Re: Kunu Ri Pass

[John C Cheek <johncheek1@juno.com>]

"Ten thousand Chinks pouring into the pass
Playing burb-gun boogie on the GI's ass
And I'm a movin' on."

        I forget the rest of the words of that song that was popular
among the troops during the Korean War.
However, I may be privy to a story that explains its origin.
        I sat out back of my ASA bunker one sunny day in the early summer
of 1953 and shot the s*** with a Marine sergeant that I had just sold a
bottle of whiskey. He told me he had been a forward observer positioned
on top of a high hill overlooking ____ Pass (I forget the name of the
pass). A column of US Army half-tracks were moving north along the road
through the pass when thousands of Chinese came out of hiding on both
sides and started pouring down and across the pass which was only a few
hundred yards wide. The half-tracks pulled up bumper to bumper and their
twin 50s fired into the mob of Chinese until their bodies piled up so
high that they were just firing into a mass of bodies. In an attempt to
help them escape, the Marine observer called in artillery on the
positions around them but it didn't stop the Chinese who overrun the
half-tracts. Does this story ring a bell with anyone on this list? Was
this Kunu Ri Pass?

John Cheek
www.authorsden.com/jcharlescheek


On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 17:43:18 -0700 "walter e wallis"
<unclgene@pacbell.net> writes:
> "...just a-movin' on...We'll soon be gone."
> 
> Inspire 28
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu
> [mailto:owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu]On Behalf Of Ed 
> Evanhoe
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 3:21 PM
> To: KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu
> Subject: RE: Kunu Ri Pass
> 
> 
> At 03:00 PM 6/18/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> >"How Able" is a life saving maneuver, famous in December '50.
> >
> >Inspire 28
> 
> I believe that goes along with a popular song of that period, "The 
> Bugout 
> Buggie" and follows the lyrics, "When you hear the pitter-patter of 
> great 
> big feet you know the XXX is in full retreat." <LOL>
> 
> Ed
> 
> 
> Ed Evanhoe, PO Box 916, Antlers, OK, 74523-0916
> Life Member: Special Forces & Special Operations Associations
> Author:  DARKMOON:  Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean 
> War
> 
> 
> 


John Cheek
Author of "Stay Safe, Buddy"
A Novel about Humor & Horror during the Korean War
www.authorsden.com/jcharlescheek