It all happened before the Rangers could do anything or get him down to the aid station or the Indian MASH unit. A silent wave went through the Buffalo ranks; one of their new men had been killed so suddenly and by such a seemingly small wound. Van Dunk’s death hung like a cloud over the Buffalo Rangers. His handsome, pale face, with chiseled features that reminded you of a movie star, was suddenly silent. Who had ever seen a first-time-in-combat-medic leading a Ranger attack? It was a sight to behold.
Action with the Prisoners of War
The Buffalo Rangers must have been one of the first units to take prisoners. Sergeant West was directing traffic in the company assembly area. As the company topped the first ridge and captured the heavy machine gun overlooking the DZ, several prisoners were taken there. Freeman, 1st Platoon, assigned Weathersbee to take them back to the edge of the DZ and deliver them to the prisoner of war (POW) compound, an open-air jail where captured enemy were collected and quickly interrogated by intelligence personnel for useful information. Weathersbee had four POWs when he started toward the POW cage. Corporal William Tucker, another Ranger from 2d Ranger Company, was in front of Weathersbee on the road guiding three more prisoners. Tucker stopped, waited until Weathersbee reached his position, and said, “You have more than I have.” With that he walked away and left his three prisoners, one of whom was wounded and being carried by the other two. Weathersbee now had eight POWs to escort to the compound. He had all of them take turns carrying the wounded prisoner, but by the time they reached the POW compound the wounded prisoner was dead.
A major at the compound looked at Weathersbee and exclaimed, “This SOB is dead! Why are you bringing me a stiff? You should throw him in a ditch or something.” The Major was acting as if Weathersbee was the enemy. Weathersbee’s thoughts flashed back to Tanyang Pass, when Jenkins had encountered enemy soldiers playing dead. Intelligence School had taught him that wounded or frightened prisoners were good sources of information, and the Major’s attitude made him angry.
Tucker, who was the second Ranger to share the prisoner escort duty, said that he saw the 187th Engineers using bulldozers to dig a trench. They were putting up barbed wire around a compound cage with concertina-type barbed wire strung out by the military police and the engineers. The engineers had dropped some heavy equipment on the first day in anticipation of taking prisoners.
On his way back to the unit Weathersbee met up with Pop Jones, who had three more prisoners. Jones told him that Van Dunk had been hit. The company was assaulting Hill 151 when Weathersbee rejoined it. When he spotted Van Dunk’s body, he looked it over to see where he had been shot, but didn’t see any blood. Machine guns were firing over the heads of the Rangers as they walked up the hill yelling “Buffalo!” Weathersbee rejoined his platoon.
After taking the hill, the company was subjected to some high-velocity artillery shelling, as if it was coming from a self-propelled or anti-tank gun across the river. There was no sign of the gun’s muzzle flash or smoke. It seemed to be hidden in a fold of a roadway running between two hills. It either was firing from partial defilade or firing and moving back into defilade after each shot. The shells skimmed the top of Hill 151 and landed on the DZ in the rear. Weathersbee later heard these shells inflicted some casualties among the gun crews set up in that area. The riggers had to scramble because they were still collecting parachutes and other equipment from the DZ.
Weathersbee’s platoon also received some sniper and small arms fire from across the river. Bullets whined overhead, just like in old cowboy movies. The Company Observation Post (OP) was right up in the front lines where the Imjin River and a small village on the north side of Hill 151 could be watched from the prone position. Boatwright was standing up near the Company OP when he was hit in the hand by sniper fire—anyone standing up would draw sniper fire. Queen rushed to Boatwright and offered him a cigarette to calm his nerves. Boatwright later teased Queen about the incident, because he thought Queen had seen too many John Wayne movies, where the hero takes a drag on a cigarette before immediately heading back into the thick of battle. Robertson was also wounded about the same time. A bullet bounced off the pistol in his shoulder holster and knocked him down. When he stood up, an artillery shell exploded next to him. The force of the blast picked him up and threw him to the ground. He never returned to duty with the unit. When some of the Rangers visited him in the 4th Evac Hospital, he still couldn’t hear too well.
