Monday, June 14, 2010
FLAG DAY CUP KKIM/DDC
Dear KKIM/KARS Family,
May the Strength, Peace and Wisdom of our Lord be with you and yours forever and ever!
"Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" Matt 5:41
In commenting on this wonderful piece of scripture Oswald Cambers says....
Our Lord's teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that he demands of us is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. (AMEN! Pastor Jim taught me that)
Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself- a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, "I am here for God to send me where He will." Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be blurred.
AMEN! AMEN to that......please read that again.......too many Christian crash and burn......they have tremendous enthusiasm for Jesus, but not a strong personal relationship with Him and when troubles come they crash. Also love the part about, when everything else becomes blurred.......troubles come........pressure all time high..........you can feel the heat.........in fact you are getting burned........do let that relationship with Jesus become blurred!
We have Preached for years here at the CUP about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have any questions please email me.
WOW! Did you catch our TV program this weekend? Robert Montoya, son of Pastor Jim, was our guest and he talked about his Ministry for Haiti. Robert showed us some heart breaking video from Haiti. Many have forgotten about Haiti, as Robert's video showed us the need is as great as ever. Robert will be back with Part 2 this weekend on KAZQ CH 32, Comcast 22 at 6pm Saturday, 7pm Sunday. Check out more video at www.extremegreendesign.com That is Robert's and Pastor Jim's business.
Been under the weather for the last couple of days........infection in both eyes, head cold and cough and aches all over.......It shut me down for the weekend.....WOW! That does not happen very often!
I pray that you are flying the flag today to show your love for our Country! It is Flag Day and my Dad, Wally SGT. US Marines WWII, was born on this date. We have flags all over today! At the Moede's we fly the flag everyday! Friday night on Nm News and Views we played a song that KKIM friend Roy Bell wrote and sang about the Flag! It is AWESOME! Thanks Roy, Lord Willing we will play it again today at 4:30!
I went through a process last week that I saw the old Dewey and the new Dewey..the old Dewey made decisions based on Dewey....or mostly so.......the new Dewey prays and waits to hear from the Lord. When we get tired and wore down like I have been the last couple of weeks, we can weaken. (try to get even Christians to admit at times they get weak!) I knew what the right thing to do was.......but I grew weak....I talked with Sharon and also a dear friend........it showed me again how important the body of Christ is.......Godly people we can go to and talk with. It really keeps us on track. I Praise God for all of you, Godly friends!
Here is something I want to share with you on Decision making from John Maxwell's Leadership Bible........
Within a few years of his accent to the throne, David's leadership is in full swing. He begins to exercise broad decision-making skills as the King of Israel. Consider several principles we learn from David, the decision maker:
1. Good Leaders influence the decisions of others.
2. Good Decision makers want God in the center of the process.
3. Good Decision makers respect the Power of God.
4. Good Decisions foster joy and celebration
5. Good Leaders place God's agenda ahead of their own.
6. Good Decision makers listen to others.
7. Good Leaders positively affect future generations.
8. Good Decisions determine future conditions.
That is the process I have used and do use.........I experienced this past week........and have to keep myself reminded of this Godly process. To many times we go into the flesh and make quick decisions without praying. We also do not think about the future enough. Sharon and I also use this process when making decisions in the family and work. But as Maxwell lists, we also need to listen to other Christians as we go through this process.
We at times will slide back.........that is one huge reason for having Godly people around you to help you.
Today is Flag Day..........I also take this day to salute all those who fought in the Korean War, Like my Uncle Burton Moede of Mpls, Minn. This War has never ended, as we have thousands of troops on the line of South Korea and North Korea. many do not know this but there was never a Peace treaty signed.......just a Truce......Many in this Country have refereed to this war, as the Korean Conflict!, Hog Wash it was a War a bloody war........It still is a Powder Keg. The Korean War began 60 years ago this June 25th.....Please read the following.......
WAEGWAN, South Korea — The old soldier stood erect on the riverbank, his cane at his side, a baseball cap emblazoned "2nd Infantry Division" square above his brow. He looked out, then turned away from the slow, silty Naktong.
"I've seen this river before," Carroll Garland said. "I don't want to remember. Too many memories."
