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Marines Marshal Tales Of Battle

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By ROGER K. MILLER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2009

"The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat," by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Atlantic Monthly Press, $25)

If there is anything that angers and saddens the aging veterans of Korea, it is that theirs is the Forgotten War - "orphaned by history," in David Halberstam's phrase. That and the fact it was often not even called a war, but a "police action."

Make no mistake, a war it definitely was, particularly in the first of its three years (1950-53). Within its overall savagery, nothing was worse than the harrowing effort by the 1st Marine Division (and some Army elements) to break out of Chinese encirclement near the Chosin Reservoir in the frozen desolation of northeastern North Korea in late November and early December 1950.

In "The Last Stand of Fox Company," Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, authors of "Halsey's Typhoon," focus on one sustained struggle of that breakout, the stand of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, against overwhelming Communist Chinese forces in the Toktong Pass west of the reservoir from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, 1950.

This was six months after North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25. By this point, after the two sides had chased each other up and down the peninsula, the North Koreans were on the run from the U.N. forces headed by the United States. But Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of Allied forces, was determined to take the war up to and perhaps into China in the face of warnings from the Chinese and explicit orders to the contrary from the Truman administration.

It was a terrible fight in a terrible place. Temperatures, worsened by screaming winds, reached 30 below zero. Men were laid low by frostbite and digestive problems caused by eating frozen C rations. Weapons refused to function properly in the extreme cold.

The Marines, however, functioned as they always had, with esprit, cohesiveness and comradeship. They fought against overwhelming odds - seven, eight, even 10 to one. A company against a Chinese regiment, a battalion against a division.

They fought themselves out of an impossible situation. With Fox Company guarding the rear, they "attacked" down a miles-long, days-long, ice-encased gauntlet of withering fire by the Chinese, bringing with them their vehicles, their wounded and their dead until they reached the relative safety of Hagaru-ri early Dec. 4. At roll call Dec. 5, out of the original 192 officers and enlisted men of Fox Company, 60 were still able to fight.

The authors tell a terrific story thrillingly, occasionally borrowing the rough colloquial language of the Marines. Maps are excellent. The book is, like many good military narratives, in large part a series of individual stories. This brings some humanity to the savagery and helps the reader comprehend the bewildering, swiftly changing combat.

Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer and editor and author of "Invisible Hero," a novel of the Korean War.

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