0:10

And we continue with our American stories.

0:13

In the fall of eighteen fifty, it looked

0:15

as though the Korean War would be over

0:18

Shortly after General Douglas MacArthur pushed

0:20

his forces deep into North Korea.

0:23

His ten thousand First Division

0:25

Marines found themselves surrounded

0:28

and hopelessly outnumbered by

0:30

one hundred thousand Chinese soldiers.

0:33

Their only chance for survival was to fight

0:35

their way south through a narrow

0:37

gorge, and needed to be held open

0:39

at all costs. The mission was

0:41

handed to Captain William Barber and

0:44

the two hundred and thirty four Marines of

0:46

Fox Company. Here to tell the story

0:49

is Tom Claven, author of

0:51

The Last Stand of Fox Company.

0:54

Let's take a listen.

0:56

The onset of the North Korean winter had

0:58

been harsh. They were froze and exhausted

1:00

when it snowed, and they were frozen and exhausted

1:03

when it didn't snow. As referring to the members

1:05

of Fox Company and unremitting

1:07

wet gale blew constantly. The Marines

1:09

took to calling at the Siberian Express

1:12

and glazed every rock with ice. Their knees,

1:14

knuckles, and elbows were covered with bloody scalps

1:17

when continually slipping on treacherous

1:19

slopes, and their feet and

1:21

hands were always numb. Hours during

1:23

the day were hardly noted, as they set their body

1:25

clocks only by daylight and darkness,

1:29

and aside from a vague awareness that Thanksgiving

1:31

had just passed and Christmas was coming, many

1:33

had no idea what date it was, much less what

1:36

day of the week. Moreover,

1:38

because canteen water had to be thawed over

1:40

campfires Stateside, notions

1:42

of hygiene had been abandoned from almost

1:44

the moment they had set foot on Korean

1:46

soil. A twig I

1:49

had to do for a toothbrush, and they could

1:51

barely lay their heads down for the night in an abandoned

1:53

hooch without waking up with a scalpful of lice.

1:56

Most had given up trying to wipe their running noses

1:59

with anything other than the sleeves of They're filed the uniforms,

2:01

and anyone who grew a mustache soon had

2:04

a revolting mass of frozen mucus. Later

2:06

a crossed his upper lip. They

2:09

bitched in grouse, but they never shirked a command,

2:11

remaining true to the Latin motto above the Eagle

2:13

and the Marine emblem Semper fidelis

2:16

always faithful, and so just

2:18

past noon, while Fox Company mustered in the

2:20

village of Hagaroorie, Lieutenant Colonel

2:22

Randolph Lockwood, commanding officer of the seventh Renement,

2:25

second Battalion, summoned his subordinate,

2:27

Captain William Edward Barber, Fox Company's

2:30

new COO, for a trip in the company jeep

2:32

to scout toc Tong Pass. Now,

2:35

this is the condition they were in before the

2:38

Battle of Fox Hill on toc Tong Pass.

2:40

So these are not marines who had been well

2:43

fed and well cared for and rested

2:45

when the time came to fight what would be an

2:48

almost unimaginable odds

2:50

against the Chinese. In

2:52

June of nineteen fifty, as many of us know, the

2:55

North Koreans crossed the thirty eighth Parallel

2:58

and invaded South Korea and

3:01

almost pushed the American

3:03

forces there in South Korean Army into the sea.

3:06

There were reinforcements were sent as

3:08

quickly as possible by

3:10

President Truman and MacArthur,

3:12

and the UN forces started to push back

3:14

and push back the North Korean

3:17

troops, and they even pushed him back beyond

3:19

the thirtieth Parallel and kept pushing, and

3:23

they started to up by the Chosen reservoir.

