What a flaming pity.......my Marine squad had no Photographer. The Army
and Marines have separate and distinct missions and Force Structure. The
Marine Corps is comprised of three Divisions, while a single Army within
the US Army has three Corps. Of all the men who served in our Military
Forces, only 2% are and were Marines.
The Marines had their own Heartbreak Ridge in Korea, and it
was a hell of a battle zone.
Those Marines you think didn't deserve the Glory for the retrograde
from Changin Reservoir, were ONE Division being attacked by Two
Chinese Field Armies who were specifically tasked with destroying the First
Marine Division. No other US or UN Unit faced those odds.
The Marines you describe as "Convalescing in the rear", were hunting
and destroying bypassed NKPA elements and Guerrillas while receiving resupply
and replacements for the over 4,000 casualties they suffered during their
retrograde movement, and battles at the reservoir.
You seem to infer that it was only the Army that stemmed the Chinese
advance during Operation Killer and the rest. Check the record.........the
Marines were there.
"Walter E. Wallis, P.E." wrote:
I have avoided getting into this discussion up to now because I have
always considered it to be in poor taste to slur fellow services. This
delicacy has, apparently, not permeated all branches.
Every winter, we are blessed with tributes to the noble marine
"advancing in another direction" from some reservoir while us West Coast
boys either rode greyhounds home from Kunu Ri or just fell to pieces. In
spite of our collapse, we were back in the line in less than a month,
first stemming the Chinese advance and then handing the war over to the
politicians, and in the meantime the marines were convalescing on rear
area security duty. The hardest blow of all was when I went to see
"Heartbreak Ridge" only to find out it was a marine epic, even though
the closest marines to Heartbreak were in the Pusan PX.
I have to be careful what I say because my grandson is going into the
marines, but since an army squad did not include a photographer, someone
occasionally has to raise a voice lest the word go out that we don't
really need an army since the marines can handle it all.Inspire 28