I have unfavorable news. The new rotation policy: as of 1 September, you need 36 points to be eligible. The travel of dependents to the Far East is being resumed. Would you still like to come? I have 31 points and I can’t get on the list until December. It will be the end of December or early January before I can expect to be home. I am very disappointed. But we’ll need more money because of expenses (khakis and winter clothes). I went over to Korea as a courier and I saw Major (William) Gott. I will be out in the woods for a week on an umpire detail.
During the last two weeks of August, Allen picked up in his writing to Mary. In sharp contrast to Queen, who enjoyed the umpire detail because it kept a soldier out of trouble and passed the time, Allen complained that it was the most worthless time that he had spent in the Army, that there was nothing new happening in the unit, that his morale was rock bottom, and that the peace talks were going much too…slowly.
Part III
Personal Memoirs and Important Information
This section acknowledges all of the Buffalo Rangers of 2d Ranger Company who trained at Fort Benning and /or joined the unit later and served in Korea. Although the roster that appears in the appendices consists of those men who were aboard the USS General H.W. Butner, this entire section provides a more complete view of the Rangers who served in 2d Ranger Company throughout the war, including replacement troops who served faithfully with 2d Ranger Company but were not aboard the Butner.
This section provides a snapshot of where life has taken each man to the turn of the new century. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy as of that time. It was compiled with the help and research of many Rangers and RICA. To any Ranger who may inadvertently have been excluded, I apologize for such a terrible oversight and please know it was unintentional. Readers should be aware that over the years there have been numerous individuals who have tried to claim involvement in 2d Ranger Company but do not appear in official records or were not known by me or other Rangers. Every name in this section belongs to a soldier who is not only in the official records for 2d Ranger Company, but is known to other Rangers who served with him in Korea. I have been careful to include all soldiers who deserve the recognition of serving as a 2d Ranger Company Ranger during the Korean War and to exclude those whose claims, although persistent, cannot be substantiated. If I have omitted any Ranger with a valid claim to service with 2d Ranger Company, I apologize for the mistake.
To our Buffalo brothers: I appreciate the service and sacrifices that you made. May the Good Lord continue to watch over the Rangers of 2d Company and bless you and your families.
Chapter 10
As I Remember
Recollections of Samuel “Shorty” Payne, Jr.
A Few Anecdotes
So many things come to mind. Do you remember Escalera sleeping under that tank and we could not revive him right away? Do you also remember when we had moved into the school yard position and he dug a slit trench instead of a foxhole? Then we started receiving artillery and small arms fire and he had no place to go but in a hole with one of the other guys, and the old man chewed his ass out!
The Buffalo Rangers, 2d Ranger Company (Airborne),
Prior to the Jump: March 22, 1951
We were interviewed by Stars and Stripes at the airfield before the first Ranger parachute jump in history. They took pictures of some of the guys in the company. Also, one of Posey and me I call “the tall and short of it.” I tried to get a copy of the picture; they said copies were sent to the home states.
My platoon was Jump-47, because most of our company jumped from C-47s or C-46s. We assembled and moved right into the attack. A Medic got hit just as we landed; he died from shock.
A whistle was used to assemble the men.
We got some small arms fire from the hill, but a lot of the sons-of-bitches were running. We caught them by surprise. We were moving pretty fast and had orders not to take any prisoners because we did not have time to stop.
Like I have told many guys, they were looking at history. I was there and I participated in it, and I am very proud to have been a member of the first black Airborne Ranger company, not only as a Ranger, but as a black one. I am so sorry that we did not have the public relations that the Marines or the 187th had. But we shall survive and live on. To all of the original members of the 2d Company, we know we were the best. And we proved it from day one when we got to Korea.
I will never forget the night patrol with the heavy tank battalion. We were the spearhead company that was sent out to make contact with elements of 15th Regiment, 3d Division. The first thing we ran into was an element of the tank battalion. We linked up and continued off onto the attack. Went on a tank patrol, a bunch were heading down the draw to the valley.