3:25

They were getting closer and closer to the Yalu River,

3:27

which was the border with China, and

3:30

the Chinese were getting a little bit nervous. Malsetung

3:34

and Chuan Lai were giving out warnings,

3:36

don't come any closer, don't try to initiate

3:38

a war with us. If you make us

3:40

more nervous, we'll enter the war. And

3:44

I guess it was kind of hard for MacArthur, who

3:46

was a string of victory after victory

3:49

going through the fall of nineteen fifty to say

3:51

stop. They also didn't

3:53

believe the Chinese went enter the war. They thought that the

3:55

Chinese were maybe in a vulnerable position

3:57

then because it had only been the year before that they defeated

3:59

checks Kaishek and assumed the control

4:02

of the country, so they must be tired and depleted

4:04

the Chinese armies and maybe couldn't really put up much

4:06

of a fight. They were wrong. What

4:08

happened was the Chinese sent something

4:11

like three hundred thousand troops across the Yalu

4:13

River to engage the UN

4:15

forces, most of whom were American

4:17

soldiers, army and marines, and

4:20

the First Marine Division. Some of its

4:22

forces were down in a place called hagarou

4:25

Ri, which was south of the Chosen

4:27

Reservoir and where the UN was setting up

4:29

UN forces was setting up a perimeter that presumably

4:31

would stop the Chinese from getting any further. But

4:34

the rest of the First Marine Division

4:37

was up in a place called Yu Damni, and

4:40

they had at most maybe eight thousand

4:42

marines up there. They

4:44

were being approached by one hundred thousand Chinese

4:47

soldiers. Those are not good odds. And

4:51

there is a place called Taktang Pass

4:53

which was the only escape route

4:56

for those remaining members of the

4:58

First Marine Division, and the

5:00

Chinese realized that, so

5:03

they decided they were going to try and close down that pass,

5:05

which would block off the escape route. And

5:09

a couple of the American officers, Colonel

5:11

Litzenberg had the seventh Regiment, realized,

5:13

we got to keep that pass open. Unfortunately,

5:16

they weren't a surplus of American troops

5:18

to go around. What they had was Fox

5:20

Company, two hundred and forty six men,

5:23

and the orders were given for Captain William

5:25

Barber and his men to go either

5:29

by truck and by walking and hiking seven

5:31

miles up into the mountains to reach

5:33

tac Toong Pass, and when they

5:35

did, they were supposed to hold it for at least one night.

5:38

Maybe if you hold it one night, we can get enough

5:40

people out that everything's okay. So

5:42

that was basically their mission, and

5:45

so Fox Company went up there.

5:47

It was the night of November twenty seventh, nineteen

5:49

fifty. The temperature when

5:51

they reached the top of talk Toong passed and this is seven

5:53

miles uphills, is

5:56

not fun for any of us. The

5:58

temperature when they reached the top of talk Time Pass

6:00

was thirty below zero. So

6:02

it's not windshill. There was a temperature

6:05

thirty below zero. I would just referred to here

6:07

the Siberian Express, that wind

6:09

that came off Siberia right across

6:12

Korea. And they got

6:14

up there and they tried to dig

6:16

in. And so as

6:18

night is falling, they're trying to dig a trench

6:20

or dig a foxhole or dig something, and

6:23

their spades are clanging off the ground and

6:25

pitting themselves in the head. They're knocking

6:27

themselves out trying to dig in. So they just did the best

6:29

they can and they settled

6:31

in for the night, hoping that

6:33

maybe the Chinese would decide not to

6:35

come their way. What they had

6:37

no idea of knowing these two hundred and forty six men.

6:40

That was only discovered later on is

6:42

that the Chinese assigned ten thousand

6:44

troops to take that pass. Again,

6:46

let's do the math. Not good. Actually,

6:49

it's very fortunate they did not know what

6:51

they were facing. So this is where

6:53

it all began. The Chinese attacked

6:57

the Fox men of Fox Company withheld

7:00

as best they could all during

7:02

the night until dawn. Captain

7:04

Barbara had set up a perimeter as best he could.

