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THE CHOSIN CHRONOLOGY BATTLE OF THE CHANGJIN RESERVOIR, 1950 George A. Rasula OPEN with maps by Melville J. Coolbaugh HOW TO USE THIS E-BOOK This electronic book, or “E-Book,” is viewed with Adobe’s Acrobat Reader or any web browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. To maneuver through this book use the following buttons at the bottom of your Acrobat window: Window shows which page you’re viewing Moves forward or backward and allows navigation to a particular page. to LAST VIEWED page like an internet browser works. Goes to book’s Advances to beginning. end of book. place Goes to Advances to previous page. next page. VIEWING OF TEXT, PHOTOS & MAPS: Will be greatly enhanced by using the zoom function which Acrobat is capable of. HYPERLINKS: Hyperlinks are text or graphics which are “linked” to another page in the book. When the cursor is moved over this area it changes to a hand pointing its index finger. An example is on the previous, cover page: At the bottom right is an arrow with “Open” which, if clicked, brings you to this page. When finished viewing that page you may go back to your previous spot in the book by clicking the small back arrow (shown above as “LAST VIEWED”). The entire table of contents and index is linked to its page in this book. From any chapter title, sub- chapter heading or page number in the table of contents or index you may go directly to that page simply by clicking on it. There are many other functions of Acrobat that are useful to know and may be learned about under the Help menu of the program. THE CHOSIN CHRONOLOGY Battle of the Changjin Reservoir, 1950 Copyright © 2006 by George A. Rasula All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informtion storage or retrieval system, without permission of the author. This document was created electronically as an electronic book and reproduced to compact disk (CD) for use on a computer. Published by Changjin 1950, USA. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data has been applied for Rasula, George A. The Chosin Chronology: Battle of the Changjin Reservoir, 1950 1st ed. p. cm. - (Changjin 1950 military history series) Includes biographical references and index. 1. Korean War, November-December 1950, Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir campaign. DS918.R 2006 Printed to electronic Compact Disk in the United States of America E-book design by Jon D. Rasula DEDICATION Dedicated to the memory of more than one-thousand soldiers of the 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT-31), 7th Infantry Division, who were lost during the battle east of the Chosin Reservoir, 27 November - 2 December 1950, many whose remains to this day rest in the soil adjacent to the Changjin Reservoir. Those soldiers fought for four days and five nights, preventing two Chinese Communist Divisions from driving south and taking the key junction at Hagaru-ri, thereby saving the 1st Marine Division and enabling them to break out to the sea. PRO PATRIA AUTHORS OF CHOSIN CHRONOLOGY George A. Rasula During his 32 years of service in the United States Army, first as a private soldier in the regular army to a colonel of infantry, George Rasula fought in three wars: As a rifle platoon leader in the Palau operation (attached to the 1st Marine Division on Peleliu), the Korean War as a regimental staff officer (and infantry rifle company commander attached to the 1st Marine Divison during the Chosin Reservoir campaign) and in the Vietnam War for two tours, first as a regimental advisor in Tay Ninh/Iron Triangle during the early phases of Viet Cong activity, and years later as Inspector Gen. of XXIV Corps on his last tour. Col. Rasula served as a deputy brigade commander in Alaska after which he served as Army Attache to Finland, both tours enhancing his expertise in cold weather operations. Lt. Rasula first went to South Korea in 1948 where he served both in the Inchon and Seoul areas, as well as flying the 38th parallel as an observer during the growing border tensions of 1949. When the war began he was with the 31st Infantry Regiment in Hokkaido where he had served as a platoon leader and rifle company commander in K3/31, then a regimental staff officer in the operations section into Korea, promoted to captain during move to North Korea in October 1950 where he participated in the Chosin campaign. As an early board member of The Chosin Few, George Rasula unknowingly began a decades-long journey into the history of the Chosin campaign. As historian of The Chosin Few he saw a need for a comprehensive chronology of the campaign to help its members see what really happened. It was first briefed at the association’s international convention in 1992. It has been presented to reservists of the Naval War College and Finland’s National Defense College among many others. It remains a living, changing investigation as new perspectives are always arising. Melville J. Coolbaugh A native of Colorado, Melville J. Coolbaugh entered the U.S. Army in 1950 and had just completed his training when the Korean War began, shortly finding himself a member of Company L, 31st Infantry, in Japan as they were preparing as part of the Tenth Corps for the landing at Inchon. When the Corps went to North Korea he participated in the 3rd Battalion operations near the Fusen Reservoir during the earliest actions against the Chinese, followed by the battle with two Chinese divisions east of the Chosin Reservoir. Although wounded three times and suffering frostbite injury, he was able to fight with the provisional Army unit attached to the 7th Marines during the breakout to the coast. After hospitalization he returned to and fought with the 31st Infantry until summer of 1951, returning to the States and being discharged as a Sergeant First Class. After leaving the service Coolbaugh used the GI Bill and graduated from the Colorado School of Mines as an Engineer of Mines, resulting in engineering experience at many underground mines and tunnels in North America. In 1984 he founded Coolbaugh Minerals, Inc., a company which evaluates ore deposits and mining properties, an important role in the mining industry. In this work he employed computer programs to draw maps showing the three-dimensional size, shape and content of mineral deposits and to draw maps of the terrain above the deposits. It was this map making capability which became known and the need recognized when he joined the survivors of the Chosin campaign, the Army Chapter of The Chosin Few. Mel Coolbaugh and George Rasula merged their talents by developing the visual side to The Chosin Chronology during the early 1990s. The highly accurate maps of North Korea with story telling overlays opened the door to new understanding of battles through a technique seldom employed to portray day-by-day battle actions of organizations from divisions to platoons. It has been Mel Coolbaugh’s understanding of the Chosin terrain enhanced by years of professional knowledge and technical expertise which played a major role in making this book possible. CONTENTS PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................................9 HISTORY OF THE CHOSIN STORY ...................................................................................................10 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................10 THE NEW BREED ................................................................................................................................10 COMBAT ACTIONS IN KOREA .......................................................................................................10 USMC CHOSIN RESERVOIR CAMPAIGN ......................................................................................10 CHOSIN ..........................................................................................................................................10 THE CHOSIN FEW NEWS DIGEST ...........................................................................................11 THE FORGOTTEN WAR .............................................................................................................11 IN MORTAL COMBAT ................................................................................................................11 ONE BUGLE NO DRUMS ............................................................................................................11 EAST OF CHOSIN ........................................................................................................................11 ESCAPING THE TRAP .................................................................................................................11 KOREAN WAR ALMANAC ........................................................................................................12 THE CHOSIN FEW NEWS DIGEST ...........................................................................................12 REUNIONS AS SOURCES ..........................................................................................................12 REWRITE OR RE-RIGHT ............................................................................................................13 BIRTH OF THE ARMY STORY ...................................................................................................13 THE CHOSIN FEW REUNIONS .................................................................................................13

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