The battle of Chosin Reservoir was one of the most brutal battles ever engaged by the Marine Corps, and a decisive turning point in the Korean War. It was being fought 68 years ago this week.
Five months after the communists of North Korea attacked their southern neighbors, American forces managed to retake Seoul and were pressing the attack into North Korea. They did not know that China had secretly entered the war in October and were massing hidden troops in the mountainous terrain ahead.
On November 14 a cold front from Siberia swept into the area. The relatively mild temperatures of early winter plunged well below zero. At -35 Fahrenheit, guns misfire, medical supplies like plasma and morphine become useless blocks of ice and troops without proper clothing suffer frostbite and death by exposure.
In these horrendous conditions 30,000 men suddenly found themselves surrounded by 120,000 Chinese. There is too much to tell in a brief article. An excellent book titled, Breakout, by Martin Russ tells the story in detail. In order to paint a picture of the situation, I will only tell one small piece of it.
West of the reservoir, the 5th and 7th Marines were surrounded on the evening of November 27. They established a perimeter and held their position. On the fourth day of battle, both regiments were ordered to break out and retreat. Major General Oliver P. Smith quipped, “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction.”
That line characterized the battle. For 17 days they fought through 120,000 Chinese to reach the Port city of Hungnam on Dec. 13. The Navy then performed what historians have called, “the greatest evacuation movement by sea in military history.” The last of the troops left Hungnam on Christmas Eve, 1950.
Total casualties were staggering. The Chinese lost between 50,000 and 60,000 soldiers, many frozen to death. Of the U.N. forces, 1,029 were killed, 4,582 wounded plus another 7,338 weather-caused casualties. 4,894 were missing in action.
After the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, the Korean war turned into a war of attrition until an armistice was signed in July 1953. The Korean War is still not officially over. It has been in a fragile truce for 65 years. Most of those missing in action were never recovered.
North Korea has used these bodies as bargaining chips in their diplomatic games. Between 1996 and 2005 the U.S. and North Korea cooperated to recover over 400 remains, costing $28 million. This summer it promised to return 200 more. But so far it has only made good on 55.
Meanwhile, the identification of remains continues. One of these was recently identified as a Wyomingite. Army Corporal DeMaret Marston Kirtley was born on March 5, 1929 in Kaycee, Wyoming. On December 6, 1950 he was serving in the 31st Regimental Combat Team. During their fighting retreat on the eastern side of Chosin Reservoir he was separated from his team and presumed dead. His name is permanently inscribed in the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii.
DeMaret’s father, Ura Omer Kirtley, died in 1964 at the age of 86. His mother, Stella (nee’ Webb) lived to be 89 years old and died in 1981. Both are buried in the Kaycee cemetery near an empty space for their son.
The identification of DeMaret’s remains gives Wyoming a moment to reflect on the price that we have paid for freedom. Although he died alone and abandoned on a frigid battlefield, his life was not without meaning.
Corporal Kirtley was one of nearly 6,000 who died fighting so that 24,000 could live. He was part of the fighting force that preserved the country of South Korea. Had it not been for him and 326,862 others who fought alongside him, the entire population of South Korea would have been enslaved and brutalized just as their brothers to the north have been for the past seven decades.
We should also note how much time, money and political capital is expended to recover the remains of men who died decades ago. This is the ethic of the United States, but it is not an ethic shared by all.
We value the bodies of our fallen heroes in ways that honor their humanity. Other countries use dead bodies as bargaining chips. America does not. Here individuals count. They are not faceless and nameless statistics of war. They are people with histories and families. They are people who loved and were loved.
Corporal DeMaret Kirtley died 68 years ago Thursday. He may have no children and no living parents to welcome him home. But all of Wyoming receives him as part of our own extended family.
Rest in peace, sir.
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