7:06

That our understanding is still being taught

7:08

in some classes at Quantico,

7:11

because it was extremely effective at

7:14

not leaving much of any gaps for

7:16

the Chinese to get through, and

7:18

covering fire from different positions. And

7:21

they made it through the first night, which was supposed

7:23

to be their only night, if they could hold it for one night, they

7:26

made it through the first night. When dawn

7:28

came, the Chinese retreated. The attacks

7:30

stopped, And the reason for that

7:32

was that the Chinese were very afraid

7:34

of the American and Australian pilots

7:37

air Force. They had a

7:39

certain kind of swagger to them and

7:41

they could inflict a lot of damage,

7:43

and the Chinese, who did not have an air force,

7:45

really were kind of exposed in the daytime,

7:48

so they would only attack at night. As

7:50

Fox Company learned, if you can make

7:52

it till dawn, you've survived, because

7:54

the Chinese will retreat. So this

7:57

first night of battle, they made it

7:59

to dawn, and then

8:01

they had to count well who was left and how many were

8:03

left, and out of the

8:05

original two forty six, after the

8:07

first night, Captain Barber was able to

8:10

ascertain that he had about one hundred

8:12

and seventy five what he called effectives. These

8:14

were men who hadn't been killed and

8:17

who were not seriously wounded.

8:19

They may have been Some of them may have been wounded, but not

8:22

as seriously that they couldn't maintain

8:24

their position. So

8:27

during the daytime they still had the problem

8:29

with snipers. The Chinese would be up in the hills

8:31

and sniping on them. There would

8:33

be air drops made of supplies,

8:36

but it turned out that what Fox Company received

8:38

was ammunition but no food, and

8:41

it might not have mattered anyway because they couldn't

8:43

eat the food. The rations that they were given

8:46

were frozen.

8:47

And you've been listening to Tom Claven, author

8:49

of the Last Stand of Fox Company.

8:52

Go to Amazon or the usual suspects

8:54

and pick up a copy. North Korea

8:56

is a war that's sort of forgotten. Is a lot written

8:59

about World War I tie a whole lot written

9:01

about Vietnam. But we lost fifty thousand

9:03

men in Korea, and we lost it for

9:05

a reason. I mean, look on a map

9:08

today and there's North Korea and there's

9:10

South Korea. When they say our

9:12

wars had no purpose in

9:14

the Far East after World War

9:16

Two, we have only one shining

9:19

example to point to the freedom

9:21

enjoyed in South Korea and the nightmare

9:24

that is living in North Korea. When

9:27

we come back, we'll find out what happened

9:29

to Fox Company under the able leadership

9:32

of Captain William Barber. Here

9:34

on our American stories,

10:09

and we continue with our American stories

10:11

and with Tom Claven, author of

10:13

The Last Stand of Fox

10:15

Company. We just learned that of the two

10:17

hundred and forty six original

10:19

troops there to defend

10:21

Doc Tong Pass, only one hundred

10:24

and seventy five after Night one

10:26

were quote effective, that is,

10:28

not killed or seriously wounded.

10:31

Let's continue the story. Here's Claven.

10:34

They couldn't light fires. I mean maybe during

10:36

the day sneak in a few fires to try and heat something

10:38

up, but certainly at night to give away their positions.

10:41

So what was happening is as time was going on, these

10:43

men were not able to eat any food.

10:46

Maybe they would be able to melt a tutsi

10:48

roll. A little details interesting that I'm glad

10:50

I remembered is that a benefit

10:53

to the cold is that in many cases,

10:55

when one of these marines was shot and

10:57

the wound started to bleed, because

10:59

the intense cold, the blood froze.

11:02

It stopped the bleeding. So some

11:04

of the fellas alive today or because they

11:07

did not bleed to death. The other thing about

11:09

the coremen is they were going around treating people who

11:11

had gotten wounded. They had to keep

11:13

these morphine thurreats. They

11:16

kept them in their mouths to

11:18

keep them from freezing. So

11:20

when they found somebody who was wounded, they

11:22

would take something out of their mouth and inject it

11:25

so that they can get that relief, because if they didn't,

11:27

the morphine would freeze and they would

11:30

be no good. So they got through

11:32

the first night. This is the next day where

11:34

they're trying to regroup. They had to contract their

11:36

perimeter a little bit. Captain Barber is

11:38

going around to the men, the different platoons.

