Seventy-five years ago today, the Allied Forces launched a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48101/walsh-when-toxic-masculinity-saved-world-matt-walsh">momentous amphibious assault</a> in Normandy that commenced the bloody eastbound trek to kill Hitler and defeat Nazism. D-Day was, in its purest possible form, a real-life military embodiment of unabashed good versus diabolical evil. It is truly impossible to concoct a more pellucid Manichaeism &#8212; a starker juxtaposition wherein the very best of humanity goes to war with the very worst of humanity.
&#8220;You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months,&#8221; <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowerorderofdday.htm">exhorted</a> Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, on the eve of D-Day. &#8220;The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.&#8221;
I saw Saving Private Ryan, which assuredly features the greatest cinematic depiction of the storming of Omaha Beach in the history of Hollywood, in a special theater showing last evening. The epic war scene, replete as it is with visceral exposure to the utter savagery of military conflict, was just as engrossing and bone-jarring as it first was for me many years ago.
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I am not a military veteran, and I therefore have no personal experience with horrors the likes of which those valorous Americans encountered as they faced ceaseless Nazi machine gun fire from the top of Omaha Beach. But I have many dear friends who have served our nation with honor. And I also have enough common sense to recognize that the state of warfare, although inseparable to some degree from the human condition itself, is something that here, there, and everywhere ought to be avoided if there is any feasible way for noble statesmen and political elites to do so.
At the same time, the heroes who sailed across the ocean and risked dying to save the free world that harrowing June morning were under no illusions as to the sacredness of their mission. Consider General Eisenhower&#8217;s aforementioned exhortation to eradicate &#8220;Nazi tyranny over [the] oppressed peoples of Europe&#8221; and establish &#8220;security for ourselves in a free world.&#8221; Consider the clarity of FDR&#8217;s <a href="http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/odddayp.html">D-Day national prayer</a>: &#8220;Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.&#8221;
Our courageous men and women in uniform today deserve no lesser clarity of mission and purpose than did the men who landed in Normandy 75 years ago. But can it truly be said that our political and military elites provide that clarity?
Unfortunately, the answer is, &#8220;no.&#8221; Today, our political elites and military brass &#8212; all of whom far too frequently suffer from the insufferable groupthink of the bipartisan Wilsonian &#8220;universal values&#8221; consensus &#8212; tend to shortchange our men and women in uniform in all sorts of ways. Restrictive rules of engagement and the outrageous appropriation of the military as a <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2017/10/17/stop-using-military-pawn-culture-war/">tool for leftist culture war ends</a> are but two tangible examples. But more generally, there are far too many politicians and uniformed Pentagon higher-ups alike who, in the year 2019, would send our men and women into armed battle &#8212; wherein they necessarily risk paying the ultimate price &#8212; without a cogent and compelling reason to do so.
What on Earth are we still doing, eighteen years later, refereeing an Islamic tribal civil war in the backwater sharia law-run backwater of <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/now-pull-the-plug-on-afghanistan/">Afghanistan</a>? For that matter, why do we position U.S. servicemen in caretaker, civil war-refereeing positions at all &#8212; be they in Syria, Iraq, or elsewhere? Why do we have soldiers being physically <a href="https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/05/two-star-general-green-berets-punished-for-deadly-niger-ambush-that-killed-4-us-soldiers/">ambushed</a> in a strategically unimportant country like Niger? Why are we considering the possibility of sending troops &#8212; not merely justifiable arms and ancillary hard assets, but <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-open-to-us-forces-in-venezuela-says-john-bolton">actual, physical troops</a> &#8212; into Venezuela?
What our political elites, politicized military brass, and reflexively interventionist armchair punditry all too often lack is a sober contemplation of what an actual military engagement entails &#8212; and if that mission is truly necessary &#8212; before sending our troops into harm&#8217;s way. That really ought to not be too much to ask for. To be sure, not every military engagement will have the once-a-millennium moral dichotomy of D-Day. And of course, staunch hawkishness is absolutely sometimes called for &#8212; especially as it pertains to America&#8217;s preeminent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45699/hammer-america-needs-re-think-its-global-alliances-josh-hammer">21st-century geopolitical threats</a>, which are China, Russia, and Islamism (best represented by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">Iran</a>&#8211;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47456/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">Qatar</a>&#8211;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45009/turkish-islamist-strongman-erdogan-has-been-josh-hammer">Turkey</a>&#8211;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46714/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a> ideological axis).
But as a general guiding principle, our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line deserve clarity. They deserve purpose. And it is the solemn task of politicians and military higher-ups alike, especially after a myriad of post-9/11 overseas fishing expeditions across the broader Islamic world, to ensure that we never let our soldiers down. Let us use the 75th anniversary of D-Day as a time to reflect and rededicate ourselves to doing just that.

HAMMER: D-Day Was Good Versus Pure Evil. But Our Soldiers Always Deserve Such A Clear Mission.

Afghanistan

Foreign Policy

Iraq

Marines

Middle East

Military

Nazis

Syria

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Army

On Monday, an improvised explosive device killed three U.S. Marines and one Afghan contractor in an attack in Afghanistan.
The attack occurred near Bagram Air Base in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban has since claimed responsibility for the attack, according to The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/three-americans-killed-in-taliban-blast-were-marines-officials-say-11554825303?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">Wall Street Journal</a>.
&#8220;We feel and mourn the loss of these Americans with their families and loved ones,&#8221; said Gen. Scott Miller, Commanding General of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan. &#8220;They volunteered to protect their country. We will continue our mission.&#8221;
During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer asked for a moment of silence to honor the Marines. 
&#8220;It is still a very risk-filled world out there,&#8221; Spencer told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, reported <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/04/09/3-us-troops-killed-ied-blast-near-bagram-were-marines.html">Military.com</a>.
One marine has been identified so far as Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman, who served in the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department for 19 years, reported <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-service-members-contractor-killed-attack-afghanistan/story?id=62251531">ABC News</a>.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department paid tribute to Slutman. 
&#8220;A nineteen-year member of the Department, Ladderman Slutman was mortally wounded while bravely serving his country in Afghanistan as a Staff Sergeant with the United States Marine Corps,&#8221; the department wrote. &#8220;Through this trying time, we will remember Chris for the father, husband, brother, son, and friend that he was, the moral character he displayed daily, and the courage and conviction to serve his fellow Americans, both at home and abroad.&#8221;
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Slutman was also a 15-year-member of the New York City Fire Department and served in the Bronx with Ladder 27. The Uniformed Firefighters Association announced Slutman&#8217;s death in a tweet on Tuesday.
&#8220;It is with a heavy heart that we offer our sincerest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Firefighter Christopher Slutman Ladder 27, a fifteen year member of the department and a friend to all in both of his firehouses. Christopher will be greatly missed. RIP&#8221; the group tweeted.
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It is with a heavy heart that we offer our sincerest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Firefighter Christopher Slutman Ladder 27, a fifteen year member of the department and a friend to all in both of his firehouses. Christopher will be greatly missed. RIP <a href="https://t.co/3CxPjTsGNw">pic.twitter.com/3CxPjTsGNw</a>
&#8212; UFA NYC Firefighters (@UFANYC) <a href="https://twitter.com/UFANYC/status/1115612329117454336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The identities of the other marines have not yet been released. 
Secretary of State Pompeo offered his condolences in a tweet on Monday.
&#8220;My heartfelt prayers to the families of the Americans killed near Bagram,&#8221; Pompeo tweeted. &#8220;I condemn this disgusting terrorist act. U.S. service members have sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan to keep up safe and no cowardly act of terror will impede our efforts to achieve peace.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
My heartfelt prayers to the families of the Americans killed near Bagram. I condemn this disgusting terrorist act. U.S. service members have sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan to keep us safe and no cowardly act of terror will impede our efforts to achieve peace.
&#8212; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1115438663876448256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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According to Military.com, the deaths of the three Marines mark the Marine Corps&#8217; first combat casualties in over three years. 
Last month, two U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45230/honor-fallen-two-us-soldiers-killed-afghanistan-kassy-dillon">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
Twenty-nine-year-old Spc. Joseph Collette of Lancaster, Ohio and 33-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay of Cortez, Colorado were in Kunduz Province when they were killed on a U.S.-Afghan military operation, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/22/politics/us-troops-killed-afghanistan/index.html">CNN</a> reported. According to officials, the two were killed from small arms fire while in battle against the Taliban. Afghan troops were also reportedly killed during the battle.
</blockquote>
The United States reportedly has about 14,000 military personnel in Afghanistan.
Despite the Taliban perpetrating the attack, the U.S. is currently in peace talks with the Taliban and concluded their fifth round of talks last month and are expected to continue talks soon, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Honor The Fallen: Three Marines Killed In Afghanistan

Taliban

Democrats say President Trump&#8217;s wall would either be too costly, too laborious, or too complex to complete. And yet, America is now living in the age where Marines at Camp Pendleton can successfully 3D-print a reinforced concrete bridge in just 14 separate hours.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/tech/marines-3d-print-amazing-concrete-bridge">Fox News</a>, in December of last year, U.S. Marines assembled the first ever 3D-printed bridge on site in the Western hemisphere. Typically, such bridges are printed in a factory. A Marines spokeswoman told Fox News that construction took 14 separate hours over 3 days with breaks and sleep in between rather than 14 continuous hours.
&#8220;They didn&#8217;t run the printer for 14 continuous hours,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;So it took about 3 days, working for 8 hours per day, and going home at night.&#8221;
Once the printing had finished, the bridge was left to &#8220;settle&#8221; for 36 hours before it could be assembled, which the spokeswoman said &#8220;took less than 4 hours.&#8221; Fox News further described the construction process:
<blockquote>
The footbridge was printed as part of the Corps&#8217; annual Steel Knight exercise. Marines were trained to use the Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures (ACES) 3D-printer.
Members of the 1st Marine Logistics Group worked on the project with the Marine Corps System Command Advanced Manufacturing Operations Cell and the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/tech/topics/us-army" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Army</a> Corps of Engineers.
Marines were also helped in the construction effort by sailors from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 at Port Hueneme, Calif. The Seabees brought a volumetric mixer to the Camp Pendleton site, saving about six Marines from mixing large amounts of concrete.
</blockquote>
In a <a href="https://www.marforpac.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/1743064/bringing-innovation-to-fruition-marines-3d-print-1st-reinforced-concrete-bridge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>, Capt. Matthew Friedell, AMOC project officer, said the project had two goals: teach Marines to operate equipment on their own and to lower the number of hands necessary for completion.
&#8220;One of our goals was for Marines to learn to operate the equipment on their own, which they did and it was great,&#8221; said Capt. Friedell. &#8220;Another goal is that each time we do one of these tests, we use [fewer] people. Ultimately, we want one person standing there who hits &#8216;print,&#8217; and the machine does all the work. We&#8217;re getting there.&#8221;
&#8220;This shows how close 1st MLG and the Marine Corps are to the bleeding edge of innovation,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t seek to break any new ground, but with Marine ingenuity, we sure did.&#8221;
A previous job in August 2018 had the Marines conduct a <a href="https://www.marcorsyscom.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/1611257/mcsc-teams-with-marines-to-build-worlds-first-continuous-3d-printed-concrete-ba/">barracks hut print</a>, which Friedell said was more difficult due to the concrete-mixing.
&#8220;The <a href="https://www.marcorsyscom.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/1611257/mcsc-teams-with-marines-to-build-worlds-first-continuous-3d-printed-concrete-ba/">barracks hut print</a> was more difficult because Marines had to mix the concrete [themselves],&#8221; Friedell said. &#8220;They had to take five-gallon buckets of gravel, pour them into a bigger bucket, and then use a fork lift to lift them up into the big mixer. The mixer had to mix it and then dump it into the pump. For [the bridge project], we used the volumetric mixer, which did all the gravel, mixed all the concrete and got it ready to pump without anyone doing the really hard work.&#8221;
The project was a 3D-print for a 500-square-foot barracks. Marines completed the work in just 40 hours.
The bridge is just the latest example of 3D-printing innovation by the Marine Corps. Last year, for example, Marines used a specialized 3D concrete printer to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/tech/marines-3d-print-concrete-barracks-in-just-40-hours" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">print</a> a 500-square-foot barracks room in just 40 hours.

Can We Build The Wall Now? Marines 3D-Print Concrete Bridge In 14 Hours.

Southern Border

Technology

At least one man has been charged after a group of United States Marine Corps reservists in Philadelphia were maced, assaulted, and called &#8220;Nazis&#8221; and &#8220;white supremacists&#8221; by a group of Antifa members earlier this month. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/tags/antifa">Antifa</a> is a far-left, violent activist group which purports to be &#8220;anti-fascist.&#8221;
Last week, Tom Keenan, a 33-year-old man believed to be a member of the Antifa movement in Philadelphia, turned himself over to police in connection with the attack.
&#8220;On Saturday, November 15, 2018, at approximately 3:20 pm, the complainants, who are United States Military Reservists, were on the 100 block of S. Front Street, when they were approached by numerous males and females,&#8221; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPh_PaspzpE">said</a> the Philadelphia Police Department. &#8220;The group of suspects called the complainants &#8216;Nazis&#8217;, and &#8216;White Supremacists&#8217;. The suspects then maced the complainants, and then proceeded to punch and kick them. During the assault, one of the complainant&#8217;s had his cell phone stolen from him by one of the male suspects.&#8221;
The Marines were attacked down the road from a &#8220;We the People&#8221; rally, though it&#8217;s unclear if they were associated with the rally at all.
<a href="https://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/11/26/philly-antifa-tom-keenan-marine-attack/">According</a> to Philadelphia Magazine, Kennan has been charged with two counts of criminal conspiracy, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of terroristic threats, two counts of simple assault, and two counts of reckless endangerment.
&#8220;In 2007, Keenan was arrested as one of the so-called &#8216;Love Park 4&#8217; after an incident involving a purported Ku Klux Klan rally in the well-known park near City Hall,&#8221; reports the magazine. &#8220;He was charged with criminal conspiracy, institutional vandalism, resisting arrest, and criminal mischief, among other offenses, and eventually made a plea deal, pleading guilty to one summary offense of disorderly conduct, while all other charges were withdrawn.&#8221;
The Antifa member has since been released on bail and is expected back at court for a preliminary hearing on December 6.
The Philadelphia Police Department is reportedly still investigating the case and looking into other suspects.
Earlier in the month, Antifa members in Portland exhibited violent behavior against demonstrators at a #HimToo protest. <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=189533#cont">Six people</a> ended up getting arrested, including a 19-year-old Antifa member named Heather McClintock who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38502/watch-female-antifa-punches-spits-conservative-amanda-prestigiacomo">captured</a> on video harassing, assaulting, and spitting on demonstrators. She was charged with harassment.
A reporter covering the #HimToo demonstration, Quillette Magazine editor Andy C. Ngo, was verbally berated and physically accosted by far-left activists.
&#8220;I was assaulted by a mob of masked individuals in black. They also targeted my equipment. They called me a fascist &amp; Islamophobe. They said my parents &amp; grandparents would be ashamed of me,&#8221; said Ngo via Twitter. &#8220;It feels surreal to be treated this way by people who don&#8217;t even know me.&#8221;
On November 7, Fox News host Tucker Carlson&#8217;s Washington, D.C. home was reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38110/watch-leftist-mob-shows-tucker-carlsons-home-you-amanda-prestigiacomo">targeted</a> by a left-wing group called Smash Racism DC, which is also known as AntifaDC. A mob of 20 or so chanted that they will &#8220;fight&#8221; Carlson, demanded he leave town, vandalized his property, and doxxed him, his brother, and business partner.
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Group Of U.S. Marines Maced, Assaulted, Called &#8216;Nazis&#8217; By Antifa. Local Member Has Been Charged.

Antifa

Crime

Philadelphia

Violence

The Marine Corps has announced that for the first time, a woman will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/us/marina-hierl-marine-infantry-platoon-trnd/index.html?utm_term=image&amp;utm_source=twCNNp&amp;utm_content=2018-08-13T22%3A47%3A04&amp;utm_medium=social">lead an infantry platoon</a>.
Lt. Marina Hierl, 24, who <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/22/politics/marine-corp-female-infantry-officer/index.html">passed the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course last year</a>, the first woman to do so, leads roughly 35 men in the Third Platoon of the 4th Marines&#8217; Echo Company, Second Battalion, currently training in Northern Australia. Capt. Joshua J. Pena, a spokesman for the Marines&#8217; Training and Education Command, said that the men and women taking the Infantry Officer Course are tested with the same standards.
Corps spokesman Major Brian Block released a statement to CNN:
<blockquote>
Leading Marines is an honor and privilege that 1st Lt. Hierl has earned through her own hard work and commitment, as do all our officers. While we recognize and honor the unique contributions of women to the Marine Corps over the last 100 years, including the historic milestone of 1st Lt. Hierl&#8217;s assignment, in the end we are Marines first and foremost. We are leveraging every Marines&#8217; individual performance, talent, and skills to maximize our warfighting capabilities in an increasingly complex operating environment.
</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/politics/marines-women-combat-platoon.html">The New York Times reports</a> that Hierl is one of four platoon commanders in Echo Company. The Times notes that 15,885 women currently serve in the Marines, comprising roughly 8.6% of all active duty members.
In 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta, announced that women could serve in combat roles.
August 13, 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the enlistment of Opha May Johnson, the first female Marine.
Women are still not members of Special Operations units, such as the Navy SEALs, although a few women have attempted to join but have not passed the standards requirements.

U.S. Marines Announce First Woman To Lead Infantry Platoon

In the nine days since the battle began, the temperature during the day rarely rose above zero Fahrenheit even when the sun was out, and at night it plunged to sometimes minus thirty below. Frostbite was just as deadly an enemy for the Marines as the Chinese. In particular the felt inner soles of their rubber boots would soak up perspiration and then freeze, encasing feet in ice. Yet, the one thing about fighting in such brutal weather&#8212;arguably the most hostile natural conditions in which U.S. troops have ever fought&#8212;was that the cold didn&#8217;t choose sides. As Chinese prisoners began to come in, it became apparent to the Marines that as bad as they were suffering, the Chinese had it even worse. Poorly clad with quilted uniforms and canvass sneakers, malnourished, and with little medical care, the PVA lost a significant number of men to the cold and starvation as well as the Americans. Chinese troops would limp into the Marine lines with no ears or noses, their hands and feet like blackened clubs of ice from frostbite, prompting in their captors feelings of pity to replace the antipathy of combat. Said Marine Juan Bezella, &#8220;To this day if I were to meet a Chinese soldier who was there I&#8217;d hug him like a brother. Because I know he suffered the same thing I did.&#8221;
The attack south began on December 7. Though enemy strength had been reduced by the killing efficiency of their Marine adversaries and their ubiquitous close-air support. as well as the cruel elements, they nevertheless made a final effort to destroy the Marines as they made their way from Hagaru to Koto-Ri. A Marine remembered: &#8220;There were Chinese all over the side of the mountain.&#8221; By this time, it is credibly believed that in their fight with the Marines, Mao&#8217;s army had lost half its strength killed or wounded; over three divisions wiped out. Yet the dictator in Beijing insisted his depleted forces continue the attack. But by the time Smith&#8217;s command reached Kot&#8217;o-Ri, the PVA were unable to mount any serious resistance beyond harassment. Aircraft screamed down to make quick work of any massed Chinese assaults on the road by daylight, and at night the relentless cold made it difficult to even think clearly, let alone launch an effective attack. Still the fighting in the hills took its toll of Marine killed and wounded as they moved through an area they called Hellfire Valley.
And now another potentially fatal obstacle lay before the beleaguered Marines.
Though spent as a coherent fighting force, this did not mean the Chinese were idle. About two miles south of Kot&#8217;o-Ri, the PVA had blown a bridge over a deep gorge called Funchilin Pass. There was no getting around the 25-foot-wide cavern without abandoning all their vehicles, armor, and worse, the wounded. To add to their suffering, the most severe weather yet assailed the combatants in the form of a howling blizzard and temperatures some who were there insisted fell to fifty below.
Another complicating factor that had been with the Marines since they first pulled out of Yudam-Ni and only became more of an issue at Kot&#8217;o-Ri was a steadily swelling stream of suffering Korean refugees, their homes destroyed by U.S. planes and artillery and their food stores ransacked by starving Chinese, trailing the column. Estimates vary, but it is possible that as many as 90,000 civilians who survived their harrowing ordeal managed to follow the X Corps out of the war zone to be evacuated along with the U.N. troops out of Hungnam and presumably to a better life in the south.
For three days the huddled Marines anxiously held their ground against encroaching Chinese at Kot&#8217;o-Ri while in a remarkable stroke of ingenuity the Air Force parachuted down a treadway bridge in eight 2,500-pound sections that were then hauled into place and assembled by engineers. Such a feat had never been attempted before and no one was sure if the bridge would hold. But when the first trucks hobbled safely across the make-shift span, the First Marine Division&#8217;s escape was assured. After two days of steady crossing, on December 11, exactly two weeks to the day of Mao&#8217;s surprise attack, the last Marine crossed the bridge over the Funchilin Pass as the vanguard was making its way out of the mountains into the flatter coastal terrain and balmy thirty-degree temperatures.
Between December 15-24, 100,000 UN troops, Marines, G.I.s, ROK, and other UN contingents would be evacuated from the port of Hungnam. Many would soon be back in action at the new front lines that would stabilize in January, 50 miles south of Seoul. Under tactical command of the indefatigable General Matthew Ridgeway, the U.N. commenced a grinding counterattack northward, recapturing Seoul for the second time in four months and pushing the weakened Chinese back until a deadly stalemate settled in for the next two years along the line that today that mimics the 38th Parallel to form the DMZ between the two still divided Koreas.
#
The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir was over. Despite the most dire predictions, the First Marine Division escaped Mao&#8217;s clutches and, true to MacArthur&#8217;s prophecy, inflicted on their Chinese attackers a great slaughter. Given the cloistered nature of 1950s communist China it is impossible to know an exact count of the dead and wounded, but it is generally accepted that the of the twelve Chinese divisions eventually thrown into the fight against X Corps, they suffered between 20,000 to 35,000 battle casualties and another 20,000 non-battle losses. U.S. sources are more precise, and they paint a picture of incredible bravery and suffering. Some 1,000 X Corps personnel were KIA, roughly 4,500 wounded, 4,800 missing, most becoming POWs, and another 7,300 were non-battle casualties. (4,300 casualties were Marines). The combined 27,000+ combatants who were victims of the elements rather than the enemy offers a stark testament to the severity of the weather conditions in which both sides had to make war.
Looking back, it is remarkable that the Marines were not wiped out to a man, as per Mao&#8217;s orders. There are many factors that contributed to their survival: the discipline and fighting skill of the leathernecks, the airstrip that ensured a constant stream of supplies and evacuation of wounded, the weather that laid waste to more of the enemy than themselves, heavier firepower, especially artillery, and, of course, the protective umbrella of aggressive air support. But one other advantage the Marines has not been given its proper due in the history books&#8230;that was the striking leadership of O.P. Smith himself, and his willingness to ignore the admonitions of his superior, Almond, the latter of whom got everything wrong in that campaign. Against Almond&#8217;s advice, Smith had moved his men slowly north and then south to keep them in contact with each other; he saw reality and immediately went to the defensive when the Chinese attacked, and he&#8217;d hacked out the airstrip at Hagaru, and another at Kot&#8217;o-Ri, that became a lifeline&#8230;when Almond asked him why he was wasting time building airstrips, Smith told him to ferry out the wounded so they wouldn&#8217;t have to truck them out and bog down the column. Almond scoffed, saying there wouldn&#8217;t be any wounded. When all looked hopeless, Almond had offered to evacuate as many Marines as he could by air and leave the rest to their fate. But Smith insisted: &#8220;We&#8217;re either coming out of here as Marines or not at all. That means with all our equipment, our wounded, and our dead.&#8221; One military historian called Smith&#8217;s performance at Chosin &#8220;perhaps the most brilliant divisional feat of arms in American history.&#8221;
One can only wonder at the course of the Korean War had the First Marines been wiped out. Probably one of two drastic courses would have been set. Either the U.N. would have withdrawn completely from the peninsula, or, even more ominously, the demands of MacArthur, Air Force Commander Curtis LeMay, and others to deploy tactical nuclear weapons against the Chinese would have been seriously considered. Either response would have been disastrous for the region and the world. Thanks to Smith more than any other single military man in the field those crucial days, such options were never on the table.
The Chinese counter-attack in November-December 1950 would have a profound impact on geopolitics going forward. It was, in a way, the coming out of the new and powerful Chinese nation, not as a USSR vassal state, but its own emerging communist power. The effect on U.S. military policy was galvanizing. Before Korea, the U.S. had let its military slip into pre-World War II levels of unpreparedness, believing that, as MacArthur said on the deck of the Missouri after accepting Japan&#8217;s surrender, that nuclear weapons made war obsolete and &#8220;a better world shall emerge from the blood and carnage of the past.&#8221; Clearly the communists showed this to be wishful thinking. The decision to defend Korea, first at Pusan and especially after the Chinese intervention, ushered in a new era of American militarization that would have Eisenhower warn in 1960 about the growing &#8220;military-industrial complex.&#8221; Also, it imbedded in the minds of foreign policy wonks and anti-communist hawks the embryo of what would become the &#8220;domino theory,&#8221; offering that if one nation fell to communism, the surrounding nations in a region would likewise succumb. The culmination of this idea would be set in motion when Johnson sent combat troops to Vietnam in 1965; as they say, the rest is history. 
But for the men of the First Marine Division who fought their way out of what looked like certain annihilation during those desperate weeks in the sub-artic wastes of North Korea, these were matters to be considered in another time and place. As they loaded transports to take them to the waiting U.S. ships in the waters off Hungnam, an operation the shattered Chinese lacked the strength to effectively contest, they could look back to the mountains in the distance and marvel at what they&#8217;d endured. It may have been a strategic defeat in the sense that they were forced to cede ground to the enemy and &#8220;advance in another direction&#8221; before they were destroyed. MacArthur&#8217;s &#8220;Home-By-Christmas-Offensive&#8221; had been stopped cold and Korea tragically remains divided to this day, having come so close to the unity that for all the Olympic posturing is still just wishful thinking. But given the mission of their attackers to surround and wipe out the impertinent Marines, the First Division&#8217;s defiant stand and then break-out at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir would go down in Marine Corps lore as perhaps their finest hour.
<div>Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 7: The Final Push/Conclusion

China

North Korea

On December 1, after four days and nights of fighting, the main body of Marines began their breakout from Yudam-ni south along the winding road to Hagaru. Throughout the battle, the Americans had one clear advantage over the enemy. Said Marine John Parkinson: &#8220;If the sun come out, it brought the planes. No sun, no planes. And when there was no planes the Chinese were all over us.&#8221; Gull-winged Corsairs and boxy Skyraider fighter-bomber aircraft were quick to answer calls from spotters on the ground. They swooped in at tree-top level to mercilessly strafe, rocket, and napalm the Chinese trying to stop the Marines from reaching Hagaru. &#8220;We had multiple missions almost every day,&#8221; remembered Marine pilot Lyle Bradley. &#8220;You really had to be on your toes; mountain peaks were all over the place. Plus, the fact that we had some very bad weather. We did so much close air support. And close is really close!&#8221; They flew non-stop support missions from first light to dusk when the weather permitted, and the Marines on the ground like Martin Overholt marveled at their skill and courage. &#8220;Occasionally they were so low that you could actually see the face of the pilot through the cockpit window&#8230;Amazing the courage those guys had coming down like that.&#8221; Supplies were dropped constantly up and down the line, keeping the Marines supplied while the brave fighter pilots kept the Chinese at bay and kept the escape route to Hagaru open.
The fight south was a rolling action, in which the Marines executed that most difficult of combat maneuvers, a fighting withdrawal. The operation required perfect timing with air and artillery, the movement of the wounded at just the right moment, and unwavering unit discipline, to be carried out successfully and avoid a massacre. Rifle squads would fan up into the hills to beat back the Chinese as the regimental train passed and the combat was continuous. Said Marine Bill Mills: &#8220;We were going up hills and down hills because the enemy was all around us and you could hear firefights going on all over the place.&#8221; Planes zoomed overhead, tanks and artillery fired their explosive rounds at the Chinese harassing them from the hillsides, and the long line of Marines and their vehicles kept moving south. When a man was hit, he&#8217;d be loaded into a truck or, if killed, his body, which quickly froze like cordwood into the gruesome pose in which he&#8217;d died, was either tied to a vehicle or dragged like a sled along the snows as the Marine Corps tradition dictated they not leave their dead behind whenever feasible.
To their relief, the moving column found the crucial Toktong Pass still open and in possession of the gallant Fox Company under Captain William Barber. In its five-day ordeal to defend the critical passage through the mountains, Barber himself had been wounded and of his original 240-man detachment only 82 remained fit to fight. But Fox counted over 2,000 Chinese bodies all around them, giving mute evidence of the ferocity of their defense. (The taciturn Barber, an already decorated Iwo Jima veteran who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his defense of the pass, dismissed the obvious comparison of the Fox Company at Toktong to the Spartans at Thermopylae, but it was not a far-fetched analogy). In the end, the Marine column managed to maintain unit integrity and fight their way through to Hagaru. By the time they reached Smith&#8217;s base of operations, the main body of Marines had blasted through roadblocks thrown up almost every mile along the MSR by the Chinese and engaged several enemy divisions, inflicting crippling losses upon their tormentors. The vanguard of the convoy passed through the lines into Hagaru at about 7:00 p.m. on December 2, six days to the hour of the first Chinese attacks.
In a memorable demonstration of esprit de corps, as the weary Marines approached the first checkpoints into Hagaru someone in the column called out &#8220;Count Cadence Count!&#8221; The shuffle of exhausted men gelled into the unified crunch-crunch-crunch of boots marching in lockstep on the snow. Then as they moved into the base they began to sing the Marine Corps Hymn. &#8220;Will you look at those bastards! Those magnificent bastards!&#8221; one observer at Hagaru shouted in greeting. Some of the Yudam-ni veterans were met with warm cups of coffee and graham crackers handed them by their comrades who&#8217;d held the key crossroads village and airstrip.
With the First Marine Division and what was left of the Army unit now consolidated at Hagaru, it was time for Smith to plan his breakout to the coast. When pressed by one of the correspondents present that retreating was not a familiar operation for Marines, Smith replied: &#8220;Retreat? Hell, we&#8217;re just advancing in another direction!&#8221; This wasn&#8217;t just bravado. There was no front and rear. His men were surrounded on all sides. Thus any movement was an attack. Still, one reporter doubted whether Smith&#8217;s steely words were masking a foreboding. &#8220;As I looked at the battered men,&#8221; she wrote, &#8220;I wondered if they could possibly have the strength to make this final punch.&#8221; As the Marines prepared to evacuate Hagaru, destroying stores and equipment that couldn&#8217;t fit on the trucks, the lead elements were already running the next gauntlet on the road to Kot&#8217;o-Ri.
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 6: Break-Out From Yudam-Ni

The U.S. 7th Army Division&#8217;s regimental combat team, dug in on the east side of the reservoir, was feeling abandoned. For four days they&#8217;d fended off Chinese attacks by waves of infantry that often out-numbered them ten-to-one. Now under the command of Lt. Col. Faith, they had no orders and had lost contact with the rest of X Corps. They were desperately short of ammunition and food, and the casualties were mounting&#8230;as were the Chinese. At one point their division commander flew in by helicopter, which gave the men hope that help must be on the way. Instead he delivered the grim news. There would be no reinforcements. They had to fight as best they could on their own. This was enough for Faith, who decided that it was time to get his shot up, frost-bitten, and exhausted people out of there and link up with the Marines at Hagaru before his forsaken command was destroyed.
With a column of trucks loaded with wounded, Faith&#8217;s Battalion began its forlorn march south along the east bank of the reservoir. The appearance of Marine air support gave them a morale boost, but then, due to a malfunction, one of the friendly aircraft dropped its payload of fiery napalm right on several of the Army trucks loaded with wounded GIs. Survivors would take the awful screams of the burning men with them to their graves. It was an ill-omen. As courageous as they were, Faith&#8217;s men, after fighting for over eighty hours with no shelter, little food, and taking a steady toll of casualties from unrelenting enemy onslaughts and excruciating cold, simply lacked the strength to make an orderly retreat and it soon degenerated into an every-man-for-himself situation. Faith was killed, and many of the wounded left on the trucks, as well as their brave comrades who felt morally bound to not abandon their buddies, found themselves Chinese POWs. Others crossed over the frozen reservoir and staggered southward as best they could. By the time what was left of Faith&#8217;s Battalion made their way into Hagaru, they could only count 670 out of the original 2,500 G.I.s, of whom barely half were fit for duty. The Marines watched them stagger into their encampment with a mixture of admiration for their perseverance and pity for the hell they&#8217;d been through. Said one Army survivor, &#8220;When we walked into Haguri [sic] we were like walking corpses, having been neglected for five days.&#8221;
It should be noted that a growing number of historians, such as O.P. Smith&#8217;s biographer Thomas Ricks, believe this lone Army unit has been neglected in the telling of the battle as much as they were by their own high command at the time. This unit being added to this part of X Corps had allowed the careful Smith to consolidate both his 5th and 7th Marine regiments on the west side of the reservoir rather than one on each side, making Yudam-Ni a much stronger position. The Chinese, surprised to find an extra Army unit rather than Marines on the east bank, had their timetable upset. In fact, argues Ricks, the resistance put up by the regimental combat team most likely bought time that allowed the Marines on the west side of the reservoir to withdraw. It is a sacrifice worthy of note.
#
Back in the States, the American people were shocked at the turn of events. The Eighth Army was in full retreat south. As if this wasn&#8217;t disconcerting enough, it was becoming clear to the public that the entire First Marine Division was cut off and might be wiped out. Analogies to Custer&#8217;s 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn no doubt were raised. MacArthur, stunned at the sudden, shattering reversal, and having visibly aged, finally admitted: &#8220;We face an entirely new war.&#8221; Newspaper headlines catalogued the growing catastrophe. &#8220;Noose Tightened On Trapped Troops&#8221; (Statesville Daily Record). &#8220;Allied Army In Battle For Life&#8221; (Reno Evening Gazette). &#8220;Marine Unit Trapped At Chosin Reservoir&#8221; (Traverse City Record-Eagle). Relatives of the men whose fate was completely unknown to them prepared themselves for the worst.
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 5: The Destruction Of Faith’s Battalion

At Haguru, Smith&#8217;s rag-tag group of cannibalized riflemen was hanging on to East Hill and the base perimeter. But he knew his position was growing more perilous as the Chinese had now moved south to cut the supply road and attack the garrison at Kot&#8217;o-Ri eleven miles farther down the MSR. Nor was he sure how long the men at Yudam-ni, and especially the lone company over the Toktong Pass, without which his main body would be cut off, could hold out. They had to fall back before they were overrun. But they needed an intact base to fall back to. Smith desperately needed reinforcements. On the morning of the third day of the battle, November 29, he contacted Col. &#8220;Chesty&#8221; Puller, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment at Kot&#8217;o-Ri, and ordered him to send a relief force to Hagaru. Puller complied, calling for some 900 men to saddle up and make their way north along the MSR to reinforce Smith&#8217;s embattled headquarters.
Puller&#8217;s relief force was commanded by British Lt. Col. Douglas Drysdale. It consisted of 235 British commandos, a Marine and Army infantry company amounting to roughly 700 men, 140 supply vehicles, and a Marine armored company with 29 tanks. The Chinese were as aware of Hagaru&#8217;s importance as was Smith, and they made every effort to stop what came to be known as Task Force Drysdale from making the dangerous trek to reinforce the besieged Marine base. At one point, Chinese attacks swarming down from the hills cut off and forced the rear third of Drysdale&#8217;s column to abandon the mission and fight its way back to Kot&#8217;o-Ri. When the Briton radioed Smith of the potential for disaster should his march continue, the Marine commander was adamant. They had to make it through to Hagaru &#8220;at all costs.&#8221; Drysdale knew this was a do-or-die command and he pressed on. Although ten hours behind schedule, and weary from steady combat on the march, what remained of Drysdale&#8217;s relief force eventually fought their way through to Smith&#8217;s beleaguered command. They were reduced in number by over half and arrived with only 16 tanks, but Smith knew with the some three hundred added seasoned infantry and the heavy firepower the tank company brought to bear, he now had the forces to hold the key East Hill and with it the main base.
Smith&#8217;s desperate gamble to bring Drysdale&#8217;s men north was a critical turning point. As said before, it&#8217;s doubtful the First Division could have survived without holding Haguru and its now-completed airstrip, onto which C-47s landed under fire to bring in war materiel and evacuate the wounded. By the time the airstrip was abandoned for the break-out to the sea, over 4,500 wounded men were flown out to Japan, hospital ships, or bases south. With his main base relatively secure, it was now up to Smith&#8217;s surrounded main body of two Marine regiments up in the hills around Yudam-Ni on the west side of the reservoir, currently in the process of burning their excess equipment and collecting their dead and wounded, to break out and hack their way down to him.
But what had happened to the Army contingent?
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 4: Task Force Drysdale To The Rescue

The pale, yellow sun slipped behind the ridges to the west just before 5 p.m. on November 27, and in the sudden darkness the temperatures plummeted to minus twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit; a 20 m.p.h. Siberian wind howled off the bald faces of ugly saw-toothed mountains that seemed to frown down upon Smith&#8217;s huddled Marines. One must think that a Gyrene trained in lightning amphibious strikes (which is why Army brat MacArthur nevertheless chose his rival Marine Corps for the Inchon landing) wondered how he ended up freezing his tail off high in the windswept Korean mountains eighty miles from the Sea of Japan. But such thoughts would have evaporated when the peaceful night was suddenly lit up by star shells and the silence broken by the unnerving clanging of gongs and the blowing of bugles followed by an eruption of small arms and mortar fire.
The Chinese attack Marine commander Smith feared had come.
&#8220;All you could see ahead of us was Chinese coming at us. A lot of them,&#8221; said one Marine who was in the thick of it at Yudam-Ni when Mao&#8217;s counter-attack along the Chosin Reservoir opened in the shrouding darkness of the North Korean night. The Americans scrambled out of their sleeping bags and quickly set up defensive positions with M-1 Garand rifles, carbines, heavier Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs), 30-caliber machine guns and mortars. The Marines laid down a curtain of fire while calling in barrages from pre-sighted artillery. The overwhelming enemy numbers meant they couldn&#8217;t miss. &#8220;You didn&#8217;t have to look where they were,&#8221; said one startled Marine. &#8220;They were in back of you, in front of you, around you, right in the middle of you.&#8221; There were so many Chinese that some positions were overrun and under the eerie luminescence of drifting flares, moonlight, and clouds of whipping snow the fighting turned to the most primitive and savage hand-to-hand combat. One Marine recalled: &#8220;You&#8217;d be shooting, you&#8217;d be stabbing, you&#8217;d be using your rifle as a club.&#8221;
The chaotic, swirling fighting lasted until daybreak when the Chinese disappeared back into the hills to avoid swooping attacks of Marine, Navy and Air Force support that had been called in at first light, winging in either from Yonpo airbase farther south or carriers out in the Sea of Japan. The Chinese left a carpet of their dead comrades behind, staining the snow with rivulets of blood that froze solid, resembling maroon tree roots. The greatly outnumbered Americans somehow managed to hold. But it was clear the Chinese had entered the war with both feet&#8230;and the Marines were in a fight for their lives.
When the attack east of the reservoir that hit the flanking Army troops with equal ferocity also subsided in morning, General Almond helicoptered in to bolster his badly-shaken troops. One of the senior officers, Col. Don Faith, told his commander they&#8217;d just barely held on and added: &#8220;We&#8217;re in deep trouble. We captured Chinese soldiers from two different divisions. We need help.&#8221; He recommended pulling back. But Almond, no doubt echoing MacArthur&#8217;s own detached sentiments in distant Tokyo, refused to accept the new situation. &#8220;What?&#8221; he said. &#8220;You&#8217;re going to let a few Chinese laundrymen stop you? We keep attacking!&#8221;
From his base at Hagaru-ri, which had not yet been attacked, General Smith assessed the heavy fighting farther north and understood that the consequence of MacArthur&#8217;s boldness was now falling on his Marines. He had no delusions over what was happening. As far as he was concerned, the advance to the Yalu was over. They were being surrounded, and he genuinely feared his entire Marine division might be wiped out. His job now was to figure a way out of the trap.
The most critical task before Smith was to shore up the supply base at Hagaru-ri and complete the airstrip. Without this crossroads village at the bottom of the reservoir, and its single road south, it was doubtful his men could extricate themselves before they were destroyed. But Hagaru was mostly manned by rear echelon and support. Mechanics, cooks, bakers, engineers, artilleryman, construction workers. It was a motley crew. But whatever their stated role, they were now riflemen too. Many were sent up the slopes of crucial East Hill overlooking the village and the soon-to-be-completed airstrip.
When night fell at about 5 p.m. on November 28, the men on East Hill could see the construction crews down in the valley under floodlights racing to finish the airstrip. All was quiet but for the roar and scrape of bulldozers until 10:30 pm when the Chinese unleashed their ferocious assault on Haguru and East Hill. Said a Navy corpsman: &#8220;The Chinese were coming and coming and coming and we were scared!&#8221; One Marine on East Hill remembered: &#8220;The only way they could overcome us was through sheer force of numbers. The first wave would all have weapons. The second wave wouldn&#8217;t all have weapons. They would pick up weapons from the first wave. And the third wave would be commissars with burp guns. Nobody retreats.&#8221;
Meanwhile farther up the road at the Toktong Pass and Yudam-ni beyond on the west side of the reservoir, the second night of heavy Chinese attacks was under way. One Marine reflected: &#8220;You reached back and found out what you&#8217;re made of. It&#8217;s not trying to be a hero. You&#8217;re out there to do a job. And if you don&#8217;t do it, it&#8217;s not only going to get you killed but your whole outfit killed.&#8221; Another recalled: &#8220;They really came down on us. Our machine guns were firing so hot and heavy they were burning the barrels out.&#8221; The fighting was once again desperate and at times hand-to-hand. The Americans, who&#8217;d grown up believing in the value of the individual, were astonished at the Chinese willingness to sacrifice themselves in mass waves to press their attacks, prompting some of the veterans to recall the Japanese banzai charges of the Pacific War. One glaring weakness in Chinese military dogma was readily apparent: once a plan was set in motion their junior officers were given no latitude to alter tactics as needed, instead offering themselves up like fodder before the roaring gun barrels of the just-as-determined Marines. When the sun came up, the battered Chinese once again retreated before the air strikes came in. The frozen Americans all along the lines somehow still held their positions. But for how much longer?
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 3: Surrounded

As part of the final push to end the war in what MacArthur came to exuberantly call his &#8220;Home-By-Christmas Offensive,&#8221; he sent the U.S. Eighth Army and ROK units advancing up the western side of the peninsula, while the U.S. X Corps, under Army General Ned Almond, landed on the east coast at Wonson and marched north toward the Yalu. The First Marines, fresh from success at Inchon, made up a bulk of the X Corps force and spearheaded the drive up the mountains into the North Korean hinterland.
By late November 1950, forward elements of X Corps were positioned on either side of the amoeba-shaped Chosin Reservoir (the Japanese colonial bastardization of the Korean Changjin) high up in the desolate, jagged hills. The Marines were stretched out over twenty-five miles along a single winding road they dubbed the Main Supply Route (MSR). This single road was in places barely twelve feet wide and bordered by steep cliffs on one side and sheer precipices on the other. It snaked through the mountain passes from the hut villages of Kot&#8217;o-Ri south of the reservoir, past Hagaru-Ri on the southern-most shore, slicing through the strategic Toktong Pass, and up to the farthest north positions at Yudam-ni on the west bank of Chosin. The Army unit found itself on the eastern side of the reservoir covering the main drive&#8217;s flank.
As the Marines prepared for the final push to the Yalu, things were eerily quiet. But the soft-spoken and highly intelligent Marine division commander, Major General Oliver P. Smith, was wary. He sensed danger in the seemingly empty landscape into which his Marines were being sent. So did many in the rank and file who dubbed it &#8220;Injun country.&#8221; North Korean deserters, civilians, even captured Chinese told of massive PVA formations out there, somewhere along the Yalu. Smith&#8217;s men noticed that the Korean children who&#8217;d been constantly begging for candy and chewing gum had disappeared, and deer were coming down off the ridges as if being displaced by something. In fact, the Chinese had already launched a series of probing attacks against U.N. forces in late October and bloodied them. The Marines themselves briefly engaged them on November 2 at Sudong Gorge during the march north. Mao&#8217;s troops seemed to materialize out of what was thought to be barren terrain. The attacks had been sharp, disciplined, and violent. But then the Chinese just disappeared into the hills. It was an uneasy portent of what might lay ahead. Still, X Corps commander Almond was incredulous, believing MacArthur&#8217;s assessment that Mao would not enter the war. &#8220;If the Chinese attempt to move down to Pyongyang there would be the greatest slaughter,&#8221; MacArthur assured Truman during their brief Wake Island meeting on October 15. Smith, thought Almond, was being too cautious.
But Smith, who had little use for Almond, was right to be worried.
#
Throughout the summer, Mao had been closely monitoring the action in the nation bordering his own. His mistrust of America stemmed from its support for the Nationalists against him in the just-concluded Chinese Civil War. As the arrows on his maps stopped moving south and abruptly turned northward, his anxiety grew. By the time those U.N. arrows were across of the 38th Parallel and headed for the Yalu bordering Manchuria, Mao let it be known through neutral diplomatic channels that China would intervene if the U.N. continued its advance northwards. When his warnings were dismissed as bluster by MacArthur&#8217;s Tokyo headquarters and Truman&#8217;s White House, Mao set his battle plan in motion. The Chinese dictator took the measure of his brilliant but arrogant opponent and shrewdly opted to use MacArthur&#8217;s own over-confidence against him. Beginning in the last week of October, he quietly sent four army groups across the Yalu into Korea to attack the approaching U.N. forces. But after a series of sharp engagements first with ROK then U.S. elements, he had his men pull back into the hills. Believing the Chinese must have withdrawn, MacArthur moved farther north, declaring: &#8220;This [offensive] should for all intents and purposes end the war.&#8221;
But he was actually moving deeper into a trap . . . and he committed a strategic blunder along the way. He allowed his Eighth Army in the west and X Corps in the east to operate as two sides of a giant pincer, unconcerned about the rugged Taebek Mountain range that divided his commands by as much as eighty miles. In 1950 the PVA was a foot-soldier army. Unlike their American adversaries whose armed forces were bound to the roads to move their heavy artillery, tanks, and trucks, the Chinese traveled light and so could slip into the gap between Eighth Army and X Corps. They would move by night, traversing terrain that would be impassable to the heavy columns they were preparing to ambush, and hide in the mountain folds by day. They remained undetected by U.S. reconnaissance planes whose observers peered down into a what appeared to be a vast emptiness of dun-colored and snow-capped ridges. The advancing U.N. columns had no idea they were marching right into the embracing tentacles of 300,000 Chinese now waiting in the hills and poised to strike.
On November 25, the Chinese struck against the Eighth Army and the western pincer of MacArthur&#8217;s advance was stopped cold. Soon the Army and ROK units on that side of the peninsula would be in full retreat in the face of human waves of Chinese. And yet, the attack on the eastern side of the Taebek Mountains was still a go.
On the eastern flank, MacArthur sacrificed caution for speed and sent the Marines into the mountains. On the eve of their final offensive, they found themselves tethered to the single MSR that strung out eighty miles from the port of Hungam to the hilltop village of Yudam-ni where the bulk of the division, some 8,000 Marines, were encamped along the west bank of the Chosin Reservoir. Fourteen miles to the south at Hagaru-ri, where Smith&#8217;s division headquarters and a much-needed airstrip were taking shape, were 3,600 Marines. Between them, roughly equidistant, 240 Marines of Fox Company held the high ground over the Toktong Pass through which the single road, their only line of supply &#8212; or retreat from Yadam-ni should it come to that &#8212; had to navigate. East of the reservoir was the 2,500-man Army regimental combat team and a few hundred ROK nationals. The bulk of the Army&#8217;s 3rd Infantry Division maintained the line farther south to Hungnam.
By the last week in November, two 10,000-man divisions were quietly surrounding Kot&#8217;o-Ri, another two enveloping Hagaru-Ri, and three more swarming around the ridges of Yudam-Ni. Many in the PLA now gearing up to attack the Marines along the Chosin were hardened veterans of the Chinese Civil War, some of whom had been with Mao during his famous Long March in 1934. Their main weapon was the Mauser rifle, although some carried the deadly Russian Burp sub-machine gun. They had no artillery or air cover, just long-stick hand grenades the Americans called &#8220;potato mashers&#8221; and small caliber mortars. What they did have was a ten-to-one superiority in numbers, the element of surprise, and a determination to drive off the Americans whom propaganda had taught them were the successors to the hated Japanese as Asia&#8217;s worst exploiters. They also had utter contempt for the American soldier. A captured Chinese pamphlet declared: &#8220;Their infantry is weak. These men are afraid to die, and will neither press home a bold attack or defend to the death.&#8221; As for their feelings toward the Marines, another captured document circulated among the hands read as follows: &#8220;Soon we will meet the American Marines in battle. We will destroy them. When they are defeated the Americans will collapse and our country will be free from the threat of aggression. Kill these Marines as you would snakes in your homes!&#8221;
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 2: Into The Trap

United Kingdom

After the Second World War, the question of who should control the Korean peninsula became a sticking point of the rapidly deteriorating U.S.-USSR alliance against the defeated Japan. After the Soviet dictator Stalin declared war on Tokyo in August 1945, it was decided that Russia should enter Korea and occupy it down to the latitude of the 38th parallel, cutting it in two, with the southern half occupied by the United States. As the South went about building a prosperous and relatively free nation (albeit under the thumb of our Princeton-educated puppet, Syngman Rhee) the communists solidified their iron grip over the north. By 1948, Korea was officially divided, each half claiming rightful authority over the other. It was clear that no peaceful re-unification would take place.
Gambling that the U.S. would not come to the defense of a nation its careless Secretary of State Dean Acheson had publicly offered was out of our zone of influence, on June 25, 1950, Kim Il-Sung sent his 90,000-man North Korean People&#8217;s Army (NKPA) across the 38th parallel to bring the south under communism&#8217;s jackboot once and for all. Equipped with Soviet-supplied tanks and artillery, the NKPA shattered the ill-prepared Republic of Korea (ROK) army and was soon poised to overrun the South. But to the communist leader&#8217;s surprise, U.S. President Harry Truman did, in fact, intervene and, leading the U.N. in the effort, sent American troops and materiel to South Korea. Although it was officially declared a &#8220;police action,&#8221; the United Nations had gone to war to defend a member state against blatant aggression. (In protest of Communist China&#8217;s exclusion from the body in favor of Taiwan, the Soviets had been boycotting the U.N., removing themselves from any position on the Security Council to veto the resolution. It was a mistake they never repeated.)
By September 1950, the now 140,000 U.N. troops deployed into the fight for Korea had been pushed back into a 140-mile defensive pocket around the southeast port city of Pusan. There the line solidified and beat back a final assault by an NKPA weakened through attrition and a tenuous supply line. Despite fatalistic initial predictions, South Korea would not be evacuated.
To break the stalemate, on September 15, the overall U.N. Commander, American five-star general and World War II legend Douglas MacArthur, sent the First U.S. Marine Division on a daring amphibious landing against the port of Inchon a third of the way up Korea&#8217;s west coast and far behind enemy lines. Believing the harbor&#8217;s extreme tides, distance in the rear, and forbidding topography made such a landing impossible, the North Koreans failed to adequately fortify Inchon and were caught completely by surprise . . . just as MacArthur, who acted against the advice of everyone around him, predicted. The suddenly surrounded NKPA, caught between the hammer of Inchon and the anvil of Pusan, fell back in wild retreat and two weeks later the U.N. forces recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul.
The landing at Inchon was, in fact, a military classic, well beyond the capacity and vision of all but history&#8217;s great captains. But it would also fill the victorious MacArthur with a dangerous over-confidence. In a move that remains controversial, MacArthur, albeit with the blessing of the U.N., sent his troops northward across the 38th Parallel into North Korea to chase down and destroy the NKPA. Victory was in the air and soon the U.N. goal was nothing less than Korea&#8217;s unification under Seoul&#8217;s government.
But Mao had other plans.
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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The Battle Of Chosin. Part 1: A Divided Korea And War

United Nations

Just outside Quantico, Virginia the National Museum of the Marine Corps sits amid rolling hills off Route 95. Among its many exhibits tracing the history of the Corps is a depiction of several Marines hunkered down in the snows of North Korea overlooking the 4,000-foot high Toktong Pass near the Chosin Reservoir. The thermostat is kept at a meat locker temperature. The curators of the museum try to convey to the visitor something of what it was like to fight a determined enemy that outnumbered you ten-to-one while struggling just to survive the cruel sub-zero colds of the Asian mountains.
In late November through December 1950, 12,000 Marines of the First U.S. Marine Division and 2,500 G.I.s in a regimental combat team of the Army&#8217;s 7th Division faced just such a challenge as over 70,000 Chinese infantrymen mercilessly attacked them in the hills and gullies around the frozen man-made lake. As the Winter Olympics have concluded in PyeongChang, the chatter in the media has been the joining of North and South Korea for at least a symbolic re-unification that merely belies the deep division of the country between the prosperous South and starving slave-state North. One looks at the portly Kim Jong Un, poised to possibly meet with President Trump in May, and wonders how such a cruel despot could hold the lives of 23 million tortured, malnourished, terrorized souls in his hands.
It&#8217;s a tragic tale of the 20th Century that didn&#8217;t have to be. By late autumn 1950, it seemed as if communism&#8217;s murderous grasp over the suffering people of North Korea had been broken. The United Nations forces deployed to beat back the North&#8217;s June 25, 1950 surprise attack into the South, launched by Kim Jong Un&#8217;s grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, had cleared out the southern half of the peninsula, sent Kim&#8217;s army reeling in headlong retreat, and moved north across the border at the 38th parallel. By November they were approaching the Yalu River which marked the frontier with communist China. Had they been allowed to unify the peninsula under democratic, Western-style rule, millions of those now languishing in the butcher of Pyonyang&#8217;s prison state today would be living under the sunlight of prosperity and freedom.
But China&#8217;s premier, Mao Zedong, had other plans.
Watching with growing concern as U.N. columns marched northward and ever closer to the Yalu, the Chinese dictator sent his elements of his own People&#8217;s Volunteer Army (PVA) across the river from Manchuria into the North Korean hinterland to blunt their unsuspecting enemy&#8217;s approach. In the bitter cold of late November, massed waves of as many as 300,000 Chinese &#8220;volunteers&#8221; poured out of the mountains to hit the U.N. forces with devastating force, intent on hurling them back into the south from whence they&#8217;d so confidently advanced. The fighting was fierce across the entire Korean peninsula . . . but perhaps nowhere more so than in the rugged, barren mountains in the northeast that ran along the Chosin Reservoir. This section was occupied by the vanguard of the UN X Corps, whose primary fighting force in this section of the front was the 12,000-strong First Marine Division, the Corps&#8217; oldest and most decorated unit. Mao had specially targeted these Americans as they were his foe&#8217;s most elite fighting unit. As for these veterans of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu and Okinawa in the Second World War barely a half-decade before, he wanted to make a statement to the U.N. and the world; he didn&#8217;t just want the First Division pushed back, rather he gave explicit instructions that his army should &#8220;encircle and exterminate the Marines.&#8221; As such, Mao hit this single division with over 70,000 infantrymen, seven PVA divisions in all.
The struggle of the First Marine Division and its accompanying Army unit to extricate themselves from Mao&#8217;s clutches and pull out of what would be forever remembered as the &#8220;Frozen Chosin&#8221; is one of the most remarkable stories in the annals of warfare. It also serves as a grim reminder that the pageantry, the pomp, the friendly competition of the Olympics that could only happen in a free and prosperous South Korea took place today because, as the old saying goes, rough men &#8212; including some very rough Marines &#8212; stood ready to do violence on their behalf. They would endure two weeks of intense combat and exhausting marches in the excruciating arctic cold, gale force winds, and ripping snows, out in the open, without sleep and little food, while suffering frostbite and horrible wounds, even death itself, so that those in the south could live the lives we saw displayed before us in PyeongChang. At this time, especially considering the gullible media&#8217;s sugary treatment re: the despot of the North &#8212; a free press whose wrath seems more reserved for President Trump than the mass murderers who oppose him &#8212; it is worth remembering those who fought to keep the south free of the Kim family&#8217;s despotism. Some military historians argue that the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir was in many ways the most desperate and horrific battle in which United States armed forces have ever fought, given the overwhelming odds and unimaginable cold. It is also one of the least famous; the Marines and G.I.s who fought there deserve to be remembered.
This is their story.
Brad Schaeffer is an historian, author, musician, and trader. His eclectic body of writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, and a variety of well-read blogs and news outlets. Of Another Time and Place is his first novel, which takes place in World War II Germany and the deadly skies over the Western Front. You can pre-order his book here: 
Amazon: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1521219048829000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsL_OeeWRQvcAoeMufo_XNQHr35g" href="http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://amzn.to/2FEnCb0</a> 
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Korean Nightmare: The Battle Of The Chosin Reservoir:  Introduction

Donald Trump

If America had to enter another World War tomorrow, the military would have to put many of America&#8217;s draft-eligible young people on diet and fitness programs, along with some serious psyche evaluations, long before boot camp training could commence. <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/marine-corps-commandant-less-30-young-men-and-women-are-qualified-join-us">According to a Marine Corps commandant</a>, a full 70% of American youths are just simply too fat, too immoral, or too mentally unstable for training.
Speaking before House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense this past Wednesday, General Robert B. Neller of the United States Marine Corps said that recruiting young blood has become &#8220;hard work&#8221; due to how unfit America&#8217;s youths are for military service.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a strategic issue that less than 30 percent of the young men and women of our nation are qualified just to join the military, either because of physical, mental or moral issues,&#8221; said the commandant. &#8220;So now we&#8217;re down to 30 percent and now we have to find those that have a propensity or are interested in doing this.&#8221;
Neller still clarified that &#8220;this is a really good Marine Corps&#8221; despite the trouble with recruitment.
&#8220;And as there is some growth in the force, we&#8217;re all out there competing in the same &#8212; looking for the same type of young men or women,&#8221; he said.
Though Neller said the Marine Corps of modern day has its issues, he actually prefers it over the one he joined in 1976.
&#8220;And I could tell you about the Marine Corps I joined in 1976, and I don&#8217;t want to be in that Marine Corps; not that there weren&#8217;t good Marines, but I like this Marine Corps a lot better,&#8221; he said.
Part of the challenge for the Corps has been retention, as in keeping people enlisted, especially veterans, but Neller said that this year looks promising given that appropriations has given them money for bonuses.
One stat he said that &#8220;consistently goes down&#8221; is the number of people involved with illegal drugs. &#8220;Like all young people, we struggle with alcohol and certain behaviors, because 62 percent of the Marine Corps is 25 years old or less,&#8221; he said, but the Corps is seeing continued improvement in that area.
Neller said that 34,000 Marines are currently forward-deployed with &#8220;some in harm&#8217;s way, all engaged doing just what you expect them to be doing.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe></div>

Marine Corps Commandant Reveals Alarming Percentage Of Youth Unfit For Military

Health

A retired Marine put his life on the line to protect his family and scare off four teenagers holding him at gunpoint.
An <a href="https://www.click2houston.com/news/homeowner-shoots-men-attempting-to-rob-his-home-deputies-say">NBC affiliate</a> in Houston reported that Alexander Borrego, a former Marine, shot a teen while the young man and three of his friends attempted to rob him at gunpoint. Borrego and his family reside in Northeast Harris County. According to local deputies, Borrego was standing in his driveway on Friday night when the four men walked up and ambushed him.
The teens &#8220;grabbed and pulled&#8221; at Borrego; one of them held a gun to his head. The homeowner and father said he did what he had to do and pulled his pistol to defend himself and his family.
<blockquote>
As soon as I got my hand on my pistol I turned towards the guy that had the gun at the back of my head. I immediately removed the pistol away from my head as I began firing at those guys.
</blockquote>
Borrego shot the assailant twice, once in the chest and again in the leg as the four teens fled the scene. They ran from his home to the home of the mother of the teen whom Borrego shot. The mother took him to a local hospital, where he is expected to survive.
A neighbor&#8217;s security cameras captured the group twice, once before they ambushed Borrego and again as they ran away.
Borrego said he was sad but also glad that he was unharmed and immediately able to defend himself and his family against the attackers. He is not expected to face any charges for his role in the shooting.
Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Borrego praised her husband on social media, calling him her hero.
<blockquote>
You hear about stuff like this all the time, but never think it would happen to you. This could have ended terrible for my family and I, but I think God, everyone watching over us and Alexander Berrego for stopping them from coming inside. I&#8217;m so proud of you babe. #MyHero.
</blockquote>

Accosted By Teenager Who Puts Gun To His Head, Retired Marine Shoots Back

After a week of more frustrating, head-scratching and at times outright soul-crushing news, it&#8217;s about time for something inspiring. Believe it or not, the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-marine-dog-cancer-farewell-20170727-story.html">Associated Press</a> has given us just that. A Marine&#8217;s humble attempt this week to honor his cancer-stricken dog, with whom he served for years in Afghanistan and whom he adopted to help him with post-traumatic stress disorder, is everything that&#8217;s good about America and those who risk their lives to protect us here and abroad. 
On Wednesday, Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung had to say goodbye to his long-time companion, Cena, a 10-year-old black lab who had served as a bomb-sniffer for the Marines for several years. DeYoung was paired with Cena while on tour in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010. After Cena retired from his important bomb-sniffing duties in 2014, DeYoung adopted him &#8220;to help him with his post-traumatic stress disorder.&#8221;
Cena was recently diagnosed with terminal bone cancer and had come to the end of his remarkable life, so DeYoung wanted to do something to celebrate him in a way he deserved. What started as a humble attempt to let the Muskegon community say goodbye to Cena turned into hundreds of community members &#8212; including servicemen and women from the Marine Corps, police and sheriff&#8217;s departments, and fire departments &#8212; showing up to conduct a &#8220;tear-filled&#8221; celebration worthy of an American hero. 
&#8220;It started off with my basically wanting to go to a dealership and wanting to borrow a Jeep for a day and really small to a community tribute or a community parade for him and he&#8217;s truly deserved it all,&#8221; said DeYoung. &#8220;The support, all the love people are giving him, he can see it and he can feel it.&#8221;
AP describes what happened next:
<blockquote>
As part of the celebration, DeYoung took his dog on one last ride in a topless Jeep that was decorated and named &#8220;Cancer Response Team.&#8221; &#8230;
The ceremony was attended by the U.S. Marine Corps League, Michigan State Police, Muskegon County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, Muskegon City Police, Muskegon Fire Department and officers from several other departments, including a canine officer named Rex. Attendees gave one final three-volley salute with &#8220;Taps&#8221; playing in the background for Cena, who was wearing a decorated blue Marine vest.
</blockquote>
&#8220;My whole adult life I&#8217;ve had Cena,&#8221; DeYoung said. &#8220;When I was 19 overseas learning how to be responsible, I had Cena. And now I&#8217;m 27 and I&#8217;m having to say goodbye to one of the biggest pieces of my life,&#8221; said a tearful DeYoung. &#8203;
AP notes that DeYoung &#8220;said he has carried Cena across rivers and thrown his body over him while under heavy fire from the Taliban,&#8221; and the dog kept him warm during the cold nights in the desert and &#8220;comforted him when he lost seven friends in three weeks.&#8221;
&#8220;Any dog that served overseas deserves exactly what I&#8217;ve done for Cena, if not more,&#8221; he said.
Image below of DeYoung, Cena and guest at the 6th Annual Hero Dog Awards 2016 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on September 10, 2016:

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<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-marine-dog-cancer-farewell-20170727-story.html">Read the full story here</a>.

What This Marine Did To Honor His Cancer-Stricken Service Dog Is Fantastic

Veterans

&#8203;On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ripped the GOP for cutting funds for the Department of Defense section devoted to servicemen or women who want their &#8220;transition&#8221; costs of trading genders covered by the government.
In a <a href="https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-republican-anti-transgender-servicemember-amendment-to">statement</a>, Pelosi said:
<blockquote>
Republicans should be ashamed: instead of protecting the men and women who risk their lives to defend our freedoms, they are fighting to rip away the health care of thousands of brave servicemembers. This cowardly Republican amendment targeting transgender men and women in uniform effectively bans these patriotic Americans from serving their country. This disgusting amendment is unprecedented, unacceptable and undermines our national security.
The integration of openly transgender service members into our Armed Forces is the unfinished work of bipartisan efforts to repeal the discriminatory &#8216;Don&#8217;t Ask, Don&#8217;t Tell&#8217; policy, thrown into the dustbin of history by the Democratic Congress in 2010. We only strengthen our military by honoring our values of freedom and equality. 
I call upon my Republican colleagues to immediately withdraw this cruel, discriminatory and appalling amendment.
</blockquote>
Pelosi was responding to an <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/defense/341797-house-panel-advances-amendment-blocking-pentagon-funding-for-gender-transition">amendment to the House National Defense Authorization Act </a>(NDAA) offered by Missouri GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler, which was passed by the House Rules Committee. That amendment states, &#8220;Funds available to the Department of Defense may not be used to provide medical treatment (other than mental health treatment) related to gender transition to a person entitled to medical care.&#8221;
Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, the co-chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, tried to block the amendment, but was blocked himself by the Rules Committee which struck down Polis&#8217; attempt.
<a href="http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/hasc-ndaa-transgender-troops-fight-mattis">Hartzler had said</a>, &#8220;Military service is a privilege, not a right. It is predicated on winning wars and defeating the enemy. All decisions on personnel and funding should be made with this in mind.&#8221;
LGBT groups chimed in with Pelosi; American Military Partner Association President Ashley Broadway-Mack <a href="http://militarypartners.org/breaking-house-rules-committee-voting-on-radical-anti-transgender-ndaa-amendment/">called</a> the amendment &#8220;vile&#8221;:
<blockquote>
To be clear, this vile amendment is a vicious attack on service members who are sacrificing so much and putting their lives on the line for our country. As if that&#8217;s not outrageous enough, it would also rip away the medically necessary health care of transgender family members. This is vitally important care that military families are already receiving, and these medical decisions should be left to medical professionals and their patients. This legislative assault on military families absolutely must be stopped. We urge members of Congress to reject this cruel proposal.
</blockquote>
Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, echoed, &#8220;We unequivocally condemn Hartzler&#8217;s attempt at this amendment. This amendment is a mean-spirited, unconstitutional attempt to impede the recruitment of openly transgender individuals who want to serve their country.&#8221;

Pelosi: GOP Should Be ‘Ashamed’ For Cutting Funds For Servicemembers Wanting Sex Change Treatment

Nancy Pelosi

Transgender

U.S. Navy

The leftist ingrates at Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/29/15619574/marine-corps-women-sexual-harassment">published</a> an article that criticized the United States Marine Corps on Memorial Day, accusing the Corps of having a &#8220;toxic masculinity&#8221; problem. The article, written by Alex Ward, attempts to create the narrative that the Marines need to change their attitude and their image following the deplorable <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/05/06/marine-nude-photos/">nude photo-sharing scandal</a>.
Ward argues that in order to fix its image as a hive of &#8220;toxic masculinity,&#8221; the Marines should do more to incorporate women into combat roles. Never mind that studies have shown that <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6794/congress-wants-women-serve-combat-theres-just-one-amanda-prestigiacomo">women are not as qualified as men</a> to undertake the physical burdens necessary to join the Marines. According to Ward, this change is necessary to change the image of the Marines and other military branches.
On all of the days to write a leftist hit piece on the United States Marine Corps, Vox believed that Memorial Day would be the best time to reinvigorate outrage at one of the finest fighting units that the United States and the world has ever seen. On the day that most Americans unite to honor the selfless sacrifice of millions of brave men and women, Vox sought to demonize the Marine Corps as a sexist entity that refuses to comply to the demands of the leftist elite who more than likely never wore an Armed Forces uniform and risked their lives for our freedom. While widows and children visit the graves of their loved ones who died fighting radical Islam, communism, or fascism, Alex Ward and his comrades at Vox sit atop their figurative high horse attempting to lecture those tasked with protecting our country about honor and virtue.
<a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/many-americans-died-u-s-wars/">More than 1.1 million</a> American men and women have sacrificed themselves to defend the United States from the Revolutionary War until the current wars in the Middle East. Out of those 1.1 million, more than 40,000 of those fallen warriors <a href="http://www.usmarinesbirthplace.com/US-Marine-Corps-Casualties.html">belonged</a> to the United States Marine Corps. One of those men was <a href="http://www.marineswwii.com/john_basilone.php">Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone</a>. He earned the Medal of Honor during the Battle of Guadalcanal for actions on October 24-25, 1942. His citation <a href="http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2627/basilone-john.php">reads</a> as follows:
<blockquote>
For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action against enemy Japanese forces, above and beyond the call of duty, while serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Lunga Area. Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 24 and 25 October 1942. While the enemy was hammering at the Marines&#8217; defensive positions, Sgt. Basilone, in charge of 2 sections of heavy machine guns, fought valiantly to check the savage and determined assault. In a fierce frontal attack with the Japanese blasting his guns with grenades and mortar fire, one of Sgt. Basilone&#8217;s sections, with its guncrews, was put out of action, leaving only 2 men able to carry on. Moving an extra gun into position, he placed it in action, then, under continual fire, repaired another and personally manned it, gallantly holding his line until replacements arrived. A little later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone, at great risk of his life and in the face of continued enemy attack, battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment. His great personal valor and courageous initiative were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
</blockquote>
Basilone could have spent the rest of World War II raising money for war bonds, never seeing the battlefield again. Instead, Basilone decided to continue fighting for freedom. In his first dose of combat since receiving the Medal of Honor, he was killed in action on the black sands on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.
According to Alex Ward and Vox, Basilone and tens of thousands more selfless patriots buried around the globe are the embodiment of &#8220;toxic masculinity.&#8221; If being a selfless warrior who wishes to risk his or her life for the defense of the United States possessing no hesitation to destroy the enemies of freedom constitutes &#8220;toxic masculinity,&#8221; then I would rather have a Marine Corps that is battle-ready, physically prepared, and mentally capable of enduring the fog of war than any pie-in-the-sky liberal fantasy that sacrifices combat efficiency for the sake of political correctness.
Shame on you for having the audacity to slander these fine warriors on Memorial Day.
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SCUM: Vox Trashes The United States Marine Corps On Memorial Day

According to <a href="http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/budget-deal-extras-marines-united-afghan-visas-opioid-abuse">Military Times</a>, the spending bill to keep the government funded through September includes $18 million for &#8220;consulting services to include assistance to the Commandant of the Marine Corps.&#8221; That funding resulted from the recent nude photo sharing scandal within the service.
In March, The War Horse reported about the &#8220;Marines United&#8221; Facebook page, a community with nearly 30,000 members that shared nude pictures of female Marines and other women.
Marine Corps officials have promised prosecutions and efforts to eradicate misogynistic culture within the Marine Corps.
In March, Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, the Corps&#8217; deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, <a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/21/lawmaker-hatred-misogyny-behind-photo-sharing-scandal.html">stated</a>:
<blockquote>
We are all disturbed and hugely disappointed by the recent online conduct of some of our Marines. Every Marine who takes the oath to support and defend our Constitution, who puts on the uniform and who puts their life on the line to defend our way of life here at home, is provided and has earned the trust and respect of the American people. So too should they be given that same trust and respect by those of us in uniform. Any breach of that trust and respect within the ranks cannot be tolerated. We will be immediate, decisive, unceasing in fixing this problem.
</blockquote>
Navy and Air Force officials who investigated their units said they found no Facebook pages similar to Marines United; all services except the Army set up task forces to address social media behavior and abuse. All four armed services <a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/03/20/marine-photo-scandal-services-issue-social-media-guidelines.html">issued guidance to troops</a> to clarify expectations for their online behavior.

Trump Budget Spends $18 Million Fighting Sexism In The Military

Sexism

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is investigating Marines who <a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/victims-speak-out">shared nude pictures</a> of female service members, veterans and others on the Marines&#8217; Facebook page.
An ex-girlfriend of a Marine who let him take nude pictures of her before he posted them online now says she is scared to go out in public because of the remarks men have made to her.
Kelsie Stone broke up with her boyfriend in 2016, then found out from a friend that screenshots of her nude had allegedly been posted of her on the Facebook page &#8220;Marines United.&#8221;
Stone works as a bartender in an area with many Marines, and said that the pictures, which she sent to her boyfriend when they were dating, have elicited some unwanted comments. She told Marine Corps Times, &#8220;Some of the comments have them mentioning how they liked what they saw, how could they get some of that or whatever. I&#8217;ve been called a whore for even sending pictures like that in the first place.&#8221;
Stone said her ex-boyfriend is receiving plaudits &#8220;because apparently posting pictures of a woman on social media is brownie points for a lot of Marines these days.&#8221;
Stone is not alone; Elle Audra, a former Marine Corps corporal, asserted nude pictures of her were also posted on the Marines United Facebook page. She surmised that after receiving harassing messages on social media. She stated, &#8220;The messages are usually something around like: &#8216;Where were you when I was in? I would&#8217;ve f****d you too.&#8217;&#8221;
Audra added that one man who knew when and where she had deployed asked if she would have sex with him.
Law enforcement investigators and Capitol Hill representatives are examining the issue of the privacy violations. Audra pointed out, &#8220;I advocate for survivors of sexual assault and I&#8217;m beyond relieved that someone finally told the truth about what actually happens to most female Marines. I believe this is a start to a better and safer Marine Corps.&#8221;
Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Christian Devine was furious, saying, &#8220;As a father of a young lady growing up in today&#8217;s digital information environment, I find this type of voyeurism disturbing and the subsequent justification of it to be repulsive. People who do this to others, regardless of their proclaimed affiliation to military culture, are cowards. Their actions are inconsistent with the Marine Corps&#8217; values and team building, and it impedes our collective ability to perform our mission and win.&#8221;
Stone concluded, &#8220;Some days I don&#8217;t want to leave my house. Some days I&#8217;m hesitant to even go into the gas station. My dad is a retired gunnery sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, so I grew up thinking the Marines were it &#8212; that there was no better for honor and integrity. I grew up a Marine brat and this isn&#8217;t the Marine Corps image my dad fought to represent.&#8221;

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