And suddenly it was all over. “I was put in a .30-caliber machine-gun bunker. I looked over at the lieutenant who is running as artillery fire is coming down. One of a series of outposted hills along the Iron Triangle in the western sector of the line of contact, it had long been contested by the enemy. “So the lieutenant is running down one side of Pork Chop Hill and I’m running down the other side. I took a carbine because I couldn’t handle my M-1 because of my injuries and got the hell out of there. They had two sons, Michael and Tom. Nicely composed..V. He must have some great stories, what a treat, Char..v. Officially Hill 255 (from its elevation in yards), it was dubbed Pork Chop Hill because of its geographic shape. Forgotten fighter finally receives medal By Riddhi Trivedi The Daily Iberian. “A short time later a Jeep come along the road where I was. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. "When we got there a flare was lit. "Sometimes, sitting there in the trenches with bullets whizzing around and people getting killed I would wonder what this was all about," Whitney said. They were moving bodies out of the road so their Jeep could pass without rolling over them. No one ever talks about it when they talk about foreign wars or foreign war veterans, he said. The event was made into a movie with Gregory Peck. A Survivor of the Korean War Battle of Pork Chop Hill . Note: The Wikipedia Article on Pork Chop Hill has been edited to add that Whitney Adam LeBlanc is a survivor - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pork_Chop_Hill, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pork_Chop_Hill. Ed Garrick of Port Charlotte takes it easy while on leave in Japan in 1953 after recovering from his injuries while fighting at Pork Chop Hill in Korea earlier in the year. “I don’t know whether I should say this, but when I walked in I found our company commander and company clerk slumped over their desks. I had been hit in the left elbow by a round and taken another round in my left leg and I was grazed by a bullet to my chest that didn’t go through. Immediately afterwards the North Koreans and Chinese staged a much larger assault on the hill that killed hundreds of Americans and thousands of enemy soldiers. When it does the grenade I’m holding comes out of my hand and lands in a drainage ditch filled with water and explodes. We took a train with no windows. “When they got to me and saw I as still alive they threw me in the back of the Jeep grenade and all. They had so many people coming up the hill they were stepping over their own bodies.”. 547 Americans lost their lives and 1,036 were wounded taking and losing the hill. "They wanted their homes and their mothers. http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3034286.html, Excellent portrait of this unique character~! Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Cpl. I let go with my carbine and they let go with a hand-grenade that overshot me a bit. With the badge, came memories. He looks to be a character Char. He escaped back to U.N. lines and lived to talk about it. "The same taxi driver who had driven me to the bus stop at the beginning of the war took me back home," he said. Excellent portrait Char..:>oted. Tuesday, December 10, 2002, Forgotten fighter finally receives medal After boot camp he arrived off the coast of Inchon, North Korea and was taken ashore in landing craft in the middle of a snow storm. Of the 4,400 American prisoners of war who survived captivity, none had anything to report about Henry. At 25, he was the oldest in his company. Either kill or you will be killed.'". Note: This is a reproduction of an article published in The Daily Iberian. He'd lived nine months within eyeshot of Pork Chop Hill, site of some of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War. Knowing that Pork Chop Hill holds no strategic value, Clemons surmises to friend and co-commander Lt. Suki Ohashi (George Shibata) that the action will underscore the Americans' strength while the peace negotiations continue. Currently: Port Charlotte, FL Roger LeBlanc said it took almost a year to get the badge. We could see hundreds of enemy soldiers below us getting ready to attack. Uncle Merle was one of the men that lived through the historic battle of Pork Chop Hill that took place during the Korean conflict. Commendations: Purple Heart, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal w/1 Bronze Star. As soon as the first shot was fired they fled. The Army believes he was killed in that last assault. Change ). He'd cheated the North Korean and Chinese mortar shells, including the 76mm burst that killed his driver and spattered his shirt with blood. "I went to the authorities and wrote letters and applications," said his son, Roger. Photo provided. He very nearly became a forgotten soldier. “We got off the train and they sent us to our outfits. Commenting on this page requires full PBase membership. All of a sudden he disappears. [url http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3034286.html, Photos have been Copyrighted please do not download or use without permission. It was fought over during the spring and summer of 1953 by hundreds of American and North Korean troops while the armistice talks were in progress at P’anmunjom. He started as a salesman and 18 years later he was in charge of sales for the Northeastern U.S. From there he went into the import business for another dozen or so years. The battle in which the hill was finally taken started with four companies of 250 soldiers each, he said. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. We had our rifles, but we had no ammunition,” he recalled more than 60-years later. Robert Henry are believed to be in there somewhere. There was a series of bunkers all along Port Chop Hill,” he explained. The last of those skirmishes was the battle for Pork Chop Hill between July 6 and 10, 1953. Armed MPs were at either end of the passenger car. A Pork Chop Hill survivor Uncle Merle was one of the men that lived through the historic battle of Pork Chop Hill that took place during the Korean conflict. V. He looks like areal character. "They would cower in the trenches and cry," LeBlanc said. The Chinese were about to take over the first part of the hill where I was. “I went back to our company headquarters because I couldn’t find anyone alive on our side,” Garrick said. “We were told we couldn’t just go up the hill. Somebody in our outfit didn’t care for the company commander and clerk so they put a bullet in them. If you stuck your head above the trench you were likely to get a sniper bullet between your eyes. We called back to our lines and they shot up parachute flares that lit up everything. “We were out there quite a while when all of a sudden we heard all this commotion. A close buddy, Tom Perkins, and I ended up together in Love Company, 31st Battalion, 7th Division,” Garrick said. Then, they turned it over to the South Korean troops and advanced to the next one, Pork Chop Hill. “We had a bunch of hand-grenades with us at our listening post. We were throwing grenades just as fast as we could pull the pins. The enemy controlled the space between where we were and the hill with its artillery. Nearly 50 years after his discharge, LeBlanc, 75, finally has his badge. “I crawled to the road and was lying there with my parker on bleeding to death. That was their introduction the Pork Chop Hill. The enemy lost approximately 1,500 killed and another 4,000 wounded. "Finally two weeks ago, I went to Lafayette to get my father's badge.". “Finally the lieutenant said, ‘Let’s get the hell out of here!’. "It was pork chop all right," LeBlanc said. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. He was hard-working, but had a comfortable life working on his family's sugar cane farm in Olivier. Today, the part of Pork Chop Hill where Henry disappeared is North Korean territory. I was hit with shrapnel in my right leg and backside. Those who survived spent the night carrying the dead and wounded off the hill in pouring rain, mist and smoke. ( Log Out / This copyrighted material may not be republished without permission. Whitney Adam LeBlanc [July 14, 1927 - July 10, 2011] is the uncle of the host of this website. The Chinese were advancing on our position and if we retreated toward our lines we would be caught in the middle of incoming enemy artillery fire. “Finally when we were told to pull off the hill there was only a handful of our company left,” Garrick said. The last six months of his time in the Army was spent as company clerk for an Army unit in Japan. "You go into this daze, like `I survived this sucker.' Because his family had been told he was MIA, Whitney said, there was no one to receive him and take him home when his bus arrived. “We were reporting to our company commander and I asked one of the fellows standing there, ‘How long do you have to be here before you get R&R?’ He replied, ‘Don’t worry about it, nobody ever lived that long!’”. During the initial assault the U.S. and its United Nations allies captured Pork Chop Hill. This story has some unusual elements- loose grenade, great quotes, photo w/ Mrs. Clark. Rank: Corporal The Columbians were in a unit up on Pork Chop Hill near were we were. During the battle of Pork Chop Hill, he got separated from his company and fought for two weeks with the 31st division. We were in the last bunker to the right. LeBlanc's discharge papers said he had been given the Infantry Badge for having fought with the 32nd Infantry division in the Korean War. They did and Garrick and Perkins went up the hill together. "When the battle ended, 12 of us walked off the hill alive," LeBlanc said. We waited until they got up one-third of the way up Pork Chop Hill then we started throwing grenades at them. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. All rights reserved. “Things were getting pretty hairy on Pork Chop Hill. By Riddhi Trivedi The Daily Iberian. Click here to search Veterans Records and to obtain information on retrieving lost commendations. He calls Korea the forgotten war. "The North Koreans had the hill and our trenches were at the bottom," Whitney LeBlanc said. They had been shot and not by the enemy. LOREAUVILLE - Whitney LeBlanc fought long and hard in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Click here to view the collections in alphabetical order in the Library of Congress. The Columbians were in a unit up on Pork Chop Hill near were we were. This story was first published in the Charlotte Sun newspaper, Port Charlotte, Fla. on Monday, August 13, 2018 and is republished with permission. Memories of being shipped out to war in 1952 after 30 days of basic training. Click here to view the War Tales fan page on FaceBook. "Who and what were we fighting the war for. ( Log Out / Mrs. Maurine Clark, wife of Gen. Mark Clark, visits Ed Garrick of Port Charlotte while he recoups from war wounds in Tokyo in 1953 following the battle of Pork Chop Hill in Korea earlier that same year. Name: Andrew Garrick "That's where you got chopped up.". Good job! I pulled the belts off several dead soldiers around me and tried to use them as tourniquets, but couldn’t tie them off because I only had one hand to work with. During the battle, 243 Americans were killed in action on Pork Chop Hill and an estimated 1,500 Chinese died, with many more wounded on both sides. I started toward my bunker down the trench and met the Chinese who were coming up. He never received it. They worked on my wounds and the next day I was flown to a hospital in Tokyo.
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