11:40

He said to them, he said, it will be

11:43

okay as long as we fight like marines. That

11:45

was what he kept saying to them, to sort of rally

11:47

them and keep their spirits up. Now

11:49

while he's doing this, of course, the Chinese snipers

11:51

are after him and his bullets pinging and

11:53

bouncing off all over the place, and

11:55

a couple of his men kept saying to him, captain, would

11:57

you get down, I mean, you're exposing yourself

12:00

to the enemy fire. And he made this declaration

12:02

that I know sounds like maybe

12:06

silly bravado in a way, but he

12:08

said to his men, he said, they haven't yet made

12:11

the bullet that can kill me. And

12:13

they were like, wow, you know this is

12:16

a captain, and they turned out to be right. So

12:19

he's going around, you know, rallying the troops, having

12:21

them try and dig in some more if they can get

12:23

some rest in some ways. And

12:25

the Chinese second night came and the Chinese attacked

12:28

again, and they had since been reinforced,

12:30

so there were more of them, and they came at Fox Hill

12:32

again, and sometimes

12:35

what it came down to it was individual marines

12:38

or small groups of marines deciding

12:42

that we might be surrounded, we

12:44

might be overrun, but we're not leaving our

12:46

position. And that's what happened in many of

12:48

these cases. They were not necessarily ordered by somebody

12:50

you have to stay here until you die or until

12:53

you can't do anything else.

12:55

These young men decided,

12:57

we're not giving up. We're going to hold our

12:59

position. You're not talking about

13:02

long term regular marines who

13:04

made up the majority of Fox Company. A

13:06

lot of these guys were reserves that were called up

13:09

and sent overseas when the Korean War

13:11

broke out, So they were not people

13:13

that had this great experience, the battle

13:15

hardened experience. They

13:17

were eighty there was the youngest was sixteen

13:19

years old. He had sort of stuck in and here he finds

13:22

himself in Korea. There's a fellow named

13:24

Hector Caffarata, who

13:26

is a screw up who

13:29

would get a promotion and then do something wrong,

13:31

get busted again, and do something good,

13:33

but then get busted again. And

13:36

his friend Kenny Benson, both of New Jersey.

13:38

Kenny Benson was a guy who wore these big

13:40

thick glasses and like Hector,

13:43

always did the wrong thing and always was getting

13:45

in trouble for his commanding officer. They

13:49

were sharing what they could call a foxhole

13:51

together, and

13:54

that came a point where the Chinese attacked were

13:56

coming up from up the hill at

13:58

their position and Cafferrata

14:02

what would happen is that the Chinese were throwing

14:04

grenades and one of them went off as

14:07

Benson was trying to reach

14:09

for it, and it went off and it shattered

14:11

his glasses and pieces went into his eyes, and he was

14:13

blinded. He couldn't see. There was another

14:15

grenade that came up there that Cafferata went to

14:17

toss away with his left hand. Just as he left of hand,

14:20

it exploded, cost him a couple of fingers.

14:23

This made them angry,

14:25

and so what happened was Caffarrata

14:28

just got out of the fox hole and he just started

14:30

firing at these Chinese,

14:33

advancing Chinese soldiers. When his gun

14:35

ran out of AMMO, he gave it to Benson. Benson

14:37

is blind, but he's a marine who trained

14:39

as a marine. He could reload

14:41

without being able to see. He reloads.

14:44

Caferata is firing away, kills some more

14:47

and they did. This is going on. Then

14:49

the Chinese decide, after countless

14:52

numbers have fallen down being shot, what

14:54

are we do in charging this guy? Why don't we throw grenades

14:56

at him and blow him up? So they

14:58

start throwing grenades. Ferada the only

15:00

sport he was interested in at any time in his life was hunting.

15:03

He don't know baseball, football or anything like that. He

15:05

picks up a spade and he starts

15:07

batting of graades. Mcgreades go back

15:10

and start blowing up the Chinese that are running up the hill.