The war that began in Korea 60 years ago, on June 25, 1950, a ghastly conflict that killed millions and left the peninsula in ruins, became "The Forgotten War" in many Americans' minds.
However, to a shrinking corps of aging men, the soldiers of Korea 1950-53, it can never be forgotten. It damaged many physically, scarred many mentally and left men questioning their commanders' and their nation's wisdom.
They fought many enemies — not just the North Koreans and Chinese, but also the heat, the killing cold and the cursed hills, the thirst, hunger and filth, the incompetence and hubris of their own army, and the indifference of an American homeland still fixed on the "good" war, World War II, that had ended five years earlier.
Remembering Korea today may be painful, as ex-sergeant Garland, 81, of Oxon Hill, Md., can attest. But when such men get together, the freeze frames of war's horrors and miseries, of lost comrades and paralyzing dread, inevitably emerge in sharp focus.
"At the reunions, they talk about it," said Lucille Macek, 76, wife of Shawnee, Kan., veteran Victor Macek. "And then they break down."
In a
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wartime arc of desperation, triumph, retreat and final stalemate in Korea, no U.S. division sacrificed as much as the 2nd Infantry Division, losing more than 7,000, one-fifth of the total U.S. dead. And it is the 2nd Infantry Division that still stands guard over South Korea today.
Two days spent with a "2nd ID" group on a 60th-anniversary visit to old battlefields opened a window on the men and events of a lifetime ago, when what happened here, on the Naktong, on the Chungchon River of North Korea, in places like Kunu-ri and Heartbreak Ridge, neglected stories though they may be in today's textbooks, was nothing less than a pivotal turn in 20th-century history, when a cold war grew hot in America's confrontation with communism.
'THINGS WERE DESPERATE'
"We didn't have enough men," Henry Reed recalled of the division's ordeal on the Naktong.
"There were so many holes in the line, the North Koreans didn't have to try too hard. The enemy would get behind us, and we'd be fighting on all sides. Things were desperate."
It was called the Pusan Perimeter, a southeastern corner of Korea running 85 miles north to south along the Naktong and 60 miles east to west. Here in mid-1950, in one of the most perilous U.S. military operations ever, outmanned U.S. and South Korean troops mounted a last-ditch defense against a closing North Korean vise.
It wasn't supposed to be that way. After the communist-led northerners struck south in their surprise invasion June 25, two years after U.S. combat units withdrew from South Korea, U.S. commanders believed the simple reappearance of American troops would deter the North Koreans.
"At our base in Hawaii, we thought the war would be over and we wouldn't get our Combat Infantryman's Badges," said Marvin House, 79, a veteran of the 5th Regimental Combat Team (RCT). "Boy, were we fooled."
The northern army battered the first-arriving U.S. units and shattered the South Korean divisions. It simply was better trained and better equipped, with Soviet-made T-34 tanks.
The U.S. government had shrunk the Army drastically after World War II, and training and equipment upgrades were neglected.
As the 2nd Division sailed from Fort Lewis, Wash., toward Korea in late July 1950, "we wound up training our soldiers to fire their weapons at tin cans thrown into the Pacific," said retired Col. Ralph M. Hockley, 84, of Houston, Texas, then a young artillery officer.
"Twenty percent of our vehicles had to be towed to the embarkation point," Walter Wallis of Palo Alto, Calif., recalled of the 2nd Division deployment. "We had some real crap, 4-year-old C-rations and stuff like that."
Not long after, on the Naktong, the 18-year-old radioman Wallis watched helplessly from a hilltop as a U.S. river-crossing patrol was slaughtered by the North Koreans. His batteries had failed; he couldn't call for help.
For House, a 57mm-recoilless rifleman, it wasn't quality but the quantity: none. For a month after his 5th RCT took up position on the perimeter, he had no ammunition for his gun, leaving him to help mortar and other gun crews fight off the enemy.
The North Koreans, crossing the shallow Naktong at night on barges or underwater "bridges" built of rice bags filled with rocks, hammered again and again at the U.S. and South Korean lines in August and early September 1950.
The "lines" were more a series of hills, road junctions and other points manned by under-strength units, sometimes a mile apart. Commanders would rush up reserves to fill the gaps as the North Koreans attacked.
