Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 09 - Under Fire

Major General Charles A. Willoughby was in the outer office waiting to see MacArthur.

And probably to find out what MacArthur got from me.

"Come on, Charley," Howe said, looking at Willoughby, and waiting until Master Sergeant Charley Rogers had got-ten quickly from his seat and handed him his grease gun before adding, "Good morning, General Willoughby."

[TWO]

COMMAND POST

COMPANY C, 1ST BATTALION,

5TH MARINES FIRST MARINE BRIGADE (PROVISIONAL)

OBONG-NI, THE NAKTONG BULGE, SOUTH KOREA

1155 20 AUGUST 1950

The battalion exec found Charley Company's commander lying in the shade of a piece of tenting half supported by poles and half by the wall of a badly shot-up stone Korean farmhouse.

The company commander's uniform was streaked with dried mud, and he was unshaven and looked like hell, which was, of course, to be expected under the circum-stances. But nevertheless, when the company commander saw the battalion exec, he started to get up.

The exec gestured for him to stay where he was, dropped to his knees, and crawled under the canvas with him.

The company commander saluted, lying down, and the exec returned it.

"You look beat, Captain," the exec said.

"I guess I'm not used to this heat, sir."

"I don't think anybody is," the exec said. "It was a little cooler during the storm-"

He broke off when the captain's eyes told him he was monumentally uninterested in small talk.

"How badly were you hurt?" the exec asked, meaning the company, not the company commander personally.

"I lost a little more than half of my men, and two of my officers. Fourteen enlisted and one officer KIA. Some of those who went down went down with heat exhaustion."

The exec nodded.

At 0800, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines had attacked North Korean positions on Obong-ni Ridge. There had been a preliminary 105-mm howitzer barrage, and a mortar bar-rage, on the enemy positions, after which the 5th had at-tacked across a rice paddy and then up the steep slopes of the ridge. In that attack, Company A had been in the van, with B Company following and C Company in reserve.

The colonel had thought that order of battle best, primar-ily because the Charley Company commander had been on the job only a couple of days.

The colonel had found it necessary to employ his re-serve, for by the time Able Company reached the crest of the ridge, more than half its men were down, either from enemy fire or heat exhaustion, and by the time Baker Com-pany got there, they had lost a fifth of their men, mostly to exhaustion, and what was left was put to work carrying the dead and wounded off the slopes of the ridge, with Charley Company now needed to protect them.

And then the colonel had ordered everybody off Obong-ni Ridge when it was apparent to him that the men holding the crest were not going to be able to repel a North Korean counterattack.

Once everyone was back, reasonably safe, in the posi-tions they had left to begin the attack, the artillery was called in again, and the mortars, and the North Korean po-sitions on Obong-ni Ridge again came under fire.

Following which, the 1st Battalion attacked again, this time with what was left of Able and Baker Companies in the van, and with Charley Company following, and with Headquarters and Service Company in reserve.

By the time the 1st Marines again gained the crest of the hill, their strength had been reduced by 40 percent, and Charley Company had lost almost that many, but there was enough of them left, in the colonel's judgment, so they stood a reasonable chance of turning the North Korean counterattack when it inevitably came, and he had ordered the Charley Company commander to take command of the Marines on the crest and defend it to the best of his ability.

Thirty minutes after the North Korean counterattack be-gan, the colonel began receiving reports of the casualties suffered and of the ammunition running low. The colonel knew he didn't have the manpower to get ammunition in the quantities requested up the crest of Obong-ni Ridge.

He called Brigade and explained the situation. Brigade said the 2nd Battalion would be immediately sent to the area, and as soon as they arrived, he had permission to or-der his Marines back off the bill. And ordered him to make every effort to see they brought their dead and wounded back with them.

Once back, they would re-form. There were some re-placements, not as many as he would like, but that was all there was, and they would be sent as soon as possible.

`Trucks are coming," the exec said. "They're having a hell of a time getting through the mud, but they'll be here shortly."

The company commander did not reply.

"They're bringing the noon meal, and some replace-ments," the exec said. "And following an artillery softening-up, 2nd Battalion will attack through the 1st at 1600. Charley Company will lead."

"Major, I have, counting me, two officers and a platoon and a half of men."

"You'll have some of the people who went down with the heat back by then, and as I say, some replacements."

"Aye, aye, sir," the company commander said.

"And the softening barrage may be more effective this time. We've been promised a bunch-including some 155-mm-from the Army, and half the ammunition will be fused for airburst, which should do a better job on the far slopes. And it will be TOT." (Time On Target. All artillery pieces fire their tubes at the same predeter-mined instant. Among other things, this takes the enemy by surprise, and keeps him from seeking shelter before more shells land. It also has an of-ten terrifying psychological effect.)

"I wondered if anyone here had ever heard of airbursts, or thought about TOT," the company commander said.

"We're hurting them, too, Captain," the exec said.

"Yes, sir, but there seems to be a lot more of them than us," the company commander said.

"I'll be back before you move out. The 1st is up there. I don't think the NKs will try to come this way. Get the men as much rest as you can."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"You hurt your hand, Captain? You seem to be favoring it."

"My finger was hurt on the airplane on the way over here, sir. Little sore, nothing serious."

But if I ever see that candy-ass captain who did this to me again, I'm going to pull his arm off and shove it up his ass.

I wonder what that cocksucker's doing right now. Prob-ably playing tennis with his wife, the general's daughter.

Goddamn the U.S. Marine Corps.'

[THREE]

TOKCHOK-KUNDO ISLAND

1215 20 AUGUST 1950

"A little problem, Mr. Zimmerman?" Captain McCoy asked, surveying what was left of the small stone, thatch-roofed building that had housed the small German diesel generator and, the last time McCoy had been there, the SCR-300 radio. "I would say we have a world-class, A-Number-One fucking problem."

There was nothing left of the building but three walls, one of them on the edge of falling over, and the generator, which now lay on its side. The floor of the building-and the generator-was covered with a six-inch-thick layer of foul-smelling mud.

"When the storm really started getting bad, we moved the SCR-300 up the hill," Zimmerman said. "We didn't have the muscle to move the generator. By then, anyway, there was three feet of water in here. I mean all the time. When the waves hit, it was deeper; you had a hard time standing up."

Ernie means, "I had a hard time standing up," McCoy decided. I left him in charge, and he met that responsibility as best he could.

He had a mental picture of the barrel-chested Marine gunner standing in water up to his waist trying to salvage something, anything, in the generator building from the fury of the storm.

"I guess the diesel fuel's gone, too? Even if we can get that generator running again."