15:12

It sounds funny, but this is what

15:14

happened, is and not only the eyewitness accounts,

15:16

but as I again getting ahead of a little story a little bit, but

15:19

it was this description which was by his commanding

15:21

officer. A lieutenant of his platoon witnessed this

15:23

going on, addition to a few others, which

15:25

is why Hector ka Ferata was

15:27

one of the three winners of the Medal of Honor for the Battle

15:30

of Fox Hill. The

15:32

man who put him in for the Medal of Honor, with Lieutenant

15:34

Robert McCarthy, listed that

15:37

during the course of that night that Cafarata

15:39

killed something like forty one Chinese.

15:44

The actual count by those at Fox Hild

15:46

that day was that over one hundred Chinese were dead

15:48

thanks to caffarata between his guns, and

15:51

but when McCarthy was asked about it, he said,

15:54

no way any would believe me, so I put

15:56

a lower number so that they wouldn't think

15:58

I was making it up. Anyway.

16:00

That position held throughout the night, and

16:04

Confarado only realized towards the morning

16:06

that he had left his sleeping bag when the

16:08

attack began without putting his boots on. So

16:10

he's there in his stocking feet and thirty blow zero

16:13

fighting these guys off, as if the odds

16:15

weren't bad enough. Dick Bonelli,

16:17

Dick Bonelli, the guy who stole a car and ended

16:19

up in Fox Company. There's a

16:21

point where he has to take over a machine gun

16:24

because everybody around it he's the only one left. Everyone else

16:26

has died. He hasn't used the machine gun

16:28

since Basic. But his lieutenant says

16:30

to him, you either man that position or I find

16:32

you dead over that gun, and so

16:34

he does. He keeps his position, and

16:36

then the point comes where they're starting to surround him,

16:38

and he sees some other people surrounding. He

16:41

actually what we would call now a rambo

16:43

moment. He just puts the bandoliers over

16:45

his chest, picks up the gun, and start working

16:47

his way down the hill. As he's mowing down

16:49

the Chinese, he ended up with the silver Star. The

16:52

other thing that they which we didn't mention, but is

16:54

also relevant to this, is that they

16:56

discovered when they started to count the Chinese dead

16:58

and look them over the bodies, that many

17:01

of the Chinese soldiers had already tied tourniquets

17:04

on their legs in their arms, so

17:06

that if they got shot

17:08

in those areas, their legs in the arms, they

17:11

would not bleed to death. They can keep coming, they could keep

17:13

fighting. So they like pre

17:15

treated themselves for wounds

17:17

their limbs. So pretty

17:20

fanatical, and as you can imagine, it's even

17:22

more amazing that any of Fox

17:24

companies survived because not only were

17:26

they being you know, trying to hold back ten thousand

17:28

troops, but some of them just got up and kept coming

17:30

again. There's another story

17:33

of what happened to of

17:35

another one of our characters, Walt Hiskett, born

17:37

and raised in Chicago. He gets wounded

17:39

the first wounded the first night, very seriously wounded,

17:41

and he's in the mid tent that they set up

17:44

and at some point on

17:46

the second night, a sergeant comes in the

17:48

medical tent and says, listen, fellas that

17:50

were being overrun. We don't know who's going

17:52

to come. The next one in this tent's going to be. If

17:55

it's Chinese. Maybe if you just lie

17:57

there, don't pick up a gun or anything, they'll let you live.

18:00

Don't know what to tell you, but start praying. He

18:02

runs out again. So for the

18:04

next few hours of the night, different

18:06

prayers are being said. They hear

18:08

all kinds of sounds and the noise outside

18:10

of the fighting and the bullets and the grenades and the

18:13

mortars and everything else. And there's all kinds

18:15

of bullets that are flying through the tent because

18:17

of the crossfires going on. And

18:19

then well Hisskeott had this wonderful story

18:22

of when he's lying there, and

18:25

this is after he said to the guy next to him, he says,

18:27

tell you what, he's not a religious guy. He said, he said,

18:29

I might make it. I might make it through tonight. I'm going to

18:31

dedicate my life to God. They meant it very

18:34

sincerely. Anyway, he's lying there, and

18:36

they know if they make it till dawn, they've survived.

18:39

And then all of a sudden they start to see

18:42

these thin beams of sunlight come through the bullet

18:44

holes in the tent because the sun is rising.

