When L Company got down to fighting tanks, I knew our 2.36 bazooka didn’t work. The seat in hell closest to the fire is reserved for the Army officers who knew this and didn’t tell. I climbed on the top of the first Soviet-made T-34 tank. The Koreans would open their plug, stick out a burp gun and fire it to clear people off the tank’s back. Being safe on top, I hit the plug with my rifle butt and broke the chain. The sergeant with me, Hugh Brown, best fighting man I’ve ever known, put 15 rounds from his M-2 through the open port when the burp gunner paused to reload. We got the next tank by pouring a five-gallon can of gas on its hot engine compartment. Then we went back and burned the other tank.
We were low on ammunition and couldn’t get resupplied. Unknown to us, Koreans had already flanked our position and had machine guns on the ridge behind us. My own platoon was destroyed because we stayed too long in a losing fight. I took the DSC citation for the Chochiwon fight back to “Love” Company’s location. My handwritten note said it was for the men who were killed or captured there. My perceptive French wife is convinced that I would never have spent my adult life as a soldier if there had been psychiatrists available to relieve my guilt at staying alive while so many of the men with me were killed.
title: “A Survivor S Guilt” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-03” author: “Vivian Crye”
When L Company got down to fighting tanks, I knew our 2.36 bazooka didn’t work. The seat in hell closest to the fire is reserved for the Army officers who knew this and didn’t tell. I climbed on the top of the first Soviet-made T-34 tank. The Koreans would open their plug, stick out a burp gun and fire it to clear people off the tank’s back. Being safe on top, I hit the plug with my rifle butt and broke the chain. The sergeant with me, Hugh Brown, best fighting man I’ve ever known, put 15 rounds from his M-2 through the open port when the burp gunner paused to reload. We got the next tank by pouring a five-gallon can of gas on its hot engine compartment. Then we went back and burned the other tank.
We were low on ammunition and couldn’t get resupplied. Unknown to us, Koreans had already flanked our position and had machine guns on the ridge behind us. My own platoon was destroyed because we stayed too long in a losing fight. I took the DSC citation for the Chochiwon fight back to “Love” Company’s location. My handwritten note said it was for the men who were killed or captured there. My perceptive French wife is convinced that I would never have spent my adult life as a soldier if there had been psychiatrists available to relieve my guilt at staying alive while so many of the men with me were killed.