Jackson, in the Mortar Section, recalled what he witnessed just before the company made the final assault on Hill 151:
We received a barrage of five or six artillery rounds. Suddenly, it stopped! I saw this big cloud of dust in the direction of Seoul. That cloud of dust was the movement of armor. Tanks breaking through, coming to our DZ, linking up with the paratroopers. These were our tanks that were breaking through the enemy lines, giving us some support and relief. The enemy shifted their fire from us, the 2d Rangers, to the tanks. The tanks were breaking through. We moved the mortars to the top of Hill 151 and dug in for the night.
After Hill 151 was captured, the three platoons held a line along the crest of the hill, from right to left as follows: Company CP on the right, 2d Platoon in the center, and 3d Platoon on the left, with the mortars in the center about fifty yards behind the CP. (See Sketch C.) When Queen realized that 4th Company had not been able to seize Hill 205, he suggested to Allen that 2d Ranger Company get permission to attack the enemy facing 4th Company from their left flank. 2d Ranger Company, however, was attached to 2/187th, while 4th Company was attached to 3/187th. Allen didn’t act on Queen’s request because neither Regiment nor Battalion had requested any other information or action since the “Buffalos” had reported the capture of their objective.
Later in the afternoon, after the “Buffalos” began to dig slit trenches, Queen led a small patrol down to locate the 2/187th CP and get some LMG and 60 mortar ammo; but none was available. Queen saw Captain James (“Doc”) Miller, the only black officer assigned to the 187th, at the aid station and he asked Miller to send a litter jeep up the next morning to collect Van Dunk’s body. Miller had gone through a week’s jump training in the Taegu marshalling area, and the Munsan-ni combat jump was only his fourth one.
Queen also went to check with the Commo Officer and S-3 to see if a phone line was to be laid to the Company CP, because he had jumped with the EE-8 telephone for the hook-up. He offered to guide the wire team to the CP, if needed. But he did not receive a response and there seemed to be no specific plan, so he headed back to the CP on Hill 151. Most of the company was dug in by the time he arrived. The CP area was too crowded, so Queen found an abandoned enemy hole about twenty-five yards down the hill, between the CP, OP, and the mortars. He didn’t like the position at all. He would have to remain awake all night, or take the chance of being killed or maybe left out should any heavy action take place during the night hours. Queen carved the hole a little longer and put a seat in it. He made good use of his light pack and the Mexican fashioned blanket, for nodding off during the chilly night.
Sergeant Alston, the Commo Chief, had laid wire to all of the platoon CPs utilizing some company wire supplemented by abandoned enemy wire found on the hill. Each platoon carried a sound-powered telephone for this purpose, and all were hooked into the Company CP on a common circuit. The Ranger on radio watch would also man the phone. A whistle or a click using a battery would alert the operator on duty.
That day, the Good Lord had blessed the Buffalo Rangers in the Munsan-ni action:
—They made history as the first all-black Airborne Ranger unit to make a combat jump. The Buffalo Rangers demonstrated the great potential of black troopers. The 555th Parachute Battalion, America’s first all-black troopers, were not committed to combat in World War II because some doubt existed in the minds of the highest-ranking military officers about the black serviceman’s fighting ability and performance. Black volunteers during the Battle of the Bulge were overlooked. The time for the black soldier to pro
ve himself didn’t come again until Korea;
—They had not taken heavy casualties, as they had at Tanyang Pass;
—Within the first 30 minutes, sixty percent of the unit was in the assembly area, and 1st Sergeant West was already taking aggressive action;
—The Buffalos were able to execute their mission within two hours after “un-assing” their aircraft;
—They were the first unit to capture their objective—Hill 151.
[23 Mar 1951] RECORD OF EVENTS SECTION
Departed Taegu Korea by plane 0750 hrs.
Destination Munsan-ni Korea.
Prcht jump on Munsan-ni made 0915 hrs.
1 EM killed in action.
2 EM wounded in action 2 EM lightly injured in action.
Mission accomplished. Morale of troops excellent.
