“A lot of things about Korea scared me, but one thing in particular sticks out in my mind. During the retreat, well, right at the start, I was in a foxhole a few yards from the machine gun hole. This always made me both nervous and comforted.

I was nervous because machine guns were the first thing the Chinese tried to knock out, but comforted because of the awesome power of a gun like that. It was devastating to the manpower and morale of the enemy.

During their charge, things were relatively quiet in our sector. Guns all up and down the line were firing, and we were firing too, but on our side of the hill we couldn’t see very many Chinese in front of us. Then they all appeared out of seemingly thin air.

I couldn’t fire my carbine fast enough. They got right on top of us. The machine gun was firing every round in the belt. Before long a pile of bodies was about 10-15 yards in front of the gun. We couldn’t hold so we had to move. Running in the dark, trying to stay as a group, we got jumped by a few Chinese. We were bigger than them so hand to hand scraps usually were in our favor, but one of the Chinese had a bayonet stuck right in his shoulder and didn’t quit until the BAR man almost cut him in half with bullets.

Korea was not a thing I’d ever want to do again.”

– Anonymous US Marine. 1st Marine Division. Battle of Chosin Reservoir. Korean War.

This story and hundreds more like it will be available in my upcoming book, “What War Did To Us” which will be available on Amazon next week! Keep an eye out for it!