We were moving so fast that we passed over the top of some well-kept camouflaged holes that the gooks had dug and were hiding in. So the old man sent for some stick charges and started blowing them out. We started digging in. While doing this we began to get intermittent artillery fire from across the river. The gooks had a forward observer calling in artillery. Then we started getting support artillery from 8th Army Field or Corp Heavy gun.
Yes, we were to patrol one mile in front of our position, keeping a eye on the house, which we learned was a Forward Observer post that we helped destroy. I am glad I was a part of the history-making jump.
Hill-581: May 20, 1951
We had been taking on small arms fire and had just moved into the position. Corporal Sutton was hit by fire while sitting on the side of the hill. We were digging in our position pending an attack that we were expecting. We had seen the enemy moving rank and file down the draw. We called in artillery fire off and on. Also supply brought up to the position crates of hand grenades, ammunition, and flares. We were stockpiling. They did not attack us until early in the morning. They had been sending out patrols, testing and feeling out our position. I was a BAR man protecting the machine gun position. We could hear and smell the sons-of-bitches right below our position. They probed the position all night. We threw hand grenades every so often.
When the Chinese overran the 3d platoon position, our machine gunner beat off the gooks, killing many. He deserved a lot bigger award than he got. I believe he received a Bronze Star; should have been a Silver Star or better. I cannot think of his name. He was from New York. My memory of names is bad; faces yes, but names I stink as far as memory is concerned. We had an assortment of all types of individuals: top of the shelf, so to speak. A very proud bunch of men that really was obedient to the 2d Ranger Company and to the job at hand.
We ran daily patrols, both contact and combat. We would patrol at night about two hundred yards in front of our position. We set up ambushes a couple of times out and would come back about daylight.
June 11, 1951
Our platoon had been given the job of knocking out a machine gun on the knoll overlooking a man-made path. Earlier we had been pushed off this same hill; I think more out of anger and frustration, we started back up the hill. Peteress was the BAR man. For some unknown reason he started up that path; the gook had it zeroed in before we were halfway up the knoll. We were caught in a crossfire from the front and right flank. Peteress still pushed ahead. Then the gooks opened up, cutting him half way up the chest and the left side of his face. After he fell, Lieutenant Freeman gave the order to push the position straight ahead. We killed two of the enemy who were left to protect the machine gunner: they were chained to the machine gun and gave up smiling, but were shot dead.
We dug in for a hole-type thing. We also were on red alert through the night. We could not take Peteress down. So he was moved and covered with a poncho right above our hole. Then it began to rain. The Chinese were spotted with a probing patrol. Captain Allen started calling in artillery within about fifty yards from our position, walking it up to about twenty-five yards from our position. I don’t believe any of the men worried about it. Someone else got wounded in the foot on that same hill, can’t remember the name.
As far as I can remember we rested, cleaned weapons, drank booze, and wrote letters. At night some of us got together and did a little harmonizing.
I recall one time the general went past the lines we had been fighting on and got trapped up there. They sent 3d platoon and the rest of 2d up to rescue him. He had to slide into the safety hatch under the tank so that he could get out of the gook-infested area.
At the end, we had to ride over in the Japanese or Korean ferryboat, which was packed to the hilt. I was really upset about the deactivation, thinking that all we did would have gone down the drain—and it almost did, if it wasn’t for guys like Weathersbee, Queen, and many others who kept the fire lit.
Camp and in Pusan
When we got back from Korea lots of guys went on passes. Some of the guys bought these chrome-coated .45s or had some of them chromed up.
In joining the 187 RCT, I was a little apprehensive, because a lot of the 187th didn’t like the idea of us bringing in so much rank. I recall when Trapnell raised hell with members and officers of the 187th. When he found out that some of the men and/or officers were discriminating and saying racist words toward the men of 2d Ranger Company, he said if someone called you a name you had his order to kick his ass and report it to him, and he would do the same. We were assigned to different platoons and companies within RCT. We spent lots of time in the field.
