I'd like to share with you the story another guy who went through this terrible ordeal but his story doesn't end there. I just spoke with several wonderful members of his family a couple weeks ago at our POW/MIA Family Conference here in DC. William McClung entered the Marines in the mids 30s (I have the exact date somewhere but it's just not available to me at the moment). After a short period of time in the States, he volunteered to serve with the China Marines and spent about 4 years there. He returned to the States for a short period but, in early 1941, before volunteering for overseas duty again and was posted to the Marine Det, on Corrigador. He was there on 7 December when Pearl Harbor was bombed and was there to meet the Japanese attackds on Bataan and Corrigador.
He ended up being knocked unconscious at his gun position, was captured, and was part of the death march. However, he was one of the lucky ones as he survived the death march and some four years as a POW. After liberation at the end of WW-II, he returned to the States but that's definitely not the end of Bill McClung's story.
After a short period of R&R, he joined the1st Marine Division. He deployed with the 1st Marine Division to meet the North Korean invasion at Pusan and, by this time a Master Sergeant, hje and the rest of the Marine composit unit at Pusan were pulled out to be part of the 1MarDiv invasion force that landed at Inch-on. He fought his way from Inch-on through Seoul; they cut off the retreat of the North Korean Army and basically destroyed what was left of it in South Korea. He was with the 1st MarDiv when it was pulled off the line and put on ships for Operation Yo-Yo, before finally landing at the North Korean port of Hungnam and moving up to the town of Hagaru-ri at the base of the Chosin Reservoir. While the 5th and 7th Marines moved up to Yudam-ni on the wast side of the Reservoir on 27 November, MSGT Bill McClung had what seemed to ba a pretty soft job with Headquarters Company (which remained at Hagaru-ri). What they didn't know was that almost 200,000 Chinese troops had infiltrated south and were about to spring a trep. On the night of 27-28 November, the Chinese hit the Mrines at Yudam-ni and the Army Task Force on the east side of the Reservoir. At almost the same time, they slammed into Hagaru-ri.
The fighting was furious and by 1December buth the Marines and the Army Task force made a fighting withdrawal back to Hagaru-ri where they reorganized and, on 6 december, began to withdraw south to Koto-ri and the port of Hamhung-Hungnam for evacuation. the problem was that several Deivisions of Chinese had swarmed past Hagaru-ri and took up positions on the high ground on both sides of the MSR. The convoy had to fight every inch south to Koto-ri where they regrouped again before the final puch to the port.
About halfway between Hagaru-ri and Koto-ri was a wide spot in the road that became known as Hellfire Valley. There, the Chinese established several large roadblocks which caused the column to stop and become segmented. Once the convoy was halted, the Chinese swarmed down the hills and all over the trucks of wounded and dead. MSGT Bill McClung, took charge of a small group of Marines around a truck and organized them into a defense from which they held off several Chinese attacks. When the convoy began to move again, he began loading wounded onto the trucks when the Chinese hit again. He turned, alone to face them and killed several before he fell, mortally wounded. He was later awarded a posthumous the Navy Cross for his valor.
The end of the story is almost too sad to tell. Once he fell, some of the Marines on the truck, retrieved his body and put it on one of the trucks and they made it to Koto-ri. There, the Marines dug a field cemetery and some 150 Marines and soldiers, including MSGT McClung, were buried there. His body was never returned and is, to this day, unaccounted for (and that is how I came to meet his family).
Semper fi.................Bill
"The world would be a much simpler place if every one could pick and choose their obligations, but we can't and we shouldn't." Major Charles W. Whittlesey