Posted on 05/28/2018 7:21:22 AM PDT by Mariner
At age 17 Neal Vance had never seen a body, fired anything bigger than a .22, shot a man or been scared for his life.
He hadn't seen a North Korean, either.
In the space of two hours on July 27, 1950, all of that changed.
The Bakersfield resident had dropped out of Bakersfield High School in November 1949 while a sophomore to join the U.S. Army -- and to escape an abusive stepfather.
At Fort Ord on Monterey Bay for basic training, he met Eddie L. Payne, 17, who'd also left BHS to join the army.
The two eventually were shipped to Okinawa in June, where they were placed in the 3rd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment. Payne and Vance were in L Company, and a friendship between the two that had begun in basic training strengthened.
They were supposed to undergo six weeks of intense training. But North Korean troops invaded South Korea in late June 1950 and quickly moved through the ill-prepared and under-equipped combined forces of the Republic of Korea and the U.S. Eighth Army, capturing Seoul and Inchon.
Plans still called for the 29th to get a week of training in Japan, but by July 15 it was clear that without immediate U.S. reinforcements the North Koreans would overrun the entire peninsula.
The 3rd Battalion sailed from Okinawa on July 21 and landed at Pusan, South Korea on July 24, then boarded a train to Chinju, Vance's first train ride. The 60-mile ride was in an open boxcar; Vance remembers the shimmering green of the terraced rice paddies, the bulky heaviness of his equipment and the steamy heat.
(Excerpt) Read more at bakersfield.com ...
And like the subject of this article (Neal Vance), he too was 17 years old.
He turned 18 6 days later on a hillside in Korea, and wrote my grandmother, letting her know for the first time he was in Korea. Until she received that letter she thought he was in Okinawa.
I still have that letter, on a waxed paper, written in pencil.
He told her his unit "got shot up pretty bad", but that he was OK and the war would be over soon.
Tough times for a bunch of kids. They were a training regiment, specialists in different weapons systems.
They were not even afforded the time necessary to clean and sight in their brand new M-1s. Dad said he could see the cosmoline burning off his rifle as he was firing.
Of the 925 men that set out that fateful morning, only 354 were able to muster, including the walking wounded, the following day.
Later in the war he made it all the way to Pyongyang. Not many Americans have been in Pyongyang with a rifle in their hands.
If you have the time, today might be a good time to re-view Eastwood’s “Heartbreak Ridge”.
I read the whole article. Difficult decision commanders had to make. They did indeed sacrifice green troops to buy enough time to get stronger forces in there.
Thank you for sharing. God bless your dad.
Exposed in a crushing, deadly ambush, 17 year old Neal Vance swam his way out to safety; refitted, turned around and went back in to earn an impressive war record.
Hand salute for his honor.
No matter what anyone tries to tell you, war is hell personified.
“They did indeed sacrifice green troops to buy enough time to get stronger forces in there.”
That was the plan, out of the gate.
Of that Battalion, only about 100 were over 20yrs old.
They were the closest reinforcements to Pusan which was about to be overrun.
And they were 95% from the California Central Valley, formed up at Fort Ord in Monterrey, Trained on a new small arm (my dad on the new recoiless rifle) and shipped out to Okinawa to train other troops.
They never received any combat training besides boot camp.
My grandfather was with the Indian Army Corp of engineers in WWII stationed in Australia. He never saw any action, but served nonetheless.
I remember when I was 17, and cannot simply fathom the shock of being safe and sound one minute, then 24 hours later having thousands of people trying to kill you.
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