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by Bill McWilliams
foreword by Gen. Robert W. Sennewald, USA (Ret.)
Published in hardback by the United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army, October 2003. Published in trade paperback by Berkley Caliber Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), October 2004. Weller Grossman Productions, North Hollywood, CA, seeking a made for television documentary based on the book.
Evoking all the powerful emotions of a frustrating, bitter, bloody, and stalemated Korean War, Bill McWilliams takes readers into the trenches and bunkers of Pork Chop Hill with the men of the 7th Infantry Division's 17th and 32nd Regiments as they withstand repeated assaults by the Chinese in July 1953. Individual accounts of small victories and defeats, fear and valor bring alive the final battle for the hill. While a popular movie starring Gregory Peck made Pork Chop Hill a public legend, only one other book has been written about the subject and it focuses on earlier assaults. This book includes the untold stories of the riflemen, machine gunners, forward observers, sergeants, platoon leaders, and medics whose heroic efforts helped hold the hill and produced two Medals of Honor and ten Distinguished Service Crosses, six total awarded posthumously.
The author succeeds both at giving the reader a feeling of being in the midst of the fighting and stepping back to view the bigger picture. He blends official documents, personal letters, interviews, oral histories, and other sources to acquaint readers with the first three years of the war and prior assaults on Pork Chop, and he highlights the contributions made by combat support units and others to the mission. As the narrative progresses he makes the whys of battlefield decisions evident by examining the influence of national policies, protracted truce negotiations, a fledgling South Korean democracy, and the evolving American military policy of active defense, providing painful lessons for America’s future struggles. Published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army, this book pays tribute to the greatest testing ground of U.S. soldiers' resolve since Valley Forge.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Korea was the war nobody in America really wanted to fight. The bloody battle for a barren piece of terrain the GI’s dubbed Pork Chop Hill came near the end of it, when no one wanted to be the last man to die in that 'police action.' It fell to the brave men of the Army’s 7th Division to fight, suffer and die on those slopes. Bill McWilliams tells their story in vivid, stark detail and does them the honor they deserve."
-Joseph L. Galloway
senior military writer----Knight Ridder
co-author: We Were Soldiers Once-and Young
"Bill McWilliams’s stirring story will ensure that these brave soldiers of the Forgotten War will not be forgotten by the soldiers of today’s generation."
-Gen. Carl E. Vuono, USA (Ret)
chief of staff, US Army, 1987-91
"Well researched and written, the book describes an inspiring chapter in American military history."
-Gen. John Wickham, USA (Ret)commander-in-chief, UNC and ROK-US Combined Forces Command, Korea, 1979-82, chief of staff, US Army 1983-87
"With its realistic accounts of brutal hand-to-hand fighting, devastating artillery and mortar barrages, day and night counterattacks and small victories and defeats, this book offers invaluable lessons of small unit combat, which at the end of the day is where battles are won and lost."
-Gen. Art Brown, USA (Ret)
vice chief of staff, US Army, 1987-89
"Bill McWilliams brilliantly reveals the extraordinary courage of those who fought the final, bitter, bloody, costly days of the Korean War while capturing important lessons about war, national and military policies, and the effects of those policies on battlefield decisions. Those lessons of a half century ago are just as applicable today."
-Gen. Jack I. Gregory, USAF (Ret)
chief of staff, Combined Forces Command, Korea, 1985-1986 commander in chief, Pacific Air Force, 1986-1988
"A celebration of all that is good and right about America’s citizen and professional soldiers, from whom our nation and the protracted, stalemated war in Korea routinely demanded unprecedented sacrifice."
-Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, Jr., USA (Ret) company commander and operations officer, 17th Infantry Regiment, 1952-1953, coauthor: We Were Soldiers Once-and Young
"As an airman, my perspective of combat was always above the mud and mire. On Hallowed Ground relates the true value of the soldier and gun to our overall military power. These stirring accounts bring back those final and bitter days of the Korean War and the sacrifices made by those valiant riflemen."
-Lt. Gen. Walter D. Druen, Jr.,
USAF (Ret) fighter pilot in Korea, 1952-53
HARDBACK BOOKS AVAILABLE: United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, and their distributors. www.navalinstitute.org
TRADE PAPERBACK BOOKS AVAILABLE: Penguin Group (USA) and their distributors. www.penguin.com
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Five-part series newspaper article published in the Elko Daily Free Press, Elko, NV, beginning November 5, through November 11, 2004.
“Gerald B. Whiterock, All-American Hero: Valor Forever”
Based on the book On Hallowed Ground, The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, and additional research completed after the book was published, the article tells the tragic but inspiring true story of the only Nevada soldier killed in action on Pork Chop Hill, during the 6-11 July 1953 final battle for the outpost. Gerald Whiterock was an 18-year old Western Shoshone Indian from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, astride the Nevada-Idaho border, northeast of Elko. He enlisted in the Army one day after his 18th birthday in October 1952, and was killed in action on Pork Chop Hill the morning of 9 July, less than three weeks prior to the Korean War armistice. A member of I Company, 3d Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, he was in a two-company counterattack intended to drive the Chinese from commanding positions they had held on the crest of the hill for three days.
Five-part series newspaper article published weekly in the Los Alamos Monitor, Los Alamos, NM, beginning September 5, through October 1, 2004.