For the GI, in the 100-plus-degree heat, amid tropical downpours and malarial mosquitoes, with water supplies scarce, soldiering became misery. "Those weeks seemed like a lifetime," said House, of Bonne Terre, Mo.
'WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO DO'
Time and again, the 2nd and other U.S. and South Korean divisions held the North Koreans off, sometimes fighting hand-to-hand, at great cost to the defenders and even greater cost to the North Koreans. Finally, on Sept. 15, 1950, U.S. amphibious forces landed at Inchon, far to the North Koreans' rear, cutting them off from their supplies and recapturing Seoul from the invaders.
That set off a race north by the Pusan Perimeter divisions, a "breakout" whose momentum carried them by November to the Yalu River and the North Korean-Chinese border as overall commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. leadership sought to conquer North Korea.
"We did what we had to do. We kept them out," twice-wounded ex-rifleman Reed, 78, of Butte, Mont., said of the Naktong campaign. "But we suffered plenty. In the first month, my company" — A Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment — "went down to 78 men from 200."
More suffering lay ahead. The lunge north had been ill-conceived, putting the American army on a collision course with the might of China deep inside North Korea.
Retired Lt. Col. Lynn A. Freeman, then a lieutenant at 23rd Infantry headquarters, remembered the night in late November 1950 when a Chinese attack materialized from nowhere, "blowing bugles and whistles and making a lot of noise" and penetrating into the regimental command post at the Chungchon River.
The regiment's 1st Battalion beat them back. "The bodies of wounded Chinese were frozen in the river's ice the next morning," recalled the quiet-spoken Freeman, 87, of Concord, Calif. Meanwhile, young Wallis had an image frozen in his memory: panicked U.S. soldiers trapped in sleeping bags and hopping down a hillside to escape the Chinese.
"The next day, we went up there and saw a couple that didn't make it," he said.
But Chinese attacks all along the front forced the longest retreat in U.S. military history, a withdrawal by the entire U.S. Eighth Army some 160 miles back into South Korea.
For the 2nd Division, the pullback through Kunu-ri and the valley remembered as "The Gauntlet" was a descent into a wintry hell.
"It was sleepwalking, day and night marching, when the Chinese came in," remembered Rudy Ruiz, 77, of Las Vegas, a 38th Infantry Regiment rifleman.
Miles-long convoys of trucks, tanks and men pushed south under heavy fire from Chinese dug into the hills on both sides, fire that crippled vehicles, blocked the narrow roadway and stranded knots of doomed men. In a single day, the division saw 3,000 killed, wounded or missing.
Even for those who escaped, the frigid temperatures and biting Siberian wind of an early winter could be as deadly an enemy. Wounded men froze to death while waiting for help. Hundreds suffered frozen feet and fingertips, noses and ears. The Army had failed to deliver winter clothing to tens of thousands of troops.
"The worst was the cold. I've never been so cold," Ruiz said. "You'd dig a hole in the snow and you'd all huddle together."
The "Big Bugout" retreat left the Eighth Army holding a line below the 38th Parallel, the North-South divide.
In February 1951, the Chinese mounted an all-out offensive but were turned back at Chipyong-ni by the 2nd Division, ushering in a final long phase of the Korean War, the "war of the ridgelines," as the two sides jockeyed for advantage, winning hills, losing them, winning them back, while truce talks went on.
It was at Heartbreak Ridge, in September 1951, that "we got into trouble, when we tried to move north," recalled Ed Reeg, ex-machine gunner with the 23rd Infantry. "The night of 19 September, Love Company was under real heavy attack, and Lt. (Peter) Monfore called for a machine gun."
Reeg climbed to Love's position, set up his .30-caliber gun, and suddenly the North Koreans were charging out of the darkness along the ridgeline. Reeg's team tried to hold them off, dodged their grenades, but finally "they found the mark," a bullet hitting him above the hip, sending him rolling in pain.
As Love beat back the attack, at the cost of Lt. Monfore's life, Reeg was carried to a spot on the hillside, injected with morphine, roughly bandaged and left lying there as the sun rose, peaked and began to set.
"Here, I'm thinking, it's over. What's my mom going to think?" In late afternoon, passing GIs realized he wasn't dead and sent him off to a medical station. The war was over for Reeg, who would be awarded a Silver Star for bravery.
'IT WAS WORTH IT'
Too many memories.
This May 31, Reeg, 82, of Dubuque, Iowa, stood with his wife and son atop a ridgeline south of Korea's dividing Demilitarized Zone and looked out toward Heartbreak.
"To think we were so close to where I lay dying 59 years ago," he reflected later. "I never thought I'd get back here."
It wasn't the only pilgrimage this old soldier has made. In 2003, he found Lt. Monfore's grave in Springfield, S.D., and met with his family. "It seemed like my duty to go find him."
Duty and doubts, flashbacks and nightmares, pride and uncertainties — veterans of killing fields, in Korea or elsewhere, are often torn by conflicting feelings. Many Korea vets are open about the psychic legacy of their war.
"I had night sweats for years," Ruiz said. "Whatever, it's still blocked out." Reeg believes a nervous breakdown he suffered in 1960 may have stemmed from his time in Korea.
In their foxholes 60 years ago, many questioned why their lives were being risked in a far-off civil war. "As a young fellow, I did wonder what we were doing here," said the big Montanan and ex-rifleman Reed.
Their anniversary tour supplied an answer for some as they gazed upon a prosperous and — in recent decades — democratic South Korea, whose government subsidizes such veterans' visits.
"This makes me feel it was worth it," Reeg said. "To see this country built up. It's amazing."
They recognize the picture is incomplete, however, since the peninsula remains divided. "That's one thing I'm sorry for," Reed said.
In fact, John Manly long thought he would wait for Korean reunification before returning. Finally, at age 80, the old 23rd Infantry rifleman came, despite obvious misgivings about his war and its results — "I am almost a pacifist," he said.
Equally obvious, as he spoke of a wartime friend killed in action, was his love for his fellow soldiers.
"Isn't a day goes by I don't think about him," said Manly, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "I'm glad to be alive. A lot of the guys in there tonight are happy to be alive," he said, nodding toward a banquet hall filled with fellow veterans.
That evening, it was Manly's tenor voice that silenced the hall, drawing the gray heads of old soldiers together in thoughts only they could share, as he sang, to the tune of the World War II favorite "Lili Marlene," lyrics someone had improvised in 1952 as their own war dragged on:
"When the war is over and the world is free,
"We'll relive proud memories of bloody Kunu-ri.
"Sayong and Heartbreak will be retold,
"And Bloody Ridge will make us bold.
"Our hearts will always be
"With the 2nd Infantry
This Sunday of course is Father's Day.......I will be at Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood for their annual Father's Day Car Show! Look for the KKIM Van, Love to see you! Here is some words from the late John Wooden that he left for all of us.......
John Wooden's Card
Great advise from John Wooden! We have lost to great father Figures this month, Art Linkletter and now John Wooden.
Here is a note from Kyle Martin of Time to Revive..........
Hey folks...
I just got a phone call this morning from Ann Quest letting me know that Smokey John's wife, Gloria passed away this weekend. It was unexpected.
She died in her sleep. They originally thought maybe it was acid reflux but now are thinking it could have been a heart attack/stroke. Not sure on the details, but wanted to pass along to each one of you to be praying for Smokey.
Gloria Reaves was a wonderful woman of God. She will be dearly missed, but we know that she is with her Lord. Here is a link where you can find a picture of her and her family at Smokey John's: http://www.smokeyjohns.com/ourstory.html.
I will keep you posted with any more information that I have.
Please keep the Reaves family in your prayers.
Kyle
Let us pray for the Reaves family.
Let us go to our Lord in prayer..........
Lord, We thank you for all those men and women who have served under the United States of America flag......We thank you for all those serving now........As the flag is flown today may it remind America that this is a nation founded by You, Oh, Lord! We also pray today for the Reaves family, we give praise and thanks for the life of Gloria Reaves here on earth and now she is with You! Let Gloria's passing from earth remind us all that we are nothing but a vapor, here for just a short time. In the name of Jesus, Amen!
