Re: HELP!

[<DGill11331@aol.com>]

    Two weeks ago I bought a book "Breakout" written by Martin Russ and 
published by the Penguin Group in 2000.  The book is about the "Chosin 
Reservoir Campaign." On pages 17-21 Mr. Russ covers the 1st Battalion, 1st 
Marine Regiment at Kojo, North Korea. 
    I have never been so enraged, humiliated, and heartbroken, as I was when 
I read Russ' erroneous reporting on what had happened on Hill 109 in the Kojo 
area. Russ' accounts of the men and what had happened to them are totally 
untrue and implies that our Navy corpsman, Dorin Stafford, refused to leave 
Hill 109 so that he could stay behind with the wounded.  Russ' story implies 
that the surviving men retreated and left their wounded -- this far from the 
truth.
    Although the first page of the book says that Russ was a Marine (Purple 
Heart) in Korea, if Russ actually believes that his buddies would abandon 
their wounded under any circumstances, he wasn't in the same United States 
Marine Corps that I was in. He also implies Stafford was taken prisoner as a 
result of the unit's actions. Russ' other accounts of the other happenings on 
Hill 109 are totally without merit.
    I believe the original account of what happened on Hill 109 (one of Russ' 
sources), can be found in Andrew Geer's 1952 book, "The New Breed."  Although 
Geer's book is the closest to the truth, it also suffers from the mal-use of 
a writer's license. Over the years I have read a steady increasing negative 
spin of Geer's accounts.  Each succeeding book (after Geer's) that I have 
read this story in takes on a new life-of-its-own.  This includes Volume III 
of the official U.S. Marine History U.S. Marine Operations in Korea (not 
listed as one of Russ' sources) whose coverage of Kojo and Hill 109 also is 
erroneous and with merit. 
    Another relatively new book, William B. Hopkins' book (1986) "One Bugle 
No Drums" (another of Russ' sources) is another prime example of the mal-use 
of a writer's license.  What I find hard to understand is that even though 
Hopkins was at that time in charge of the 1st Battalion's Headquarters and 
Service Company, his account of what happened at Kojo and especially what 
happened on Hill 109 to Baker Company's First Platoon and Sgt. Robert's 
machinegun section is laced with the figments of his imagination. Hopkins' 
book also distorts and misrepresents and spins many other facts.
    As you may have guessed by now I was one of the men in the 1st Platoon on 
Hill 109 and I am crushed by Russ' implications that the actions of the men 
on Hill 109 were less than honorable.  The next day after the fight on Hill 
109, only 17 men were alive to tell their story, but none of those 17 men 
were asked by anyone - "What happened to you on Hill 109?"  Instead authors 
of books (that may be of great historical value) have shamelessly used their 
books, without any regard for the truth, to defamed men of great honor and 
integrity.
    I am heartbroken because Russ' book disgraces the honorable name of the 
surviving men of 1st Platoon Baker Company, who were in all reality heroes. 
Men  who fought valiantly and whose actions conformed in every respect with 
Marine Corps traditions. Men who never once entertained a thought, or did 
they leave their wounded behind.  When the surviving men from Hill 109 were 
ordered to leave the hill, the unit had no wounded.  All the causalities 
(over half their number) they had taken up to the time the men left the hill 
-- were dead - they had no living wounded.
    These men honorably fought in a no-win situation, brought about by the 
highest level of incompetent leadership, only to be rewarded by having their 
good names and reputations besmeared by writers whose only apparent motive is 
to sell books without regard for the truth or history.  To have the men of 
the 1st Platoon's (and that includes me) honor and integrity besmeared by 
authors of books that will be read and used as a source by future historians 
and generations of other book writers is intolerable.  HELP! WHAT CAN I DO TO 
UNDO THIS WRONG AND PROTECT THE HONOR, INTEGRITY AND DIGNITY OF THE MEN WHO 
SURVIVED HILL 109? 
    Over the years I have been writing my memoirs on my experiences in Korea. 
One of the chapters in my memoirs is entitled "Kojo and Hill 109." To help 
set the record straight, if anyone has read any other author's accounts of 
Kojo and Hill 109, or even if someone is just curious and wants to know the 
true story of what happened to Baker Company's 1st Platoon, Stafford and 
Roberts' machinegun section on Hill 109, I will only be too glad to E-mail 
them a file containing a detailed first-hand account. All I need is an E-mail 
address to send it to.  DON GILL