" AS I Recall .........."
Richard C. Blake
"I" Co. 160th Infantry Regiment
40th Infantry Division
KOREA 1952
MY FIRST NIGHT ON LINE
I had landed at Inchon, coming from Japan after 2 months with the 24th Division. I took a train to the rear area of somewhere and then a 2 1/2 ton truck ride to the rear of someplace else. I didn't know where we were. I think they told us but I do not remember it.
It was black as the Ace of Spades outside. And COLD; man was it COLD.We were told to get on another truck and away we went. Still didn't know where we were.As we go up this road, that appears to be in a valley, the truck does not have it's head lights on, which I think is a little dangerous. There is one guy that is standing in the front with a rifle. I ask about the headlights. He informs me that if they turn on
the head lights the Chinese can see us when we travel up this valley.
" Where are the Chinese? " I ask. He points straight ahead in front of the truck.Now this is disturbing because none of us has Ammo. I question this and he says they don't want us shooting the wrong people. I can understand the logic, but I sure as hell wish I had a clip or two.
You can hear shooting going on, but you can't tell for sure where it is coming from. We make a left hand turn and head up a gully and climb quite a way up this gully. We reach the top and unload. The truck takes off back down the road we just came up.
An officer,I think, tells us to get in a bunker and stay there. Off in the distance you can see explosions and tracers.We get in the bunker and wonder what's next. Someone lights a cigarette and we notice that the bunker is an ammo bunker for the Mortars. Now this does nothing to calm us down.
We peek out the door and cannot determine which way is which, towards the front or to the rear.
The machine guns were active and the mortars were working and rifle shots all around us. This I must say was the most terrifying night of my life. Of all the patrols I went on out in the Valley nothing compares to that first night in the Valley. I knew where I was and where the Chinese were and which way to friendly lines. But in that bunker that first night I was lost and had no ammo.
In the morning we were taken out of the bunker and told where we were. "I" Company, 160th Inf. Regiment, 40th Inf. Division.We were the last Company on the left flank, right next to the ROK Army. Our ride the night before had been up the Mundung-ni Valley and turning up a finger of the Kim IL Sung Ridge.
To the East you can see the hills of The Heartbreak. I then knew where I was and I will never forget the next 90 days and nights.
RICHARD C. BLAKE
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