18:46

I just love that image, thin beams

18:49

of sunlight coming through, and I know everybody knows

18:51

the wounded. No, we've survived, We've

18:53

made it through another night.

18:55

And you're listening to Tom Claven,

18:57

author of The Last Stand of Fox comey,

19:00

and what a story he's telling us,

19:03

and my goodness, the story of just what

19:05

some of the reserves did, particularly

19:07

Hector Albert Cafferata Medal

19:09

of Honor winner. He killed over one hundred

19:12

Chinese, but they had to lower the number because

19:14

no one would have believed he could have killed

19:17

that many enemy soldiers. When we

19:19

come back, more of the remarkable

19:21

story of the Last Stand

19:23

a Fox Company. Here on our

19:26

American stories, and

19:38

we continue with our American stories

19:41

and with Tom Clavin, and he's

19:43

the author of the Last Stand of Fox

19:46

Company. Let's pick up where we

19:48

last left off.

19:50

What ended up happening is Colonel Listenberg had

19:52

radio Barber and said, listen, we're

19:55

sort of out of harm's way. You can

19:57

leave now. And then Barbara looked

19:59

around and he said

20:01

we're surrounded. You know, he didn't know what the

20:03

exact number turned out that they were, you know, ten thousand

20:06

Chinese around them. There's

20:08

no place for us to go, you know. Basically

20:11

he was not saying it, but he knew this had turned into

20:13

a suicide mission. And he said, goodbye

20:15

and good luck. We will hold as long as we can, and

20:17

that was how he signed off. Well, they

20:20

held first night, the second

20:22

night, the third night, when they ran

20:24

out of ammunition, they fought with knives, with rocks,

20:27

with their helmets, and

20:29

Barbara at one point was

20:31

shot, took a bullet in the groin. Out

20:34

of all places, he refused

20:37

to lie down. He refused. They offered

20:39

to make a stretcher for him. He grabbed

20:41

a tree branch and he would go from position

20:44

to position, limping on his tree branch to

20:47

encourage his troops to tell

20:49

them, you know, we'll hold, we will hold, we

20:51

will hold. It became like his mantra. Now,

20:55

after three nights of this and contact

20:57

that have eventually been lost with Regiment A headquarters,

21:00

a character comes into the story, a gentleman

21:02

named Raymond Davis. He

21:05

was a lieutenant colonel at the time. He was the head of the first

21:07

Battalion, seventh Regiment, and he

21:09

and his men had made it to death to Hagaroorie

21:12

and were basically safe.

21:14

But he said, we can't leave Fox

21:16

Company behind. Maybe we can get enough guys

21:19

to relieve them. So he raised four

21:21

hundred marines and they

21:23

did something. Instead of going the main

21:25

route where they would be totally exposed to the Chinese,

21:28

they went over the mountains, basically

21:30

over the ridges. Sometimes the snow was

21:32

chest deep, and they did it to have try

21:34

and avoid engaging the Chinese. They wanted to sneak

21:36

past them to get to Fox Company to relieve

21:39

them if they could. There were some firefights

21:41

they stumbled upon some Chinese positions, but

21:43

otherwise they went. They took

21:46

them two nights to do this, and sometimes

21:48

they went off course. Sometimes they were so exhausted

21:50

they couldn't see what they were doing, but they kept

21:53

plunging on in the snow, trudging, trudging,

21:55

trudging, and finally

21:57

on the fit would turned out to be the fifth day they

22:00

get to They were called eventually be called

22:02

the ridge runners because that's what they did as fast

22:04

as they could up and down the ridges, and

22:07

they got to came over the hill

22:10

where Fox Company was not knowing if

22:12

they were going to find anybody alive, and

22:16

they there was an astonishing

22:18

site that they saw. And as a character in the book named

22:20

Joe Owen, who was one of the Ridge runners who

22:23

described it for me, he

22:25

got to a certain point where he could see, you know,

22:27

they Fox Company guys were waving, was

22:30

still here? Was still here, some of them anyway, And

22:33

he got to the point where they were advancing so that

22:35

they could walk to where the Fox Company perimeter

22:37

was a little bit that was left of it. And

22:41

he walked something like the last one hundred

22:43

yards or so. His feet never touched

22:45

the ground. The reason why it was littered

22:47

with Chinese corpses. There

22:49

were one hundreds it turned out to be there were two thousand of them.