We were given passes to go into the G.I. Station in Pusan. I had a run-in with one of the guys from the other Ranger Co. The city was under a curfew and we had to meet a truck at a certain time, I think 1200 hours, to report back to the compound. We had some confrontation.
Some of the other activity was constant weapons inspection. The old man used to be a son-of-a-bitch about this and some other thing. William Tucker used to be my foxhole buddy, then Posey when he was BAR man.
The most memorable action was the first jump at Munsan-ni Hill 581. Our four-man team was on a O.P. (Listening Post) when the gooks ran patrol about one hundred yards below our position. We had orders: if attacked, destroy the radio and make it out.
Many of the men in this company should have been given some awards. I always thought that the Old Man wasn’t too up on getting medals for his men. (Maybe only certain people.) I could name some of the men who should have been so honored.
After returning to the States I went to Fort Benning. Then I was sent to the 11th Abn 188 Regt. I was in this company under Sergeant Ames Anias, who was the 1st soldier of the company. Back at Bragg, Amos had been my platoon sergeant before I went to the Rangers.
I was not a career soldier. I had made sergeant and was going to Jumpmaster School. But because I had short time they did not want to give me another stripe unless I re-upped.
I have had no regrets at all about being a Ranger, a paratrooper, or being in the military. My only regret at not staying in is that I could see no farther than my nose.
This resumé is only a minute amount of information that I have to offer, of course there is much more.
I often thought about what would happen to us in a historical sense. If it was not for men like you (Weathersbee, Queen, Posey, Dias, and many others), we probably would go unnoticed or be forgotten. I recall at the 1987 Reunion when this white colonel told some of his men that there was no all-black Rangers company. A New York guy called him down, embarrassing him for making an idiotic statement like that.
I could not really say who was the ideal Ranger, but there were some who stood out just a notch above the other men. Sergeant Freeman, for example, who wouldn’t tell his men to do something he wouldn’t do. We had so many—I can’t name them because I would not be just in doing so.
There were times we went into the attack with the 17th Regiment and 7th Division, securing the position, then turning it over to the 31st or 32d. And they would lose it within a couple of weeks. The 2d Ranger Company was called on every time. We would go into a limited engagement (ten days, two weeks). One time I thought they were really trying to kill us off by sending us to each regiment that was going into the attack.
Recollections of David “Tank” Clarke, 1st Plt. BAR, 1st Squad,
Lt. Bernard Pryor, Plt. Leader, James Freeman, Plt. Sgt.,
and Herman Jackson, Squad Leader
We were still at Fort Benning, almost at the end of our Ranger training cycle, when the word was out that the North Koreans were whipped, they were on the run, and the action in Korea was just about over. All of the men would be home for Christmas. The UN army was at the Manchurian border, and it was just a matter of time before the police action was over.
Many of us were disappointed that we wouldn’t get a chance to get into the action. After all, we had just ended a rather rigorous training period. We really wanted a chance to get into the fight. Then it happened: the Chinese entered the war and the UN army was in full retreat.
The word was out that we had a chance to get into action. On the train to the west coast we read about all of the mess that was going on, through Time magazine and Newsweek. I can remember seeing a cover story in Newsweek of an infantry column moving out in a blinding snow, heading south. At the time we didn’t realize the extent of the chaos that must have existed at the front lines in North Korea with the retreating UN army.
After almost two weeks at sea the small troop carrier USS Retreating came into harbor in Japan, late December 1950. We were billeted in a small camp named Zama, where we were re-equipped for our assignment into action, winter equipment, etc.
I was rather curious as to what we were getting into. At the time I know that the men of 2d Ranger Company had no idea what we were getting into. Most of us were rather carefree and happy as we looked for women and drink. After all, we had just gotten off the boat after nearly two weeks on the water. We made the best of almost three whole days of liberty and a rather carefree existence. For some of the men it would be the last days of fun they would ever have.
