The Morning Reports made out in Division Rear and signed by Warrant Officer Junior Grade Pilgrim listed eight 2d Company Rangers among the wounded: Sergeants First Class (SFCs) Daniel Boatwright, Harold Johnson, and William Lanier; Sergeants Teedie P. Andres, Lawrence Estell, and William E. Thomas; and PFCs Legree Aikens and James R. Davis, Jr. Not included were Corporal James Fields, who was evacuated after the Majori-ri firefight with delayed frostbite, and Lieutenant Warren Allen, CO, who was seriously wounded. Allen was taken to the aid station but chose not to be evacuated. He remained at his post with the company while his wounds were treated by the company medics.
In Special Order Number 11, the 32d Infantry awarded the Combat Medical Badge to four medical aid men of the 2d Ranger Company and the Combat Infantry Badge to five officers and 108 enlisted men of 2d Ranger Company. On 16 January, the Rangers were attached to the 2/31st after just forty-eight hours with the 1/32d Infantry. As they marched out, they passed a lot of dead communists.
Many of the WACs who had traveled on the Butner with the Rangers of 2d Company, including Corporal Lorraine West, were stationed at Yokohama and would see Rangers when they were on R&R or, if wounded, at the Yokohama hospital. According to West:
The Korean Conflict became a reality when the wounded arrived. The first casualties were frostbites. There were very few WACs who were not touched by the loss of friends or loved ones. The Rangers came to Yokohama for R&R in varying shifts, so we kept in touch. It was always a reunion and it was always a good time, but they had changed. The skin was ashy, the Mohawk haircut gone, no longer sleek, the eyes dull but alert. The tone was quieter, with little or no discussion of battles. They told about the severity of the weather, the usual chow comments, the terrain, and how good it felt to have the comforts and pleasures Yokohama offered. The fatigue remained. The camaraderie remained. The pride remained. They were warriors.18
Through Tanyang to Chechon-Ni
The Morning Report of 17 January relates a twelve-mile march made in four hours from Changnim-ni north to Tanyang, which has to be an error. It is unlikely we averaged three miles per hour with winter combat gear, in extreme cold vapor barrier rubber boots (called Mickey Mouse boots) while battling such cold weather. The real distance is estimated at three to five miles, which is a much more realistic movement by foot under those conditions.
The Morning Report of 19 to 20 January shows that the Company trains (Supply and Mess Sections) joined the Company at Tanyang when, in reality, they had arrived almost two weeks earlier (7 to 8 January) at Changnim-ni (aid station). By 24 January, the Company was still in Tanyang and had more non-battle casualties going into the hospital—primarily colds, pneumonia, and frostbite to hands and feet—than wounded returning. So the present-for-duty strength was soon down to seventy enlisted men. Errors and delayed entries were common in the Morning Reports because they were made out by Division Rear every day, while the report made out in the Company tactical CP was disregarded. Since Division Rear based the Morning Reports on medical admissions and discharge reports that were frequently incorrect, the Morning Reports often did not reflect the true status of the Company.
The declassified Command Report of the 32d Infantry for 29 January19 indicates that the 2d Rangers moved from attachment to the 32d to attachment to the 17th Infantry, when they moved on to Chechon. Upon reaching Chechon, Weathersbee came off quarters and rejoined the 2d Platoon, which went into the mountains with a Korean unit. Unfortunately, the South Korean unit moved out of the area during the night without notifying anyone—including the Rangers.
Many Rangers reported that soldiers were evacuated through the 144th Field Hospital for frostbite. (Being in a combat action, they were considered later to have been WIA.) This was becoming a widespread problem.
The Korean Frostbite Dilemma
By January 1951, the 8th Army had suffered 1,791 cases of frostbite, and the 121st Evac Hospital, Youngung-Po, had handled 850 cases. The incidence rate among the troops was 34 per 1,000. It soon became necessary to open a cold injury treatment center at Osaka Army Hospital, Japan.