22:52

They were all over the place and they

22:56

had just been mown down over the three three four

22:58

nights of fighting by Fox Company. And

23:00

there was this rather emotional meeting

23:02

between Colonel Davis and Captain

23:05

Barber, because they

23:07

didn't know if they'd see each other alive. And

23:10

Davis was very emotionally

23:13

affected by seeing Barber,

23:15

you know, standing there staggering on his tree

23:17

limb, and the few guys who were left,

23:20

and this little perimeter, you know, had

23:22

become like the Alamo, but with a few survivors.

23:25

And Barbara was thinking, oh my god,

23:27

you guys came back for us. You know, you

23:29

didn't abandon you know, Marines

23:32

don't leave other marines behind. And

23:34

so this was kind of this emotional meeting in which

23:36

it was emotional for people witnessing it, but they couldn't

23:39

say anything to each other. They couldn't find

23:41

the words. So anyway,

23:43

out of the two hundred and forty six that went

23:45

up that hill, let me mention something about the Chinese too.

23:49

After the fifth day, the commander

23:51

of the Chinese was saying, you know, we've

23:53

been trying to dislodge these

23:55

guys and it's not going to happen.

23:57

I can't afford to lose any more guys. I mean,

23:59

I've lost two thousand soldiers already.

24:02

So they turned around and left, you

24:04

know, And so Fox Company,

24:07

excuse me, Colonel Davis's men could

24:09

make stretchers and stuff like that. At the

24:11

two hundred and forty six that went up to Fox

24:14

Hill sixty, we're able

24:16

to walk off it. The rest

24:18

were either dead or were had

24:20

to be carried off in stretchers, including

24:23

the point finally came with Colonel Captain Barber

24:25

couldn't couldn't stand anymore, couldn't walk,

24:28

So they put him on a stretcher and he had to turn over command

24:31

of the company to Elmo Peterson.

24:34

Elmo Peterson was by this point

24:37

he had not eaten or slept in like five

24:39

days, and he had

24:42

by this point had three bullets in him. He

24:44

refused to lie down. He refused he

24:47

was going to command his platoon and co

24:49

command the company. What Fox

24:52

Company had to do at this point was they

24:55

had to walk hike down the

24:57

MSR, the main supply route to

25:01

the American

25:03

perimeter, the newly established American perimeter

25:05

in haigar Ure, which was a safe point and

25:08

which was fortified enough that the Chinese

25:10

would not attack it. They tried a few times and

25:12

been repelled, And so

25:14

that's what they did. It took him something

25:17

like twenty hours of hiking. These guys are

25:19

frostbitten and they get to like

25:22

about whatever it is one hundred yards

25:25

of the American perimeter. And

25:28

that's when Elmo Peterson

25:30

finally falters. Like I say, this, by

25:32

this point is six days. He hasn't slept or eating. He's got the bullets

25:34

in them and everything, and he finally gets to a

25:36

point where he just goes like this and he falls to his

25:39

knees in the snow, and then he goes over on his

25:41

face, and a couple of the

25:43

guys in Fox Company, who we

25:45

have, of course, we interviewed for this, went over

25:47

to him. They pick him up. They think this is still a pulse,

25:49

so they you know, he put they put his

25:51

arms around their shoulders. They're dragging

25:54

him towards the American perimeter and

25:56

then he gets he gets close, he gets closer to

25:58

it, and he regains consciousness and he says, I'm

26:00

walking, I'm walking across, I'm walking in.

26:03

So meanwhile the rest of the company, they're not in great

26:05

shape either. You think of the painting

26:07

of the Spirit of seventy six. One guy's got a bandage

26:10

around his eye and the other one's got this. That's what these guys

26:12

look like, you know, in awful shape.