In the Love of Christ, Dewey Sharon and family
www.deweysdailycup.com
www.mykkim.com
www.twitter.com/radiodewey
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May the Strength, Peace and Wisdom of our Lord be with you and yours forever and ever!
"Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" Matt 5:41
In commenting on this wonderful piece of scripture Oswald Cambers says....
Our Lord's teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that he demands of us is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. (AMEN! Pastor Jim taught me that)
Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself- a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, "I am here for God to send me where He will." Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be blurred.
AMEN! AMEN to that......please read that again.......too many Christian crash and burn......they have tremendous enthusiasm for Jesus, but not a strong personal relationship with Him and when troubles come they crash. Also love the part about, when everything else becomes blurred.......troubles come........pressure all time high..........you can feel the heat.........in fact you are getting burned........do let that relationship with Jesus become blurred!
We have Preached for years here at the CUP about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have any questions please email me.
WOW! Did you catch our TV program this weekend? Robert Montoya, son of Pastor Jim, was our guest and he talked about his Ministry for Haiti. Robert showed us some heart breaking video from Haiti. Many have forgotten about Haiti, as Robert's video showed us the need is as great as ever. Robert will be back with Part 2 this weekend on KAZQ CH 32, Comcast 22 at 6pm Saturday, 7pm Sunday. Check out more video at www.extremegreendesign.com That is Robert's and Pastor Jim's business.
Been under the weather for the last couple of days........infection in both eyes, head cold and cough and aches all over.......It shut me down for the weekend.....WOW! That does not happen very often!
I pray that you are flying the flag today to show your love for our Country! It is Flag Day and my Dad, Wally SGT. US Marines WWII, was born on this date. We have flags all over today! At the Moede's we fly the flag everyday! Friday night on Nm News and Views we played a song that KKIM friend Roy Bell wrote and sang about the Flag! It is AWESOME! Thanks Roy, Lord Willing we will play it again today at 4:30!
I went through a process last week that I saw the old Dewey and the new Dewey..the old Dewey made decisions based on Dewey....or mostly so.......the new Dewey prays and waits to hear from the Lord. When we get tired and wore down like I have been the last couple of weeks, we can weaken. (try to get even Christians to admit at times they get weak!) I knew what the right thing to do was.......but I grew weak....I talked with Sharon and also a dear friend........it showed me again how important the body of Christ is.......Godly people we can go to and talk with. It really keeps us on track. I Praise God for all of you, Godly friends!
Here is something I want to share with you on Decision making from John Maxwell's Leadership Bible........
Within a few years of his accent to the throne, David's leadership is in full swing. He begins to exercise broad decision-making skills as the King of Israel. Consider several principles we learn from David, the decision maker:
1. Good Leaders influence the decisions of others.
2. Good Decision makers want God in the center of the process.
3. Good Decision makers respect the Power of God.
4. Good Decisions foster joy and celebration
5. Good Leaders place God's agenda ahead of their own.
6. Good Decision makers listen to others.
7. Good Leaders positively affect future generations.
8. Good Decisions determine future conditions.
That is the process I have used and do use.........I experienced this past week........and have to keep myself reminded of this Godly process. To many times we go into the flesh and make quick decisions without praying. We also do not think about the future enough. Sharon and I also use this process when making decisions in the family and work. But as Maxwell lists, we also need to listen to other Christians as we go through this process.
We at times will slide back.........that is one huge reason for having Godly people around you to help you.
Today is Flag Day..........I also take this day to salute all those who fought in the Korean War, Like my Uncle Burton Moede of Mpls, Minn. This War has never ended, as we have thousands of troops on the line of South Korea and North Korea. many do not know this but there was never a Peace treaty signed.......just a Truce......Many in this Country have refereed to this war, as the Korean Conflict!, Hog Wash it was a War a bloody war........It still is a Powder Keg. The Korean War began 60 years ago this June 25th.....Please read the following.......
WAEGWAN, South Korea — The old soldier stood erect on the riverbank, his cane at his side, a baseball cap emblazoned "2nd Infantry Division" square above his brow. He looked out, then turned away from the slow, silty Naktong.
"I've seen this river before," Carroll Garland said. "I don't want to remember. Too many memories."
