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Monday, November 9, 2009 9:17 PM CST
COLUMN: Duty calls for return to active duty in Korea
By JOHN R. PHIPPS, Major General (Ret.)
This is the story of my second most stressful experience. I am now nine years older than my first combat experience, am in the best physical and mental condition I will ever enjoy and in North Korea.
I can run up and down mountains with the Koreans and have a very positive attitude.
A little background.
After returning from Japan in January 1946, I rejoined my brother Clem in the shoe stores and we opened another in Champaign.
The town fathers wanted an armory in Mattoon but the state said we needed an infantry company first. So they talked me into dropping back from major in the artillery which I was at the time to captain in the infantry.
So I worked hard and got the company started in April 1947. I was S-3 (operations officer). We had five companies in Mattoon, Sullivan, Effingham, Paris and Shelbyville in the battalion (2nd Battalion, 130th infantry, Illinois National Guard).
In 1951, I had the opportunity to go to the Infantry School in Fort Benning, Ga., for the Advanced Infantry Course for field grade officers (major and above).
I worked very hard there and surprised everybody (including myself) by taking class honors even though many of my classmates were recent infantry veterans of World War II.
As a result I was appointed battalion commander and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. However, the war department said I was too young.
However, it so happened that George C. Marshall had been the recent adviser to the Illinois National Guard and was a personal friend of General Boyle the Adjutant General of Illinois. So regulations were waived and I was promoted.
Timing was good as our whole division, the 44th was activated and ordered to Camp Cook, Calif., to train for Korea.
I was ordered to Korea in September 1952. My assignment there (which I volunteered for) was as adviser to the Korean Ninth Rok Division on the Central Front.
This was the Snyper Ridge area near Kumwha. Kumwha was a small town totally destroyed by three armies marching back and forth.
In June 1953, the Chinese decided to give a final blow with a major offensive on our front. Our defenses were the same as France in World War I, which were trenches dug along the mountain ridges backed up with artillery, mortars, etc.
June 23 was a beautiful day when they charged up Jane Russell Hill and Snyper Ridge.
Watching carefully I saw that half way down our mountain the Korean Rocket Launcher team was having trouble getting their rocket set up. A recent graduate of the infantry school, I knew exactly what to do.
I presume any soldier at such a moment thinks about what is coming. The best description I have seen comes from a quote in the VFW magazine of a Civil War man named Lewis Hosea in the 16th U.S. Infantry: “Fear came later when the fight was over; just as in the waiting moments before it began. I remember having a singular feeling of curiosity about personal experiences. I seemed to be looking down on my bodily self with a sense of impersonality and wondering why I was not afraid in the midst of all the horrible uproar.”
This soldier also remarked about how clear everything was and how focused he became when the fighting began.
I remember clearly going through the two phenomena this soldier talks about.
I had no fear when I raced down the mountain. I knew instinctively what to do and how to do it — and I did it. But I was intensely aware of everything.
Each leaf and small plant stood out clearly as if newly created. I am sure psychologists have a name for this. I am sure I must have had the same reactions in the Philippines a decade earlier but I remember Korea much clearer.
Finally the Chinese withdrew from this action but they did force us back overall and we lost that part of the battlefield which is now in North Korea and is part of what is called Papasan.
I can say that intense training is the key in combat and that is what carried me through.
I did not know but at the time some senior officers were observing from the top of the mountain. Therefore I was decorated.
Did I deserve it? I do not know.
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Harry Potter wrote on Nov 10, 2009 12:19 PM: