THE REST OF THE CHOSIN BATTLE

Robert Ayala Cpl.

1^st Plt. D Battery
15^th AAA AW SP Battalion
Korea Sept. 50-July51

About midnight to 1:00am I was on guard with Sgt. Brown when all hell broke loose. Horns, burgles and cymbals. The Chinese were attacking. Flares went up and the sky lit up. It was snowing a little. It was about 20 degrees below zero but the Chinese did not care. They attacked until daylight. We destroyed hundreds of chinks that night. Our Republic Of Korea (ROK) soldiers were so scared of the chinks most of them ran off. The next morning we checked our ammo and our men. Everyone was OK. MY best buddy John Strack, who was an M16 gunner, came by the morning of the 28^th of November. He asked me what I thought of it all. He asked me if I thought if we would get out of this mess and I said, John some of us will and some of us wont. John got killed that day.

The 32^nd RCT came in from miles up front and reinforced our position. The next day the 29^th of November it got colder. It got down to 30 degrees below zero. The Chinese would not attack in the daytime. They attacked only at night. During the day they harassed us with snipers and mortars.

During the battle Sgt. Brown told me not to leave the M19 under any circumstances. So I had to stay on the M19 in my sleeping bag. I was still wearing summer clothing and I was slowing freezing. All I could do was shake my arms and legs to keep from freezing. During the night of November 29^th Cpl. Chavez was wounded but he refused to leave his position. In the morning we brought him to a hut. All they could do was to put him into a sleeping bag with no medicine. Later he froze to death. During these days both the Chinese and we were losing a lot of men. On the 4^th night the chinks attacked again. Sgt. Brown was my leader we were slaughtering the Chinese. They were attacking with everything, making all kinds of noises with Burgles, alarms, cymbals and whistles. At night it looked like daylight with all of the firing going on. During that last night one of the chinks got through our perimeter and he climbed up on to our tank He was about to blow us up with one of those satchel bombs when Sgt. Brown caught him with his fist and knocked him off the tank. One of our men killed him. We came very close to be blown up.

We were all filthy as we had not bathed, shaved, clean clothes or eaten in four days. We were tired and hungry. We had a hard time sleeping because of the temperature. We ran out of ammo so the next day we started to make a convoy. There were two M19s left. We had to run up there and give them a boost. Their battery died and unfortunately the motor went out too. By that time Col. Faith told us to get up in front of the convoy. During this time all of the howitzers were destroyed. All equipment was burned up. Room had to be made for all of the dead and wounded to be loaded onto the trucks. There were at least 30 trucks and jeeps. None got out. As the convoy started on the fifth day it was cloudy. We were waiting for the clouds to clear up. Finally about noon it cleared a little and Corsairs came dropping Napalm, and firing their machine guns. As we started to move out the first Corsair dropped Napalm on our men.  Seventeen of our men got killed along with some Chinese.

 It was terrible to see this happen right before my eyes. If I had not ducked below my turret I would have been killed too. I remember somebody sitting on my tank when the Napalm was dropped.

Forty-three years later I found out it was Capt. Jordon who was sitting on top of my M19. When the Napalm was dropped, Capt. Stanford and four other Marines were right behind us in a jeep. I met Capt. Stanford at one of our reunions in Branson, MO. and we took pictures together. During the confusion the Chinese were everywhere, coming down on the convoy killing as many as they could. One driver was pulled out of his seat he was driving and was captured. He was a POW for 30 months. During this battle they had to cut me loose from my seat. Then I had to drive the M19.

As I started, the convoy a line of Infantry formed in front of us. There were about a hundred men. The rest of the convoy was coming from the rear. The 57^th was our rear. At our first roadblock Cpl. Merica picked up a 3.5 bazooka and fired it at the roadblock, destroying it. Later he was given a Silver Star. We had Chinks all around us. Capt. McClymounth, Sgt. Brown, Cpl. Merica, Sgt. Slater, and a lot of men were forming a front line attack. They were all Infantry. At this time we were being shot at with rifles, machine guns, mortars etc. I had a 30-cal. Carbine that had been frozen for four days. The men had to take rifles from the dead and the wounded. When we got to a blown bridge we had to pull the trucks across the railroad track bridge. We used the cable on our tank to pull the trucks over the bridge. WE were running out of gas, by the time we could move a little I found that my M19 was out of gas.

I asked an officer what now? He said to take some men up to Hill-1221. About 17 men went up with me and we took the hill. But when we got to the other side we just kept going. After that we came across a soldier that was wounded pretty bad. We put him in a sleeping bag and towed him to Hagaru-ri. When we got to Hagaru-ri, I asked a Marine for help. It was like a miracle seeing one of our own. At Hagaru-ri I asked if I could see someone in authority. I don’t remember who it was, but I asked the Marines if they could help some of our men at the Reservoir. I found out later that a Col. Had saved a lot of our men. God Bless Him.

Later I was sent to Japan on R&R Then I was sent back to Korea. I was promoted to Sgt. and made a Squad Leader on an M19. There was no one from the old outfit. Most of the time during the next four months we were attacking the Chinese. The good Lord was looking out for me again. A mine had just blown up a jeep after we had just driven over the same road. After four months on the front lines I was rotated back to the States.

I thought I was the only survivor for forty years, but I first found that seven more survived. In 1997 I found out three more survivors still living. Sgt. Brown, Sgt. Slater, Cpl.Merica, Capt. McClymouth, Hale Hensley, Cpl. Jones, Frenchi Cluger, Calvin Hansen. The Chinese had burned all of the convoy and shot everyone else in my Battalion. I call this a massacre. I have thoughts imbedded in my memory for years now. Thinking always of the conditions we had endure to survive, no ammo, no food, no clothing for the cold, no rest, no gas. The idea of not eating for four days was a terrible situation.