Dear Readers..Getting near the end,,and remembering other incidents....Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.
JMJ
Kumwah/Kumson North Korea 52
"L' co. 5th RCT 24th Div
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret.
The last Hill
We stayed on the hill we had been on for Christmas for a long time.I witnessed something very unusall.
There was fog on top of the enemy hill and artillery was being fired on it,,Then if you can put it that way I saw sound.How can I put it..its what I saw.After the round exploded I saw rings in the fog from the shock waves.,,,,One time the big shells (ours) were hitting the hill to our front,it was :White Phosphorous" a big cloud of white smoke,,but it was the shock waves from the explosion that came across the hill and it was like being hit in the face.....................So one day we moved out.
The last hill
When we got to the top of the hill I looked down the ridge line there was a whole line of bunkers.But I was told with two other soldiers to go down the ridge line to be on an out post.We would be out as far as you could go.So down we went (in the snow),We found a small abandoned Chinese bunkers and.............a dead Chinese frozen in the snow,First problem the bunker very small, We took turns sleeping in it I kept my head at the entrance.The first night we built a fire inside and the smoke got to me I got sick and walk up to the bunkers as I got to the top I slipped in the ice and my carbine broke.So I got an M1 Rifle again.I slept in a bunker that had been abandoned,the next day I felt better and went down to the out post.Now the dead body was on our nerves.As we pulled guard we look down and there was this dead face staring at you.Out to our front was a ring of bodies which I examined would look at there teeth (if you could see them and guess how old they were.Plus down in the valley were the bodies of the Chinese killed at Christmas (across the valley was the previous hill we occupied) As for the Chinese body as I ate I would think..(as I looked on him,)What village did he come from,,did he have a family ect and I nickname him :The Mongolian" he was big.I look at his eyes it look like he was staring at the sky when he died.Finnaly we took out bayonets chop the ice around him gave a push and down the hill he went.I could hear the body hit trees and brush as it went down,Then the day came to leave the hill.I got to top of the ridge line I was the last squad to leave the hill.I heard soldiers saying "Watch out for the,,,,,,,,.I did not get the last word. I sat down and started to slide off the hill as we did in the winter I picked up speed and turn a corner and flew into space and went into many strands of como wire.Here I was tangled in wire and around 3 feet of space under me.As a soldier passed me they tugged to try and get me lose.When I hit the wires my helmet flew off and went down the hill.Our company commander had said he would court martial anyone who lost his helmet.A couple of tugs later I got lose and down in the dark I went down the path.When I reach the bottom of the hill my foot hit something..It was my helmet..So we went south to a village called "Ok bung"..........
Phillip Meyer S/sgt Ret