In a letter to his wife dated 31 March, Allen wrote the following:
By now you will have read where the 187th and Ranger companies made a jump behind the enemy. The 2d Rangers were a part of the operation. It marks the first time in history that a Negro unit has made a combat jump. For the entire period that we were engaged, our casualty rate for the Company was one KIA and four others wounded slightly.
During the night, the enemy did not attempt to infiltrate 2d Ranger Company positions. About 2300 hours, submachine gun fire was heard in the right rear of the company position, down near the 2/187th CP. Flare shells were fired by the mortars and artillery units during the night. C-47 aircraft flew over the surrounding area and dropped huge flares. The moon was out and shining brightly, and the visibility was about 100 yards in our company sector. The temperature dropped steadily during the night, and Queen wished that he had brought the wool insert of a summer sleeping bag instead of his blanket. But he still would have been afraid to zip it up, lest he be unable to get out of it fast enough (plus, he wouldn’t be able to keep his rifle in hand inside a sleeping bag).
At first light, about one hour before sunrise, some squad-sized, small fires were built on the reverse slope of the hill to warm the assault rations. The enemy didn’t attack or fire on our positions until about 0830 hours.
Theater Action after the Jump
Since the litter jeep didn’t come at daybreak on 24 March, Queen gathered a carrying party to take Van Dunk’s body to the aid station. At the same time search parties searched from the mortar position to the DZ for stragglers, ammo, and equipment. It was estimated that 2d Ranger Company had killed thirty enemy soldiers, wounded ten, and captured sixty on 23 March.
The enemy apparently had an OP on the opposite side of the Imjin River on Hill 191. However, his guns, either 75mm or 105mm, were masked or his observation limited to such a degree that he could not place fire directly on our position. The shells, which flew about ten feet overhead and sounded like a small freight train, hit back in the DZ area.
At 1300 hours, 2d Ranger Company was notified that it would be relieved of its position by the 1st ROK Division before 1800 hours. Queen remained in position with a covering squad from each platoon while Allen took the remainder of the company to report to 2/187th CP. About 1400 hours, Queen made a mistake and withdrew the remainder of the company, which was serving as the covering force. His orders, however, were “to remain in position until relieved,” so Queen had to return to Hill 151 with his men. While they waited for the South Korean soldiers to relieve them, the Rangers tested their rifles by firing at some ruins on the road along the Imjin. Queen, meanwhile, settled down inside his foxhole where, under slightly cloudy skies, he caught up on his sleep. About 1700 hours, when no relief column had arrived, Queen got a call from a messenger to hurry along and rejoin the company.
Queen reached the DZ road, where he met up with the remainder of the company. They had mounted the tanks of “C” Company, 6th Tank Battalion. The orders were to push twenty-six miles east to try to cut off a division of Chinese. There was one squad on each tank. By 2400 hours, the Rangers had moved only about six miles. The roads were too narrow and the tanks were unable to proceed. The company was ordered to remain with the tanks and protect them from infiltration by enemy infantry.
Meanwhile, the rest of the RCT had passed on. They had cows pulling carts, as well as Koreans and POWs helping to carry the equipment. It was reminiscent of the good old American ingenuity that the 82d A/B had used on its jump into Sicily during World War II, overcoming the lack of transport by confiscating and requisitioning all available farm animals, especially the small, stubborn, but hardy Italian donkeys.
Queen slept on the back deck of one of the cold tanks. The rear deck of a tank is a very warm place to sleep as long as those twin gas or diesel engines are running. Once the engines stopped in Korea, however, it got as cold as the South Pole. Queen didn’t seem to mind. The men were sent out about fifty yards to the flanks of the tank column to provide security against an enemy ambush or infiltration. They didn’t unroll their packs because no one knew when the word to move out would come down.
