Chosin Reservoir survivor honored

MARGARET DOWNING PHOTO The Herald
Korean War veteran Joe Myers is pictured a number of years ago pointing out where Chosin Reservoir is located in Korea. The photo was taken at the Korean War Memorial in the Field of Honor in Loves Park.

By Margaret Downing
REPORTER
The late Joe Myers of Roscoe enlisted in the U.S. Army in December 1949 and was stationed on Guam in the South Pacific at the time the Korean Conflict began. He was then reassigned to a unit based in Japan; the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division.
Myers, born in 1931, passed away June 10 of this year and was interred June 22 at Sunset Memorial Gardens. A large contingent of KWVA (Greater Rockford Area Korean War Veterans Association, Chapter 272) attended, as did Vietnam2Now members, who gave a gun salute and played Taps.
Master Sergeant Vincent Lara, assigned with the 84th Training Division out of Fort Sheridan was in attendance and was assisted by Vietnam2Now member John Scott in folding the American flag, which was handed over to Myers’ family at the end of the ceremony.
Lara explained that not all families of veterans are aware of the Department of the Army program and its “military honors” that are bestowed on vets at conclusion of a burial service. Service members, such as Lara, volunteer their time at these events to assist veterans’ organizations. He explained what a family member can do to have this honor bestowed on a loved one. “Requests can be made to the Fort Leonard Wood CAC through the following email: [email protected]. The phone number is 800-350-7746, fax 573-596-2058. Military documentation is needed that can then be given over to the funeral director.
In reference to Joe Myers service, he recalled several years ago, “In mid-November of 1950, my unit landed at the Port of Wonsan in North Korea. The next day we were ordered out on patrol to the west of Wonsan to see if we could link up with elements of the 8th U.S. Army Division in the Taebec mountain range. By late November, the 5th and 7th Marine Regiments and the Army’s 32nd Infantry Regiment were deployed northwest of the Chosin Reservoir in the Yudamni area, the elements of the ROK (Republic of Korea) Army and the Army’s 31st and 32nd Infantry Regiments were deployed northeast of the reservoir some 75 miles from the Manchurian border.
“On November 27, in 39-degrees below zero weather, the Chinese attacked both forces, the units east of Chosin Reservoir were all annihilated and the Marines were temporarily trapped. The 1st, a battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, was deployed northwest to a town called Sangangni with two batteries of the 10th Field Artillery. On our right flank was our 2nd Battalion near the town of Huksuri. That located my unit about 25 miles west of the main escape route to Hungnam.
“On November 29, the British 41st Commando and elements of the 32nd Infantry Division were annihilated while attempting to open up the road between Hagaruri at the base of the Chosin Reservoir and Kotori, eleven miles to the south.
“While this was happening the 126th Division of the 42nd Chinese Army deployed southwest from the reservoir some 39 miles down the Taebec mountain range. They thought they could come around and cut off the Marines that were still alive at the reservoir before they could reach the 3rd Infantry Division’s perimeter at Hungnam. But at Sachangni they ran into the 1st Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division. At Sachangni the Chinese turned a nice sunny day into one that wasn’t very good with a one-plus Chinese division pitted in deadly combat against our 1st Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment.
“The march to Sachangni was not much to speak of; we made it there without much enemy contact. There was some sniping and some small harassing attacks at night by North Korean gorilla fighters. The first time they made contact with us was about nine-thirty or 2130 hours, that’s when the Chinese found out that we were in front of them, and then it seemed as if all hell broke loose. They came swarming over the hills and it seemed as if we were being invaded by a bunch of starving ants. They came on blowing bugles and horns and yelling their heads off in that high-pitched Chinese chatter that scarred the blazes out of you.
“What I hated most were those grenades, there were so many Chinese, wave after wave and we could put down a whole line of them and another line would come right behind them. They would stop to pick up the weapons from their dead and climb over them and come on just like the first ones. Three or four times the Chinese broke our forward defenses but we always beat them back. If the Chinese were to overrun our lines and break through to cut the road from the reservoir, nobody was going to make it out.
“On November 30, the 5th and 7th Marines began their breakout to the east toward Hagarri and made it there around December 4.
“On December 6 the Marines started to move south to Kotori. It was the first part of the hellish 64 mile journey to the Port of Hungnam. At the time all of this was going on, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 15th Regiment continued to hold open the escape approaches to the Hungnam perimeter.
“The important role that the Third Infantry Division, the Army engineers, the artillery and the support troops played in assisting and defending the approaches to the Hungnam perimeter has been overlooked in history books and also overshadowed by the more spectacular story of the Marines’ heroic fighting withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir area.
“On December 7 and 8, the 7th Infantry Regiment’s 3rd Battalion screened the First Battalion 1st Marine Regiment, which displaced north to Chinhung-ni to guard a treadway bridge that had been air-dropped to replace a blown bridge at the Funchilin Pass located about midway between Kotori and Chinhungni, then miles to the south.
“At that time the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment moved into the mountains between Koto-ri and Chinhung-ni above Funchilin Pass where they fought a rearguard action until December 12, withdrawing only