[July 8, 2023] It was the Fall of 1960. I attended the second grade at a small school in a rural northeast Louisiana town. There I met a few men from the Korean War. The younger of these men helped teach us kids how to throw a spitball, steal a base, and do a proper bunt in baseball. We kids did not understand the significance of it at the time, but one of those men was with Fox Company, 2/7th U.S. Marines, a unit that distinguished itself at the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea.
I remember his smile; for some reason, I can remember that smile to this day. But, it was the stories he told of that battle that fascinated us and scared us at the same time that I remember the most. I admit my memory has faded, and some details are fuzzy, but I distinctly remember him proudly saying he was with Fox Company in an important battle. He was a combat veteran; no man in our small town could possess a higher honor.
This young man taught us a lot about baseball and how to be helpful at home. He deeply loved baseball. After baseball practice one day, he sat us down to tell us about one of the battles he participated. Fox Company! Now that was a pretty cool name for us kids. As Boy Scouts, we named our patrol the Fox Patrol because we liked him so much, and it sounded really cool. This day he scared us; at least, he scared me.
I later discovered he was at the battle of Fox Hill in November 1950, and I was hearing about it from someone who was there and just a decade later from his retelling of an important story. Thanks to my War College seminar leader in 2005, I was able to read up on this particular battle. In 2009, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin published The Last Stand of Fox Company. In this battle, a small company of Marines – numbering 234 – would be surrounded by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir.
Fox Company held a position known as “Fox Hill” against vastly superior numbers of Chinese infantry, holding the Toktong Pass open and keeping the 5th and 7th Marine Regiments from getting cut off and massacred. This was a real toe-to-toe fight with machine gun barrels melting, running low on ammo and hand grenade attacks, air resupply drops, and testing the tenacity of men who never thought they would be in combat. World War II had ended just five years earlier.
These Marines climbed seven miles of frozen terrain to a promontory overlooking the pass they were to protect. During the relentless five-day battle, Fox Company had three-quarters of the unit killed, wounded, captured, or missing in action.
I had met a real hero. Sadly, I never knew his name, but I will forever remember him for giving us little boys a bit of help when we needed it most.
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Please read my books:
Gen. Satterfield you were very fortunate.
You were one lucky kid, Gen. Satterfield. 😎
Amazing, I’m ordering the book today.
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In 2009, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin published The Last Stand of Fox Company. In this battle, a small company of Marines – numbering 234 – would be surrounded by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir.
Nothing like a good book to read in my air conditioned home office with my dog at my side (a real dog, not some puny runt of a dog), my shotgun and pistol sitting beside me, and my wife making coffee in the kitchen. Great life. I paid attention to Gen. Satterfield’s book, “55 Rules for a Good Life” and it works.
There are a number of valuable books out there on the Korean war. I do think this war is worth studying. In fact, if we look at the Ukraine War, there are many paralllels. Both were wars of attrition. Both wars had the US participate, both had Russia participate and China too. Where is the UN? Probably talking about what pronouns they should use with the Russians today. The UN is Worthless as an organization except to burn up a lot of money (taxes from Americans).
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Gen. Satterfield, just a note to say I thoroughly enjoyed both your books.
Yes, good man, Gen.Satterfield. That is why I’m reading his blog now for more than two years.
Yes, thanks Gen. Satterfield for telling us about this real American hero that was in our lifetime. You were, indeed, privileged.
Another excellent and informative and entertaining article, Gen. S. Thanks. Explains a lot about you. I have discovered, late in life, that the more people I go out of my way to meet, the more folks will come into my circle of friends and acquaintences and thus I’m more likely to run across truly wonderful people. Occasionally there will be a real gem there and it is up to us to be part of their experiences.
Exactly, sit around playing video games and your life is on slow-destruct mode.
Yep, and those that ignore this sage advice will, in a couple of decades, wonder where their life went. Well, it is obvious to me, it went the way of tv, video games, drugs, and wasting away getting a suntan, having ‘fun’, shopping in the mall, and wondering what fashion clothes to wear at the bar.
Great comments today. 💖
Yes, Philip and that is why this forum exists. Welcome to my blog.
Yes, timely and appreciated too and to know that you were talking with this hero of our time, you were one lucky little boy, Gen. Satterfield. Too bad you cannot remember his name.
Great story and timely, given that June 25th was the anniversary of the invasion of S.Korea and July 27 the anniversary of the armistice.
Yep.✌✌✌
Good info, I did not know. I would like to know more about the war, but in HS, they didn’t teach us anything useful.
Yes, our education system is in a terrible state. The teachers would rather teach racist ideology / propaganda than teaching kids how to read and write and do arithmetic. Teachers today are just fed a bunch of lies. They showed themselves unworthy during the covid “crisis” when they were first to take the vaccine and yet voted to stay home away from the kids (the reason they wanted the shots). And they are proud of their cowardice.