The 2d Ranger Company left the 6th Battalion tanks in place at daybreak on 25 March to join the remainder of the RCT. It started to rain pretty heavily. The Rangers caught a ride on some artillery trucks. They only made it about one mile before the trucks began to bog down in the muddy road, which was more like an unimproved wagon trail than anything else. They took off on foot again and marched to the village of Sinchon, where they arrived about 1200 hours. The 2d Ranger Company took up a position south of town on ridges overlooking the village of Chana-don, with the mission of guarding the RCT’s right flank and looking for a relief tank battalion coming from the south that would be its next link-up. Queen received some different colored flares that he gave to Wilburn, as the 2d Platoon was deployed forward. These flares were to be used for identification purposes and to mark front line positions. The Rangers settled into some old enemy foxholes and began preparing a meal using the last of the two days’ worth of C-rations.
The company CP was established in a hole about 4’ x 4’ x 4’, with a foxhole type entrance. It would have been a good hole for two men, but there were now five in the CP group: Captain Allen, Queen, Lawrence “Top Kick” West, Alston (Commo), and “Doc Rabbit” Thomas, medic. In addition to the packs and weapons, there were two SCR-300 radios (one SCR-300 radio was on the RCT operations net and the other was on the company command net), with EE-8 and sound-powered telephones as well.
The Rangers received more fuel for fires from the village, but their fires were soon doused because of the rain and for security reasons. Cliette’s 3d Platoon was on the left, Willie Coleman’s 2d Platoon in the front and forward, and Freeman’s 1st Platoon held the right. Anthony had the mortars around the CP. To the rear of 2d Ranger Company were the Indian MASH hospital and the RCT CP. Farther to the rear were the 4th Ranger Company and the RCT Security Platoon, which provided local security to the RCT Headquarters Company. Later in the evening Queen went to the RCT CP to try to get some fresh batteries for the SCR-300 radios and a telephone line to the CP. The helicopters were coming in during the rain to evacuate the wounded. Coleman’s platoon tried to get all of the people out of the village, but they wouldn’t move until one of Anthony’s mortar rounds, with which he was plotting nighttime concentrations, fell short within the village. Then everyone “got hat” and left in a hurry. During the afternoon and night no enemy contact was made.
Second Company remained in reserve until about 1000 hours on 26 March, when it was attached to the 3d Battalion. The battalion had orders to attack to the east. Queen stayed back with the 2d Platoon and a mortar squad to guard the aid station and wait for the tanks. The armor came through about 1500 hours. There were only about six tanks; the rest had been knocked out by mines or had developed mechanical failures. The aid station moved east while Queen and the 2d Platoon moved on the tanks. This group caught up with Captain Allen and the rest of the company about 1730 hours. Allen had skirted the right flank of the RCT and gone on a separate mission to contact the 64th Tank Battalion, 3d Infantry Division.
The contact was made, and Allen would later tell Queen that he was never so glad to see anyone as he was to see the 3d ID.
The company advanced as far south as the Sam-chan River Bridge. About 1830 hours, just as it was getting dark, Allen ordered Queen to take Wilburn’s 2d Platoon to a hill he pointed out on the horizon, and ordered him to dig in there facing northwest. Queen was told that once he had his men in position, he was to move along the ridge line to the southwest until he met back up with Allen, who would give him further instructions at that time. Queen wanted to know more about the mission and the disposition of the other units, but Allen was adamant: “Hurry up and get them the hell into position!” Wilburn and Queen took off with nothing in mind except getting to the hill. It was already dusk and they wanted to be in position before it got completely dark.
The 2d Platoon advanced through a small village that was all boarded up. It looked as if everyone had gone on vacation. It took a short but steep climb to reach the top of the hill. Everyone was glad they did not have to fight for the high ground that night. Later, Wilburn remarked that he had seen some people running off the hill, but didn’t say anything at the time. When they reached the hilltop, the Rangers didn’t find any holes or abandoned equipment. The platoon spread out thinly and began to dig in. The soil was sandy and easy to excavate. Company CP was much farther away than anticipated, and Queen couldn’t find Allen—but he could raise him on the radio. He notified Allen that he would remain with Wilburn’s platoon for the rest of the night; even though there was a full moon, it was completely dark by this time. Queen, Wilburn, and radio operator Willie Coleman crowded together into a single hole. Little did Queen know that his night was just beginning.
Edward L. Posey Page 11