Black soldiers suffered more than whites, even in integrated units where the differences in motivation, training, and discipline were minimal. Lower-ranked soldiers, especially privates and privates first class, suffered beyond their proportional numbers. There were more casualties in combat units than in support units. Also, younger (eighteen to twenty-four years) soldiers appeared to be more susceptible than men over twenty-five. This may have been due to the lack of self-discipline and false beliefs. Soldiers from the warmer states were more subject to cold injury than those from the colder and northern states. The winter cold also took a heavy toll among the Chinese POWs, of whom ninety percent appeared to have varying degrees of frostbite. American footgear, the shoe-pack, didn’t provide the protection needed during active combat because use of dry, clean socks, insoles, and foot massages were impossible to carry out, either on the move or at temporary, uncertain halts for those in the foxholes.
The weather was bitterly cold, fed by the bone-wracking wind from the north that penetrated the combat clothing left over from WWII. The 7th Division at the Chosin Reservoir area treated one hundred seventy four frostbites, of which eighty-three were from the 31st Infantry. The 1/32d attached to the 31st suffered the most casualties, although only eighteen of them were unable to quickly return to combat. More than two hundred men were hospitalized by the U.S. Navy medics. A typical case of only twelve hours’ exposure might require toe amputations, closure, and grafting, with up to one hundred days’ hospitalization.
Water-soluble medicines froze; plasma had to be warmed for almost an hour to be usable. Even Colonel Chauncey E. Dovell, 8th Army Surgeon, suffered frostbitten feet while visiting the 2d Infantry Division. Senior medical officers knew the same thing had taken place during the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-1945, when some 46,000 Allies fell victim to the weather. The Far East Command knew of the severe Korean winters from the American Occupation Forces’ experiences in 1945-1946, but was still unprepared.
Buffaloes Move Farther North with Another RCT
Second Company remained at about seventy percent strength present for duty during the period of 1 through 10 February. The company was in Chuch’on-ni, Korea, having arrived there via a motor march of twenty miles in six hours from Tanyang. On 11 February, the 2d got its first completely new man, Sergeant Stewart Strothers, who was neither a Ranger nor a paratrooper. An ordinary soldier who arrived via the regular Army pipeline, Strothers was originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had been a pre-med or pharmacy student. The first non-jumper assigned to the unit, 2d Ranger Company made him third medic and was glad to get him because it was so under-strength.
On 6 February, a request for a spot check of Ranger performance from the Pentagon reached Eighth Army and was passed down to the appropriate division CGs. Major General Claude B. Ferenbaugh followed it up with comments regarding 2d Ranger Company on 30 July, 1951:
During this period you were faced with many difficult and daring assignments. You participated in steady, large-scale advances, tactical withdrawals followed by counter-attacks and pursuit of the enemy, and countless patrols.
You were handicapped at times by the lack of replacements for your combat losses but at the same time willingly accepted responsibilities of the missions normally assigned to an infantry rifle company with twice the number of personnel.
It as by virtue of superior leadership, unusual courage, and dogged determination on the part of each of you that you were consistently able to accomplish each mission and secure each objective with dispatch, honor and distinction.
Your outstanding cooperation, devotion to duty, aggressiveness, and esprit has been a constant source of satisfaction to me ever since I assumed command of the Division. Your departure is a distinct loss and will be felt keenly by all of us who remain.