The war that began in Korea 60 years ago, on June 25, 1950, a ghastly conflict that killed millions and left the peninsula in ruins, became "The Forgotten War" in many Americans' minds.
However, to a shrinking corps of aging men, the soldiers of Korea 1950-53, it can never be forgotten. It damaged many physically, scarred many mentally and left men questioning their commanders' and their nation's wisdom.
They fought many enemies — not just the North Koreans and Chinese, but also the heat, the killing cold and the cursed hills, the thirst, hunger and filth, the incompetence and hubris of their own army, and the indifference of an American homeland still fixed on the "good" war, World War II, that had ended five years earlier.
Remembering Korea today may be painful, as ex-sergeant Garland, 81, of Oxon Hill, Md., can attest. But when such men get together, the freeze frames of war's horrors and miseries, of lost comrades and paralyzing dread, inevitably emerge in sharp focus.
"At the reunions, they talk about it," said Lucille Macek, 76, wife of Shawnee, Kan., veteran Victor Macek. "And then they break down."
In a
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wartime arc of desperation, triumph, retreat and final stalemate in Korea, no U.S. division sacrificed as much as the 2nd Infantry Division, losing more than 7,000, one-fifth of the total U.S. dead. And it is the 2nd Infantry Division that still stands guard over South Korea today.
Two days spent with a "2nd ID" group on a 60th-anniversary visit to old battlefields opened a window on the men and events of a lifetime ago, when what happened here, on the Naktong, on the Chungchon River of North Korea, in places like Kunu-ri and Heartbreak Ridge, neglected stories though they may be in today's textbooks, was nothing less than a pivotal turn in 20th-century history, when a cold war grew hot in America's confrontation with communism.
'THINGS WERE DESPERATE'
"We didn't have enough men," Henry Reed recalled of the division's ordeal on the Naktong.
"There were so many holes in the line, the North Koreans didn't have to try too hard. The enemy would get behind us, and we'd be fighting on all sides. Things were desperate."
It was called the Pusan Perimeter, a southeastern corner of Korea running 85 miles north to south along the Naktong and 60 miles east to west. Here in mid-1950, in one of the most perilous U.S. military operations ever, outmanned U.S. and South Korean troops mounted a last-ditch defense against a closing North Korean vise.
It wasn't supposed to be that way. After the communist-led northerners struck south in their surprise invasion June 25, two years after U.S. combat units withdrew from South Korea, U.S. commanders believed the simple reappearance of American troops would deter the North Koreans.
"At our base in Hawaii, we thought the war would be over and we wouldn't get our Combat Infantryman's Badges," said Marvin House, 79, a veteran of the 5th Regimental Combat Team (RCT). "Boy, were we fooled."
The northern army battered the first-arriving U.S. units and shattered the South Korean divisions. It simply was better trained and better equipped, with Soviet-made T-34 tanks.
The U.S. government had shrunk the Army drastically after World War II, and training and equipment upgrades were neglected.
As the 2nd Division sailed from Fort Lewis, Wash., toward Korea in late July 1950, "we wound up training our soldiers to fire their weapons at tin cans thrown into the Pacific," said retired Col. Ralph M. Hockley, 84, of Houston, Texas, then a young artillery officer.
"Twenty percent of our vehicles had to be towed to the embarkation point," Walter Wallis of Palo Alto, Calif., recalled of the 2nd Division deployment. "We had some real crap, 4-year-old C-rations and stuff like that."
Not long after, on the Naktong, the 18-year-old radioman Wallis watched helplessly from a hilltop as a U.S. river-crossing patrol was slaughtered by the North Koreans. His batteries had failed; he couldn't call for help.
For House, a 57mm-recoilless rifleman, it wasn't quality but the quantity: none. For a month after his 5th RCT took up position on the perimeter, he had no ammunition for his gun, leaving him to help mortar and other gun crews fight off the enemy.
The North Koreans, crossing the shallow Naktong at night on barges or underwater "bridges" built of rice bags filled with rocks, hammered again and again at the U.S. and South Korean lines in August and early September 1950.
The "lines" were more a series of hills, road junctions and other points manned by under-strength units, sometimes a mile apart. Commanders would rush up reserves to fill the gaps as the North Koreans attacked.
