The following excerpts are parts of correspondence between us and a Korean War Veteran who served as grunt in the 2nd ID from Aug 1951 - May 1952 (Heart Break Ridge) and was kind enough to share some of his experiences with us. He asked to keep the personal info private, but were given permission to share this and some photos with everyone here. “…Like you I joined the Army at 17. I graduated from basic on 18 August 1951 and at the end of August arrived in Korea. Originally destined to the 1st Cav., I along with most of the remaining troops were reassigned to the 2nd Infantry. We asked those in charge why the change. The 1st Cav. got into one hell of a battle, lost many dead and wounded, we were told. They were sent to Japan to reconstitute the division. Arrived at Repo Depo, no place to get into shelter so had my first meal in downpour. It eventually stopped, we were called into formation and headed out for the front. During that time we heard a few pretty loud “Booms” but didn’t see anything go up and we being gungho didn’t think much about it. Didn’t really get nervous till the Sergeant in charge said, “For your information that noise you were hearing happen to be incoming.” About 5 minutes into the march I saw a badly burned trooper being carried away. We continued on, trudging through the trees and up the hill, where I misstepped on a soft mound of ground. had my first smell of what we were heading for. We finally arrived in the early morning just at daybreak. We were replacements for a battle that had raged the night before. It seemed serene and peaceful, and I plopped down on large mound for a rest. Couple of the squad members started laughing, I said "What’s so funny?" "Look down! " On doing so, I saw the wrist and hand, I was sitting on top of a dead commie. Advice from higher up, if capture was evident then try to get to the Chinese where chances of survival was something like 50/50. Also the North had warrants out on Second Division personnel with extra rations and a pass if an arm with 2ID patch was brought in. We were instructed to remove all patches." #stayzero #war #truth #military