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View Full Version : The Frozen Chosin



usmc4669
02-18-04, 02:33 PM
Amust read for Marines.

http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chosin.html

namgrunt
02-18-04, 10:08 PM
Outstanding link.
I wonder if Mao's general fell on his sword for allowing the 1st MarDiv to escape the meatgrinder with intact fighting spirit.

Semper Fi!

greybeard
02-20-04, 08:48 AM
A good link!!! For me, of all the things Marine that stirs the blood and leaves me in awe-Chosin is alone at the top-in a class of it's own. I can't even imagine surviving in temps like that, much less fighting in it.
Many years ago, when I 1st began thinking of enlisting, my father sent me to talk to a friend & co-worker of his, Cecil Singelton. Cecil was a heck of a man, and had been shot in the leg on the MSR. Still walked with a limp from that wound, but he was just un-stoppable, evn in his 50's. I hauled hay for him in the summers, and there was no way he would tolerate any slackers on his ranch. He told me 1st hand about Chosin, but I didn't realize the significance of the word till after boot camp. One August day, us highscool hay haulers were complaining about how hot it was in an old barn we were stacking hay bales in, and ol Cecil just spat out his chew, and said, "You'll never see me complain about being too hot boys-it cain't get too hot". Another thing he told me that I came to fully understand, and remember word for word-like it was yesterday instead of 1967:
"The Corps is tough Donnie boy, -they're hard on you in boot camp. But when you come back home to Highlands Texas in that uniform, mainstreet won't be wide near enough for you and any other sob to walk down".

Wish I could find it again, but I read a book on the Chosin about 10 yrs ago. I remember it told about an air force general (maybe Almond?) who flew in to talk to Gen Smith about the situation.
Offered to send transports in while the weather was clear to fly the Marines out....if they would leave their equipment, wounded and dead. I roughly remember the quotted reply as: 'No, we'll bring out our equipment and wounded or the 1st Marine Division will never fight as a unit again'.

Anyone else know about that conversation and who it involved?

If any of you ever get a chance to talk personlly with someone who was there in Korea, it shouldn't be passed up. I haven't spoken to Cecil in 20-25 yrs but I can still see both the pain and pride in his eyes.