Korean War veterans gather in Gatlinburg

From Knox News: Korean War veterans gather in Gatlinburg
GATLINBURG — John Cauley's first day in Korea in 1950 was not a good one. He saw something that gave him pause and sent fear rattling through his bones.

Cauley was with the U.S. Army's 7th Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division in the Pusan Perimeter, a spit of land at the very southern tip of Korea where U.S., United Nations and South Korean troops had been pushed. Practically surrounded by North Korea forces, the end seemed near just weeks after the war began.

Cauley, 81, of Ocala, Fla., is one of about 40 Korean War veterans who have been at the Glenstone Lodge in Gatlinburg this week participating in the annual reunion of the 7th U. S. Cavalry Association.

Although regimental chapters have been meeting in various sections of the nation, the old soldiers have never come to the Volunteer State, home to many of the regiment's Korean War veterans.

Cauley said he had landed in what is now South Korea Aug. 20, 1950. Korea was parched by a drought. Beneath a broiling sun, the regiment was sent to the front lines of the Pusan Perimeter to help stop the North Korean army's seemingly unstoppable advance. Seoul, Korea, had fallen to the North and now it appeared the entire country would surrender.

"We were headed toward the Nakdong River (near the Port of Pusan) where the heaviest fighting had taken place already," Cauley said.

As the regiment marched to the sound of the guns, he looked up to see a heavy-duty U.S. Army truck lumbering along the narrow road.

"We were going down the hill and the truck was coming up the hill. It was filled with bodies. American soldiers. That was enough to scare hell out of you," he said.

Since joining the Army, he had worried that he had been assigned to the 7th Cavalry.

"Everybody knows that was Custer's regiment," he says, referring to Gen. Armstrong Custer, who got the regiment annihilated in the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

"We fought all night," Cauley said of his first battle. "And finally they had to throw artillery on top of us to save our lives. We had 250 killed.

"We were up north with the Marines. My captain was wounded but he shouted for me to grab a bazooka and knock out the (T-34 Russian) tanks."

And Cauley did just that, running through a blizzard of bullets, finding a bazooka and blasting a menacing T-34. He then shot another, blocking other North Korean tanks.

For his action, Cauley won the Silver Star, the nation's third highest military award for combat heroism.

In January 1951, Cauley was wounded and returned to the United States.

"The war is never out of my mind. I always think about these things and the good friends and what happened to them," he said.

The regiment's final banquet is set for tonight at the Glenstone Lodge. There will be no speeches, just old soldiers remembering their war in Korea as their numbers slowly dwindle.