[11 Feb 51] GAINS
Strothers Stewart ER 13259657Pvt2300 RaceN
&n
bsp; Dtd of enl Jun 48 term of enl 3 yrs ETS Jun 51 O/S sv 11 dt elig ret
US Aug 52 asdg & jd fr 7th Repl Co 7th Inf Div APO 301 Par 33
SO 38 Hq 7th Inf Div APO 7
[18 Feb 51] RECORD OF EVENTS
Reld fr atchd 32rd RCT and atch 17th RCT departed Chechon by mtr march arrived Kum-a-ri approx 1000 hrs distance 8 miles
[20 Feb 51] GAINS
Buford, David TRA16180797Sgt5745
Asgd and jd eff 17 Feb 51 fr 7th Repl Co 7th Inf Div APO 7
Par 35 SO 34 Hq 7th Inf Div APO 7 dtd 16 Feb 51 add Info unk
RECORD OF EVENTS
Departed Kum——ri———- hrs Arrived village of Chunchon-ni 1100
Hrs Advance with 17th RCT village of Chuchon 0900 hrs
Entered village 1100 hrs slight enemy resistance 2 enemy troop killed
On 22 February, the Rangers were attached to C Battery, 49th Field Army Battalion, for its security as they advanced north together. The company departed Chuch’on-ni about 0730 hrs. in a motor march, riding on ammo trucks whenever possible. The snows were melting and the streams and rivers were flowing very rapidly. What had been a small stream only days earlier was now a raging torrent of water that presented unanticipated dangers. On the way back to the front line, when crossing onto an island in the Pyongong Ang River, Corporal James Oakley, BAR man, lost his footing in the river and was swept rapidly downstream. Men from the 2d ran downriver and tried to, but could not, catch him. Another hour was spent searching the banks downstream for about a mile, to no avail. Oakley’s body was found several days later by another unit. His loss was greatly felt, not only because he was well liked, but because his was not a combat-related death. In the midst of the dangers faced by the Rangers, it was tragic to lose a man because of the weight of the equipment he was carrying, none of which he was able to jettison into the river in time to save himself from drowning.
The battery moved on and took up a position with the remainder of the battalion and conducted its fire mission all night. The concussion from the muzzle blasts shook the squad tents so much that sleeping was almost impossible. During the setting-up and reconnaissance of the position, the Rangers found a lot of human bones that had been covered up by the snows and were only now becoming visible. They figured they were the remains of enemy civilians, because no uniforms or equipment were found.
While in this area on 24 February, the orders for Sergeant First Class James Freeman’s battlefield commission finally came through. He was now a Second Lieutenant. He had been acting as the officer leading the 1st Platoon since Lieutenant Bernard Pryor was evacuated on 14 January. The day before, 2d Lieutenant Cliette (3d Platoon leader) had been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, so appropriate insignia for 2d Lieutenant Freeman were available within the company. His parachute and glider qualifications were noted on the Morning Report. We couldn’t have too much of a promotion party because the booze that we had stashed in the company field desk was never found, and Class 6 rations (i.e., whiskey) had not started. Freeman received his promotion in the hospital.
The Morning Report for 25 February shows the following census: Asgnd–108; Duty–65; and Abs/ LD–43. About this time, Mary, Lieutenant Allen’s wife, learned of the seriousness of the wound her husband had received on 14 January at Tanyang Pass, and wrote inquiring about his condition. He wrote back to her, saying that he thought he had told her about the thirty stitches in his chest and that he was not in the hospital. Little did she yet know of her role in his survival: the prayer book she had sent him the previous December while en route to Korea had deflected the bullet that entered his chest. The book’s metal cover saved Allen’s life. He also told his wife that Major General David G. Barr, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, had made some awards to the men, and he had received a Silver Star. Reporters from Our World and Ebony had taken pictures. As always, Allen reported to her about the men, particularly that Private First Class James Allen, from Fayetteville, was now in the unit. In the aftermath of Warren’s injuries, Mary decided to begin planning their house; this would give both of them something to think about besides the war.
About the same time 2d Ranger Company received a warning order to send an advance party to Eighth Army (Rear) in Taegu. Queen took a company jeep and Weathersbee, Corporal Glen Jenkins, Jr., and two other Rangers with him. They traveled through the day because the roads were now much safer than before. According to Weathersbee, the advance party stopped at the 1st Ranger Company CP (attached to 2d Infantry Division) and learned from one of the CP guards that the unit was down to 27 men present for duty. The advance party arrived in Taegu the next day and reported into G-3, where they were housed in a dormitory-type building and learned that 4th Company, their sister unit from training days at Fort Benning, was in town.
Morning Report
[27 Feb 51] RECORD OF EVENTS
Reld atchd 17th RCT departed Chuchon by mtr march 0700 hrs Arrived Taegu 2000 hrs distance traveled approx 200 miles billeted R - R Gen Taegu Korea
The members of the Rangers’ advance party to the Eighth Army parked their truck by the PX, which was open, but they could not go inside because they were too dirty. The soldiers in the compound were very clean, but the Rangers were filthy and looked like they had been in the field for six weeks—which is exactly where they had been. An MP went into the PX and bought beer and candy for them with the money the Rangers had brought over from Japan. When Queen returned, the advance party awaited the arrival of the rest of the company.