For a couple of days we zeroed in our weapons and made sure everything was in order. Then we got the word that we were on our way to Korea. On December 29, in the evening, we went to an airfield for the flight to Korea, with full combat gear. I remember we were given “Mae West” flotation gear and parachutes for any emergency exit in case of aircraft failure. The chutes were manually operated with a ripcord, which none of us was really even familiar with. Even though we had made many parachute jumps, all of them were by static line.
It was dark when we took off in what I believe were 119s or C-47s. We arrived at an airstrip in Taegu. Early morning we were picked up by truck convoy and moved north to join the 7th Infantry Division on the central front.
Most of us still didn’t know what the hell was going on. We pitched our newly-issued squad tents and were introduced to the 7th ID as the 2d Ranger Company Airborne. Here we were, an all-black company of paratroopers going into a combat situation with an all-white infantry division.
I can recall that one day we got a few cans of beer. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was reminded that it was New Year’s Eve. “Big deal,” I responded. Then we got the word that we were going north to meet the enemy. Then the fun began.
The one thing that most of the men will remember is the convoy going north and all of the refugee columns moving south crowding the road, getting in our way so that our vehicles could hardly move.
I was a BAR man assigned to ride in the C.O.’s jeep with Lieutenant Allen, along with Lt. Pryor, my Platoon Leader. Later in the day we passed a burned-out tank, our first taste of battle casualties. Then we arrived at a small village where the 32d Regiment had set up an aid station. It was our job to protect the aid station from Communist guerilla activity. We took advantage of the mud and straw huts in a small village for protection from the bitter cold, especially at night.
During the day we would go out to patrol; nights were spent on outpost and roadblocks, fighting the weather as well as the enemy. There was always constant activity, as the North Koreans watched us by day as we dug in for the night, or were pu
t on outpost. When the sun went down they would come in and harass us.
This went on for a few days. Then we got the word that we were going into an attack situation. We were finally going after the enemy. We didn’t know it at the time but 2d Ranger was going into a slaughterhouse. Our company was about to be cut almost in half in the next two days of fighting. We were about to get a taste of real combat.
On a cold January morning we loaded up for battle, almost double load; it was difficult to re-supply in the mountainous terrain. I had my BAR and helped carry ammo for the 60mm mortar.
We walked for a few miles on a railroad track that made it difficult to walk, then made our way into the hills for the night, no fires at night. We ate cold C-rations, then bedded down in the snow. We were cold and too tired to try to chop through the frozen ground. The next day we woke, freezing cold, and headed out to meet the enemy.
As we moved down into a valley, slipping and sliding all the way, we approached a small hamlet past dead cattle and a few dead civilians. Apparently, they just got in the way of the conflict. As we made our way up a ravine or valley we came upon some young civilian males. We didn’t know if they were guerillas or whose side they were on. The word was out that if they were not in the army or in uniform they must be either guerillas or deserters. One of the officers from Baker (or “B”) Company ordered them shot as guerillas. They were lined up against a stone wall and gunned down. We later regretted doing this. We didn’t know it at the time, but the enemy was watching this execution.
When we continued up the valley, small arms fire broke out. We immediately took cover wherever we could find it. In my case it was behind a rather large boulder with some men from my squad. I still couldn’t see the enemy, but I could sure hear the gunfire. Along with about six other men in my group, we began returning fire.
Sergeant Freeman, First Platoon Sergeant, began yelling at us to “put some fire on the hills.” I was blazing away with the BAR. Then we got the mortar set up as best we could without the base plate and dumped all of the rounds we had on the surrounding hills toward the enemy. It was then that Lawrence “Poochie” Williams was hit in the head, killing him instantly. He almost dropped on top of me. I heard squad leader Herman Jackson yell, “Sergeant Freeman, Poochie got hit in the head!” but there was nothing we could do for him. I can remember how he hated to wear the steel helmet, and I often wonder if it might have saved his life.
Edward L. Posey Page 18
