80page

yond perceived individual limits into combat units that simply refuse to con- sider defeat. The lessons of Fox Hill are pervasive and permanent, and The Last Stand etches those lessons for any as- piring combat leader. This narrative also portrays in detail several Marines who play pivotal roles. Their personalities and backgrounds underscore the truth that an assem- blage of “ordinary” Americans, includ- ing untested boots and reservists, could and did fight as a unit of epic stature. The geography and the weather, as well, become central “characters”; the ever-present harshness of record cold and gale force winds severely tested the human stamina and morale of both friend and foe. Capt Barber’s skill, training, prior combat experience (Iwo), and tenacious natural leadership clearly improved the Marines’ stark odds. No amount of fatigue, pain, dan- ger, anguish, or physical difficulty ever deterred him from his mission focus and his concern for his Marines. As the Chinese crystallized their plans to destroy the 8,000 Marines to the north of Fox Hill, the small com- pany of Marines on that hill was barely an obstacle. The commander of the CCF allocated a battalion to wipe out the small band of 250 freezing Marines in Taktong Pass in order to allow his 15 divisions to move through and trap the 8,000 Americans on the other side of the pass. When the shooting started, it came in waves of fierce and massive CCF charges, mostly in the dark of night, when the temperatures had sunk to their lowest. Frostbite competed with bullets and grenades to cause and worsen casualties. Wounded Marines were cared for, while dead Chinese sol- diers were stacked around foxholes. For Fox Company, replacements and reinforcement were not possible. Each Marine killed in action or wounded in action was an irreplaceable loss. Each day Capt Barber developed and implemented defensive plans to shrink his company’s defensive perime- ter, with fewer and fewer effectives to stand watch and to repel the inevitable next assault. As early as the first day of the battle for Fox Hill, the 7th Marines’ Commanding Officer, Col Homer Litzenberg, contemplated bringing Fox Company off of the hill to fight its way up to the CP in Yudam-ni at the north- western edge of the Chosin Reservoir: . . . [Barber] considered the idea im- practical in the extreme. He had taken too many casualties to move any- where, and his ammunition stores had nearly run out. . . . Moreover, his small band of Marines was the only obstacle holding open the back gate from the Chosin. If the Chinese took these heights, there was little chance Litzenberg’s troops would get out alive. Although completely isolated from friendly ground forces, the Marines of Fox Company could not have survived and prevailed without support from the air and from artillery. Col Litzen- berg continued to press Capt Barber about the wisdom of continuing the defense of Fox Hill: Litzenberg . . . wondered if holding Fox Hill and keeping Toktong Pass open were becoming a suicide mis- sion. The Colonel asked one more time if Fox Company would—if it could—fulfill its mission. The answer would become seared in the legacy of the U.S. Marine Corps: ‘We will hold, Sir,’ Barber vowed. For both men, there was nothing more to say. A bullet wound to the leg had slowed, but hardly stopped, Capt Bar- ber. By the fourth day on Fox Hill, the “company was down to surviving, more or less, on guts and nerve.” Bar- ber now had to be carried on a stretcher. He worried that he might lose his faculties. The situation was des- perate. It was at this time that the relief battalion, to be led by LtCol Raymond Davis, was preparing for the famous march to Fox Hill. As for the enemy, the nearby CCF commander was baf- fled and frustrated by the resistance on Fox Hill, and he changed plans ac- cordingly. The Chinese Communist offense had faired well on the east side of the reser- voir against the U.S. Army troops, but not as well in the west. They had un- derestimated the grit of the U.S. Marines, not least the stubborn stand by Fox Company. It had gone on too long, and Toktong Pass was still open. On the morning of 1 December, the Davis-led 1/7 began its march toward Fox Hill. Although the treacherous and icy ridgeline was infinitely more precarious and slow than the MSR, Davis moved his battalion along the ridgeline, becoming known, for pos- terity, as ‘the Ridgerunners.’ And Ridgerunners they were. In The Last Stand’s riveting description, the truth of the nightmarish mission accomplishment stretches the imagina- tion. On the morning of 2 December, Davis’ 1/7 and Fox Company linked up, and the Ridgerunners could hardly believe what they saw. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Chi- nese corpses littered the approach to Fox Hill. Many of the bodies seemed to be merely asleep, half buried under what looked like drifting white wool blankets. The Fox Hill stand was over. The drama was not quite at an end, how- ever, as the two Marine regiments to the north and those in Fox Company who were not casualties had to march to the south. They did, and they reached relative safety in triumph. The ragged remains of Fox Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Regiment parade-marched into Hagaru-ri four men abreast, to a drill sergeant’s ca- dence count. Someone began hum- ming, softly at first, the Marine Corps Hymn. One by one, though their throats were dry and raw, the entire company picked up the tune. Soon each man was singing. For America’s Military Services, The Last Stand depicts the essence of lead- ership and more. Combat is neither pretty nor grandiose, yet the actions, the courage, and the inspiration during 5 days on Fox Hill will always be a model for the professional military. Both Capt Barber and LtCol Davis earned the Medal of Honor for the Fox Hill and Ridgerunner epic. BOOKS M a r i n e C o r p s G a z e t t e • M a y 2 0 0 9 78 <a href="http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette">www.mca-marines.org/gazette</a>
80page

www.mca-marines.org/gazette