Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Running Wounded, by William W. Day IV

The Running Wounded: A personal memory of the Korean War, by William W. Day IV
Big Bend Press, 1990
251 pages plus notes, Appendices, glossary and Bibliography. No index. A few b&w photos scattered throughout text
Library: 951.9042 SAY

Description
A young man joins the local National Guard unit in a small Wyoming town to fulfill his military obligation and yet remain at home with his bride and infant daughter. But then, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops swoop into South Korea. The United States becomes a part of a United Nations' response. And the young man's National Guard unit is activated almost immediately for service in Korea.

The young artilleryman finds himself in the midst of some of the most intense fighting of the Korean war-the Chinese spring offensive of 1951. And he begins a desperate struggle to survive, to do his duty, and to return home to his loved ones.

But when he does return home, he discovers that the combat experience was only the beginning of his struggle-a struggle to come to terms with death, destruction and the unfairness of war.

This is that man's story. It's a story of violence, love, frustration, faith, horror and gratitude. It's a story of the almost ignored military history of the Korean War from the time of General Douglas MacArthur's replacement through January of 1952. It's the story of soldiers trying to deal with danger and death while peace negotiations proceed at an agonizingly slow pace. It's the story of famous battles such as Bloody Ridge, Punch Bowl, and Yoke Ridge. And it's the story of the effects of war on the people who must participate.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Camp Carson
2. Where's Korea
3. Don't Unload
4. Fort Lewis
5. Jury Rudder
6. Kumhae on Naktong-gang
7. Human Waves
8. The Dead, the Dead
9. Operation Chopper
10. Homestead Valley
11. Bunker Hill and Maggie
12. Bloody Ridge and Yoke Ridge
13. Popcorn
14. Trench warfare
15. Homeward Bound
16. Run, Run, Run
17. Reflections
18. Return to Korea
Epilog
Notes
Appendix
Glossary
Bibliography

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Coldest War, by James Brady


The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea, by James Brady
Orion Books, 1990, 242 pages, 8 pages of b&w photos, plus index

Front Matter
America's "forgotten war" lasted just 37 months, yet 54,246 Americas died in that time-nearly as many as died in ten years in Vietnam. On the fortieth anniversary of this devastating conflict, James Brady tells the story of his life as a young marine lieutenant in Korea.

In 1947, seeking a way out of the draft, eighteen-year-old James Brady volunteered for a Marine Corps program that made him a lieutenant in the reserves on the day he graduated college. He didn't plan to find himself in command of a combat platoon three years later facing a real enemy, but that is exactly what happened after the Chinese turned a so-called police action into a war.

The Coldest War vividly describes Brady's rapid education in the realities of war and the pressures of command. Opportunities for bold offensives sink in the miasma of trench warfare, death comes in fits and starts as too-accurate artillery on both sides freezes men in their bunkers; constant alertness is crucial for survival, while brutal cold and a seductive silence conspire to lull soldiers into an often fatal stupor.

The Korean War affected the lives of all Americans, yet is little known beyond the antics of M*A*S*H. Here is the inside story that deserves to be told, and James Brady is a powerful witness to a vital chapter in our history.

Table of Contents
36 chapters, no chapter titles given.

Photos
--Two views of mountains, including one of "2,000 meter hill"
--Dog Company: Capt John Chafee, Red Philips, unidentified soldiers
--Main line of resistance, the MLR, winter of 1951-1952
--Two South Korean children, one named Chang, the other unidentified
--Soyang-gang stream
--Reverse slope of Hill 880
--Lt Maurice J. (Mack) Allen of Lynchburg, VA
--unidentified Marine, slope of Hill 880
--James Brady February 1952
--Dog Company command post on Hill 880
--Reverse slope of Hill 880, Feb 1952
--an unidentified member of the Korean Service Corps
--Reverse slope of Hill 880
--Casualty evacuated by chopper
--Dog Company: Capt Charley Logan, Mack Allen and James Brady
--5 unidentified marines of Dog Company
--James Brady with cigar
--James Brady in flak jacket
--9 unidentified Marines posing for photo