For the GI, in the 100-plus-degree heat, amid tropical downpours and malarial mosquitoes, with water supplies scarce, soldiering became misery. "Those weeks seemed like a lifetime," said House, of Bonne Terre, Mo.
'WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO DO'
Time and again, the 2nd and other U.S. and South Korean divisions held the North Koreans off, sometimes fighting hand-to-hand, at great cost to the defenders and even greater cost to the North Koreans. Finally, on Sept. 15, 1950, U.S. amphibious forces landed at Inchon, far to the North Koreans' rear, cutting them off from their supplies and recapturing Seoul from the invaders.
That set off a race north by the Pusan Perimeter divisions, a "breakout" whose momentum carried them by November to the Yalu River and the North Korean-Chinese border as overall commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. leadership sought to conquer North Korea.
"We did what we had to do. We kept them out," twice-wounded ex-rifleman Reed, 78, of Butte, Mont., said of the Naktong campaign. "But we suffered plenty. In the first month, my company" — A Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment — "went down to 78 men from 200."
More suffering lay ahead. The lunge north had been ill-conceived, putting the American army on a collision course with the might of China deep inside North Korea.
Retired Lt. Col. Lynn A. Freeman, then a lieutenant at 23rd Infantry headquarters, remembered the night in late November 1950 when a Chinese attack materialized from nowhere, "blowing bugles and whistles and making a lot of noise" and penetrating into the regimental command post at the Chungchon River.
The regiment's 1st Battalion beat them back. "The bodies of wounded Chinese were frozen in the river's ice the next morning," recalled the quiet-spoken Freeman, 87, of Concord, Calif. Meanwhile, young Wallis had an image frozen in his memory: panicked U.S. soldiers trapped in sleeping bags and hopping down a hillside to escape the Chinese.
"The next day, we went up there and saw a couple that didn't make it," he said.
But Chinese attacks all along the front forced the longest retreat in U.S. military history, a withdrawal by the entire U.S. Eighth Army some 160 miles back into South Korea.
For the 2nd Division, the pullback through Kunu-ri and the valley remembered as "The Gauntlet" was a descent into a wintry hell.
"It was sleepwalking, day and night marching, when the Chinese came in," remembered Rudy Ruiz, 77, of Las Vegas, a 38th Infantry Regiment rifleman.
Miles-long convoys of trucks, tanks and men pushed south under heavy fire from Chinese dug into the hills on both sides, fire that crippled vehicles, blocked the narrow roadway and stranded knots of doomed men. In a single day, the division saw 3,000 killed, wounded or missing.
Even for those who escaped, the frigid temperatures and biting Siberian wind of an early winter could be as deadly an enemy. Wounded men froze to death while waiting for help. Hundreds suffered frozen feet and fingertips, noses and ears. The Army had failed to deliver winter clothing to tens of thousands of troops.
"The worst was the cold. I've never been so cold," Ruiz said. "You'd dig a hole in the snow and you'd all huddle together."
The "Big Bugout" retreat left the Eighth Army holding a line below the 38th Parallel, the North-South divide.
In February 1951, the Chinese mounted an all-out offensive but were turned back at Chipyong-ni by the 2nd Division, ushering in a final long phase of the Korean War, the "war of the ridgelines," as the two sides jockeyed for advantage, winning hills, losing them, winning them back, while truce talks went on.
It was at Heartbreak Ridge, in September 1951, that "we got into trouble, when we tried to move north," recalled Ed Reeg, ex-machine gunner with the 23rd Infantry. "The night of 19 September, Love Company was under real heavy attack, and Lt. (Peter) Monfore called for a machine gun."
Reeg climbed to Love's position, set up his .30-caliber gun, and suddenly the North Koreans were charging out of the darkness along the ridgeline. Reeg's team tried to hold them off, dodged their grenades, but finally "they found the mark," a bullet hitting him above the hip, sending him rolling in pain.
As Love beat back the attack, at the cost of Lt. Monfore's life, Reeg was carried to a spot on the hillside, injected with morphine, roughly bandaged and left lying there as the sun rose, peaked and began to set.