“The 1st Hilltoppers: Birth of a Winning Tradition”
Tells the delightful, inspiring, true story of the first three seasons of interscholastic competition, 1946-48, at Los Alamos High School, as the home of the World War II Manhattan Project – Project Y - was coming out from under its tightly-held cloak of secrecy. Project Y gave birth to the small high school, which graduated only two students in August 1944, three in June 1945, and seven in 1946, and the high school fielded their first football team in September of that year, 14 months following the test of the first atomic bomb at White Sands, NM on 16 July 1945. In their first season they went 8-0, with a graduating class of 20 young men and women. At the end of their first season, they had established a winning tradition and statewide recognition in New Mexico, and ended their first three seasons with a total 19-2-2 record.
Football History, Two-part serial article in Assembly magazine, Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr 1998
“Army – Duke 1953, A Football Game Never to Be Forgotten”
The inspiring, true story of the Army football team’s turnaround game in the turnaround season of 1953. In two grueling football seasons following the disastrous honor incident announced 3 August 1951, Army went 2-7 and 4-4-1, equaling the total losses under Coach Earl H. “Red” Blaik in his previous ten seasons. In the fourth game of the 1953 season, the unranked cadets, sporting a 2-1 record on the year, upset the number-seven-ranked, 4-0, Duke University Blue Devils, 14-13, in New York City’s Polo Grounds. Called by many sports writers “the college game of the year,” the victory set Army’s team and the Corps of Cadets afire, inspiring them to remain undefeated the remainder of a 7-1-1 season, and a return to the national rankings.
Football History, Two-part serial article, Assembly Magazine
“Vince Lombardi at West Point: The Early Days of a Football Legend”
Drawing on research for A Return to Glory, this article is filled with true stories and warm vignettes from Vince Lombardi’s tumultuous five seasons under the head coach Vince most admired and whom Vince credited as his greatest gridiron teacher, Army’s Earl H. “Red” Blaik. The piece spans Army’s difficult 1951-53 seasons, when the Academy, Blaik, his coaches, and team were rebuilding following the disastrous 1951 cheating scandal – which wiped out Army’s greatly admired, nationally ranked team after a ten-year run to football glory, with possibly a fourth national championship in 1951.
Investigative History. A two-part serial article published in Assembly magazine, Nov/Dec 2001-Jan/Feb 2002, about a 1951 man-made institutional crisis at West Point involving honor, ethics and truth telling.
“The 1951 Honor Incident: Myths, Facts, and Lessons”
Using research material from A Return to Glory, the piece summarizes the never-publicly-told story of behind the scenes events associated with the 1951 honor incident at West Point, and responds to an error-filled article, “Code Breakers,” written by well-known sports writer Frank Deford and published in Sports Illustrated magazine’s 13 November 2000 issue. The cadets involved in organized cheating were participating in far more serious activities than were ever made known to the Corps of Cadets, Academy graduates, and the public. Examples were conspiracy to cheat, to lie about the existence of cheating if ever confronted with evidence, 22 of 83 found guilty of cheating lied under oath when they first appeared for sworn testimony, intimidation of witnesses, attempting to discredit the board of officers investigating the incident, deliberately planning and successfully electing two company honor committee representatives who were involved in cheating, and threatening cadets who volounteered to go under cover to expose the cheating.
Military History Article Published in Assembly magazine, Jan/Feb 2004.
“The 1953 Battles for Pork Chop Hill”
Based on the book, On Hallowed Ground, The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, the article summarizes the events leading to the final, bloody 6-11 July 1953 battle for the outpost, and centers on the roles numerous Academy graduates from different classes played in the battle, all the way from the Commander in Chief, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, class of 1915, down to infantry and engineer platoon leaders, from the class of 1952.
Military history article published in VFW magazine, Jun/Jul 2003 issue
"The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill"
Based on the book, On Hallowed Ground, The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill, the piece details the initial assault on Pork Chop Hill the night of 6 July 1953 by units of the 200th Regiment, Chinese Communist 67th Division, against A Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, to begin the five day battle for the outpost – which resulted in 243 Americans killed in action and 916 wounded, with the Chinese suffering an estimated 6,050 total killed and wounded.
Military History, A two-part serial article in Assembly Magazine
“Once More Into the Fire”
A true story from the West Point class of 1950’s baptism in battle early in the Korean War. Centered on Lt. David R. Hughes, who like many of his classmates, was ordered to report as a platoon leader in front line units – without benefit of up-to-date infantry branch school training – the narrative follows Lt Hughes in King Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, several members of his class and other classes, in the bitter first year of the war, in which the historic 7th Cavalry Regiment of George Armstrong Custer fame, sees victory at hand by Christmas 1950, then suffers great loss and retreat when the Chinese intervene massively across the Yalu River in late October of that year. Lt Hughes progresses from platoon leader to company commander in the year of the “yo yo war”, and, with the 1st Cavalry Division and all its regiments is pulled off the line in November 1951, from a position on the crest of Hill 347 – which looks down to the northeast on Outpost Pork Chop.
Text of a Talk Given to the Cadet Honor Committee on 3 December 2001 and Published in Assembly magazine, May/Jun 2002 issue.
“The 1951 Honor Incident, Lessons from an Avoidable Tragedy”
Using research material from A Return to Glory and other sources, the piece is the text of a talk given to the Cadet Honor Committee at West Point on 3 December 2001 based on the facts and circumstances of the 1951 honor incident. The author explains the purposes and practical value of officer candidates taking action when violations of the cadet honor code are observed, and relates the cadet honor code to the officer code and leadership.
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