26:14

And they actually get to the point where they're about

26:17

to cross into the perimeter, and

26:19

Peterson and a couple of other officers say, no,

26:21

we're going to enter like marines. They

26:24

actually have these guys the sixty guys who were left

26:26

Fox Company straighten up, get

26:29

back erect and as they cross

26:31

into the American perimeter, they sing

26:34

the Marine Corps him. You know, even

26:36

Hollywood couldn't make this up. We

26:38

really felt that people would want to know. Okay,

26:40

we've been spending whatever it is,

26:42

two hundred and eighty five pages with these guys

26:45

and all the things they went through, what happened

26:48

to them. I won't go on to

26:50

everybody but Walt Hissken Is because at least

26:52

to the next thing, I'm going to say an amazing

26:54

story. He did, He did survive. He goes

26:56

back to Chicago, gets a job

26:58

in construction, finishes his high school equivalencely

27:01

diploma, goes to college, finishes

27:03

college, goes to the seminary, becomes a

27:06

minister, and

27:09

then he was out of the Marine Corps.

27:11

At this time, he enlisted in the Navy, and

27:14

he spends twenty four years in the Navy as

27:16

a chaplain. When

27:19

he retires, he is the head

27:21

of the Marine Corps Chaplains

27:23

of the Navy, and in nineteen

27:26

sixty seven and sixty eight he

27:29

is the chaplain for Fox Company when it

27:31

was deployed to Vietnam. This

27:33

is an amazing story of Walt Hiskett. I'm glad

27:35

to report he's alive and well living in Arizona.

27:37

He's a wonderful, wonderful man. Most

27:40

of the members, surviving members of Fox Company

27:42

to this day still suffer from the consequences

27:45

of the frostbite they suffered

27:47

during the Battle of Fox Hill. Dick Bonelli joined

27:51

the US Postal Service when

27:53

he came back to the United States, and during

27:55

his career there he

27:57

could not work in a facility in which

27:59

the temperature fell below sixty eight degrees. He

28:02

just couldn't. His hands would stopped working, you know,

28:04

because of the frostbite that he suffered, and

28:07

so he had sometimes had to be transferred, you know,

28:09

and he ended up in Florida, which worked better for

28:11

him. He and Hector Cafferato are practically neighbors.

28:15

I should mention, I think I forgot that Hector caw fraud

28:17

I didn't mention. I think at the Middle of Honor, so

28:19

did Captain William Barber, and so did Colonel

28:21

Raymond Davis. So there were three Medal of

28:23

Honor winners out of this event.

28:26

Yeah. A lot of times when authors

28:28

write their books they'll say this, this is dedicated

28:31

to my wife or my children, or by this, but

28:33

our dedication is to the United States Marines

28:35

who fought and died on Fox Hill.

28:37

And a terrific job on the editing of this

28:39

story by Greg Hengler, And a

28:41

special thanks to Tom Claven and his

28:44

co author is always Bob Drury

28:46

for telling this story in the first

28:48

place. We care about these stories here

28:50

in now American stories. Americans

28:53

care about these stories. That's why their books

28:55

are best sellers hearing stories

28:58

like this, these stories of valor,

29:00

honor, courage, and my goodness,

29:02

the idea of it, You're going to leave no marine

29:04

behind, and how breathtaking

29:07

it is to see that in action. Even these marines

29:09

were stunned that others were coming

29:11

to their aid under such treacherous

29:14

circumstances, and that we'd all want

29:16

something like that in our life, that

29:18

someone would do something like that for US

29:21

risk Golf, for US three Medal

29:23

of Honor recipients, Captain William

29:26

Barber, Colonel Raymond Davis,

29:28

and of course Hector

29:31

Albert Caferata. And Caferata

29:34

was a marine reserve, and so many

29:36

of these guys were reserves. Were not a lot

29:38

of military experience. Boy,

29:41

they got it quick. Two hundred

29:43

and forty six started the mission. Sixty

29:46

were able to walk off. The

29:48

story of the last stand of Fox Company

29:51

a beauty. Here on our American

29:53

stories. Joy

30:09

us

30:13

Name