"Here, I'm thinking, it's over. What's my mom going to think?" In late afternoon, passing GIs realized he wasn't dead and sent him off to a medical station. The war was over for Reeg, who would be awarded a Silver Star for bravery.
'IT WAS WORTH IT'
Too many memories.
This May 31, Reeg, 82, of Dubuque, Iowa, stood with his wife and son atop a ridgeline south of Korea's dividing Demilitarized Zone and looked out toward Heartbreak.
"To think we were so close to where I lay dying 59 years ago," he reflected later. "I never thought I'd get back here."
It wasn't the only pilgrimage this old soldier has made. In 2003, he found Lt. Monfore's grave in Springfield, S.D., and met with his family. "It seemed like my duty to go find him."
Duty and doubts, flashbacks and nightmares, pride and uncertainties — veterans of killing fields, in Korea or elsewhere, are often torn by conflicting feelings. Many Korea vets are open about the psychic legacy of their war.
"I had night sweats for years," Ruiz said. "Whatever, it's still blocked out." Reeg believes a nervous breakdown he suffered in 1960 may have stemmed from his time in Korea.
In their foxholes 60 years ago, many questioned why their lives were being risked in a far-off civil war. "As a young fellow, I did wonder what we were doing here," said the big Montanan and ex-rifleman Reed.
Their anniversary tour supplied an answer for some as they gazed upon a prosperous and — in recent decades — democratic South Korea, whose government subsidizes such veterans' visits.
"This makes me feel it was worth it," Reeg said. "To see this country built up. It's amazing."
They recognize the picture is incomplete, however, since the peninsula remains divided. "That's one thing I'm sorry for," Reed said.
In fact, John Manly long thought he would wait for Korean reunification before returning. Finally, at age 80, the old 23rd Infantry rifleman came, despite obvious misgivings about his war and its results — "I am almost a pacifist," he said.
Equally obvious, as he spoke of a wartime friend killed in action, was his love for his fellow soldiers.
"Isn't a day goes by I don't think about him," said Manly, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "I'm glad to be alive. A lot of the guys in there tonight are happy to be alive," he said, nodding toward a banquet hall filled with fellow veterans.
That evening, it was Manly's tenor voice that silenced the hall, drawing the gray heads of old soldiers together in thoughts only they could share, as he sang, to the tune of the World War II favorite "Lili Marlene," lyrics someone had improvised in 1952 as their own war dragged on:
"When the war is over and the world is free,
"We'll relive proud memories of bloody Kunu-ri.
"Sayong and Heartbreak will be retold,
"And Bloody Ridge will make us bold.
"Our hearts will always be
"With the 2nd Infantry
This Sunday of course is Father's Day.......I will be at Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood for their annual Father's Day Car Show! Look for the KKIM Van, Love to see you! Here is some words from the late John Wooden that he left for all of us.......
John Wooden's Card
Great advise from John Wooden! We have lost to great father Figures this month, Art Linkletter and now John Wooden.
Here is a note from Kyle Martin of Time to Revive..........
Hey folks...
I just got a phone call this morning from Ann Quest letting me know that Smokey John's wife, Gloria passed away this weekend. It was unexpected.
She died in her sleep. They originally thought maybe it was acid reflux but now are thinking it could have been a heart attack/stroke. Not sure on the details, but wanted to pass along to each one of you to be praying for Smokey.
Gloria Reaves was a wonderful woman of God. She will be dearly missed, but we know that she is with her Lord. Here is a link where you can find a picture of her and her family at Smokey John's: http://www.smokeyjohns.com/ourstory.html.
I will keep you posted with any more information that I have.
Please keep the Reaves family in your prayers.
Kyle
Let us pray for the Reaves family.
Let us go to our Lord in prayer..........
Lord, We thank you for all those men and women who have served under the United States of America flag......We thank you for all those serving now........As the flag is flown today may it remind America that this is a nation founded by You, Oh, Lord! We also pray today for the Reaves family, we give praise and thanks for the life of Gloria Reaves here on earth and now she is with You! Let Gloria's passing from earth remind us all that we are nothing but a vapor, here for just a short time. In the name of Jesus, Amen!
In the Love of Christ, Dewey Sharon and family
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