All during the month of February, 2d Ranger Company had been operating with a company strength varying between 61 to 70 percent present for duty, with some of those sick in quarters. On 28 February, when the company was attached to the 187th ARCT, APO 301, Lieutenant Antonio “Red Horse” Anthony arrived with a group of 32 Ranger replacements. The majority of these replacements came from the 80th AAA Battalion and were well known to the men of 2d Ranger Company. Lieutenant Anthony’s red hair and large head—so large that his helmet would only fit properly if he first removed the helmet liner—gave him his nickname. Anthony had received a battlefield commission while serving with the 92d Infantry Division in Italy during World War II. He had trained these replacements as part of the 7th Ranger Company, which had been so designated in the second and third cycles but later was converted to replacement training. They did not take the special winter training at Camp Carson, Colorado, with the 3d, 5th, and 8th Companies, because there was not enough time—they were needed in Korea because 2d Ranger Company was so under strength. The Rangers who arrived as replacements included Corporals Homer Bush, John E. Nunley, Carl D. Hall, James Taylor, and Uthel Morris.
The company was billeted in squad tents in an apple orchard northwest of K-2 Airfield, Taegu, Korea. At the same time many wounded men returned from the hospital. Some of them had heard the rumors about a possible combat jump and eagerly made their way to rejoin the unit. Assigned strength was now up to 125, with 100 ready for duty. The 2d Ranger Company established and operated its own mess in the Apple Orchard marshalling area. Lieutenant Pryor returned to duty and took over as Assistant XO. Pryor’s return meant Queen could shed some of the extra duties he had been performing: handling operations, performing XO duties, and acting as administrator. Pryor was still a little woozy on his feet and, like some officers, had to ride the company trains into the forward combat area.
The food received during the billet in the orchard at K-2 was eatable. Some of the Buffalo Rangers ate so ravenously that First Sergeant Lawrence West established “The Combat Greasers Badge”—a chow hound award for the heaviest eaters. He awarded several badges, all displaying a GI mess-type spoon with a wreath around it like the CIB or CMB. Some of the awardees were Herculano “Heavy Duty” Dias, McBert “Leave Nothing” Higginbotham, and William “Greaser” Weathersbee. Between combat missions the Rangers of the 2d Company enjoyed what they had, and continued to display the camaraderie that others on the Butner had noticed during their trip across the Pacific.
The 2d Ranger Company soon had enough men to reorganize into three rifle platoons, plus a mortar section, under Lieutenant Anthony. Lieutenant Pryor took over duties as the Assistant XO and Allen was promoted to Captain on 1 March. The 5 March Morning Report finally mentioned James Fields’ 14 January evacuation after the Majori-ri firefight to Michigan Veterans’ Hospital.
The company began serious physical conditioning during its stay in the apple orchard. A guard was posted at the entrance, but the units ran up that dusty road for a couple of miles each day. During the first week of March, some of the Rangers got their hard-earned and well-deserved promotions, as follows:
[2 March 1951]
Collins, Norman, Corporal
Gordon, Andrew, Corporal
Hargrove, William, Sergeant First Class
Hodge, Roland, Corporal
Lofton, Matthew, Jr., Corporal
Company Order #3 Promotion to Private First Class (E-3) UP if AR 615-5 and SR 615-5-1:
Adams, Edward D., Private First Class
Arnold, Eugene V., Private First Class
Carrell, James E., Private First Class
Gibson, Culver V., Private First Class
Gray, Walter S., Private First Class
Hall, Carl D., Private First Class
Holland, Floyd, Private First Class
Morris, Uthel, Private First Class
Plater, James, Private First Class
Scott, Samuel, Private First Class
Strothers, Stewart, Private First Class
Taylor, James, Private First Class
Whitmore, Joseph, Private First Class
Reduced to Private (E-2): Peteress, James Jr.
[13 Mar 51] Prcht jump was made by members of the unit on 7 & 8 Mar 51, No casualties. Asgd: 125 Duty: 105
Edward L. Posey Page 8
