Roughstuff's Korean War Archive
book reviews and summaries, comments, analysis
US Marines in Korea by Lee Ballinger.
as reviewed by Chosin.com reader SSgt Chris Sarno.
All the Americans that I talk to about the Korean War, think the war ended after
Chosin Reservoir battles [Dec1950]. This is the beauty of Lee's book; whereby,
the reader discovers the remaining 18 months of the other Korean war. Almost all
books and video documentaries never attempted to disclose the outpost wars from
Jan52 to 27Jul53 when the big guns went silent...this old salt, Ballenger
enlightens the whole wide world with just what went on in Korea. Despite Truman's
con job of ...it's just a "police action" happening on his watch as CIC. Sixty
percent of the war's casualties came after the battle for the Yalu river
boundary abutting Manchuria. The author pulls no punches with bringing the
reader on hill assaults, on direct fire missions from Marine tanks, you are
taken on one of never ending Recon patrols and into the bunker/trenchline hand
to hand combat forays, so on and so on, The Marine blood was just as red and
gushing as it was up on the Chosin Reservoir, yet Lee, is the
first writer to go into definitive detail about the remaining 18 months of
Marine blood, sweat and tears. Alot of combat Marines I know will tell you, that
the immoral trend to talk peace at times, but kill the ememy and be killed
everynite is demoralizing; rather than a military victory. Case in point, the
battles for Bunker Hill #122-124 was to win it one day, get blasted off or
defend it so close to be ordered off and go do it the next day or nite with high
casualty rates for a series of topographical gumdrops out in the rat infested
rice paddies, hey, it's all in this book. I thanked Sgt Lee Ballenger in person
at the 1st Marine Div Assoc reunion in San Diego [2000] for all the valiant
Marines who never came home from the battles of the unknown Out Post war on the
35 mile Western Front...the 63rd and 65th Red Chinese Armies were massed to
recapture Seoul, but the tenacity of the 1st Marine Div FMF prevent any
breakthrought from 1April/52 to the end of hostilities [a truce] o
n 27Jul/53. Semper Fi to Sgt Lee Ballenger-USMC.
SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC
FMF [2 Tours of duty Korea].
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