A Veterans Day Tribute

This Veterans Day holds a special significance for my family and I.  It is the first Veterans Day without my father, who I lost at the end of March.  My father's story of service is one that still amazes me to this day.  In his honor I share the following story of my father's experience in war.  He was one of the most patriotic and proud veterans I have ever known.  The following is an excerpt from a eulogy I wrote for his funeral. 

Hell at Hadong 

"Many years after I had completed my own service and had the divinely arranged opportunity to tread the same ground in Japan and Korea that my father had before me, did he entrust me with the story of his service.  I don’t know for a fact that he didn’t share his story with anyone else, but I never heard of him speak about his story of war to another. He rarely if ever spoke of his time in Korea.  In a moment I think you will understand why.  While he never said it in these words, I believe he carried with him a degree of survivor’s guilt that only time could wash away. 

            If you have ever seen the movie “We Were Soldiers” you will have a pretty good mental image of the story you are about to hear.  The primary difference is Colonel Moore’s 7th Cavalry ultimately defeated the NVA forces that encircled them as depicted in the movie.  My father’s unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 29th Infantry, wasn’t so lucky.

            Dad’s unit was primarily comprised of green, untested troops pulling occupation duty in Okinawa Japan after World War II.  When the North Koreans came screaming over the border and drove the surviving South Korean forces into the southern most port of Pusan, the Okinawa based occupation troops became the closest 911-reaction force to help the faltering South Koreans.  Thrown into the fray they were ill equipped and had only limited training.  On July 25, 1950 while on a patrol to the town of Hadong they encountered a handful of North Korean soldiers who they took under fire, however the North Koreans quickly fled over a hill.  The battalion gave chase into a low saddle; unbeknownst to Dad’s unit they had been lured into a complex u-shaped ambush.  The battle hardened North Korean 6th Division had prepared fixed positions in the mountains surrounding the small valley.  The North Koreans had pre-sighted mortars and heavy machine guns onto the valley floor that his unit had just had walked into.  The North Koreans delivered devastating plunging fire onto the men of 3rd Battalion.  His unit really never had a chance.  On that day approximately 440 soldiers of 3rd Battalion moved into the kill zone.  313 were killed in action, 100 were captured (the majority later executed by the North Koreans) the remaining few dozen escaped.  In the melee my father was shot and bayonetted.   He escaped to a nearby village with a few other soldiers and they managed to follow a river out.  After rescue his next stop was a hospital in Yokohama, Japan.  Ultimately he was discharged as “service disabled.”

            I suppose when you consider his story its not difficult to understand why he never spoke of Korea.  I don’t know definitively whether he carried guilt about being one of a small number of survivors, but given my personal experiences I suspect he did.  He was a hero in my eyes.  He always had been, and learning the story of his military experience only solidified my belief in that."

Happy Veterans Day to all who have worn the uniform!

If you were interested in reading more about the story of my father's unit, the majority of the detail and the cover photo came from the June/July issue of VFW Magazine.  The article was appropriately titled "Hell at Hadong"