

  He never had to engage the enemy, but combat engineer Fred Culbreth did experience artillery barrages while working on gun emplacements in the Korean hills. He didn't know it at the time, but it damaged his hearing, as did his own rock blasting work.

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

  334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

  Fighter pilot Charles Cleveland had two probable kills to go with four confirmed kills in Korea. He describes one of the probables, during which he had to break off pursuit at the last minute just as it looked like the enemy MiG was going down. Fifty years later, a friend of his set the record straight.

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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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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  Nearing the end of his tour in Korea, Jim Larkin was more excited about seeing his brother, who was also in-country, than he was about going home. When he did get home, the excitement wore off fast. It was time to get back to work.

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  Sinclair Stickle - Army +7 Total Videos

  7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division

  Chinese artillery was zeroed in on the road. The only way you could make it was to floor it and not stop. Sinclair Stickle was in a truck barreling down that road when the shells started. What happened next made him think he'd had it, but the closest he ever came to dying in Korea occurred in a jeep and he wasn't even in combat.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  The Chinese had no air power but the Russians would send MiG's down into Korea to engage American fighters. Ray Bohn was glad that they weren't using one of the most effective weapons our side had, napalm.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  In an engineering unit, you had access to all kinds of things that other units needed and couldn't really get. Combat engineer Fred Culbreth made sure to collect plenty of plywood from his supply depots. You could get almost anything for plywood, including warmer boots, which were a big deal in Korea.