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Sergeant Reckless

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Sergeant Reckless - Moshe Miller SERGEANT RECKLESS There has only been one animal in the history of the United States Armed Forces to hold an official rank. She even received a pension! Sergeant Reckless was a little war horse that fought with real bravery during the Korean War and made a huge impact on the lives of her fellow Marines. This is her little-known story. 88 | ZMAN • July 2017 ZMAN • Tamuz 5777 | 89 Machine gun fire whizzed overhead, the world war, they were ideological adver- as the boom of mortar cannons saries and would quickly become Cold War shook the air. Smoke, fire and the enemies. scent of gunpowder dominated the hilly In August 1945, the Americans unilater- landscape. A lone, intrepid soldier of the ally decided on a line to divide Korea into United States Marine Corps, carrying 200 American and Soviet zones of occupation, pounds of gigantic artillery shells, scrambled the 38th parallel of latitude north. At that up an incline that was so steep it seemed as moment, it was just a line drawn on a map; if it was at a 45-degree angle—for hundreds no US troops had landed in Korea yet, though of feet. After delivering the critical muni- the Soviet army was already marching on tions to battle-weary men, an injured soldier Pyongyang (later to become North Korea’s was strapped onto the Marine’s back and capital city). Six days after Japan’s uncon- they headed straight back toward the rela- ditional surrender on September 2, the Left: Column of troops and armor of the 1st Marine Division move through Chinese lines in Korea, 1950. Right: Australian soldiers in Korea. tive safety of the ammunition supply point. Americans landed troops on Korea’s shore This Marine repeated the same routine and moved to fill in the vacuum of power from morning to night, sustaining bodily south of the 38th parallel. injury, bringing essential supplies and help- The United Nations put Korea under a (but also ruthless) politician Syngman Rhee ing many wounded soldiers during what five-year trusteeship administered by four became president of the south. Each side was to become the bloodiest day of the powers: the US, UK, USSR and the Republic claimed sovereignty over the entire Korean entire war. Later, this Marine corporal was of China (democratic at that time). The peninsula. to become one of America’s most celebrated trusteeship was supposed to lead up to For several years after Korea’s split, war heroes. independence. Predictably, the Americans Kim lobbied the Soviets for permission to Unlike any of the others, though, Cpl. and Soviets did not play nicely. They could launch an invasion of the south. By 1950, he Reckless was a horse. not come to an agreement about how received Stalin’s blessing and the support Korea under Siege elections were supposed to be held. This of (newly communist) China. At dawn on led to separate election processes in the June 25, 1950, the Korean People’s Army north and the south, and separate leaders. flooded across the 38th parallel from the In the closing month of World War II, Communist strongman Kim Il-sung ruled north, igniting the Korean War. Armed with shortly before Japan’s surrender, the Soviet the north, and the ardent anti-communist powerful Soviet equipment, they quickly Red Army swept down into the Japanese- overwhelmed the South and occupied Seoul. ruled Korean peninsula from the north, The United Nations immediately condemned quickly crushing the opposition and advanc- the invasion and jumped into the war on A small unit of US Marines lies in the snow with rifles ready ing to occupy strategic cities. the side of South Korea. Besides the South at a curve in a road near Yudan in the Chosin Reservoir area, Korea, after having been an independent Korean Army, the United States Armed northwest of the port of Hungnam, Korea, Nov. 29, 1950. They are shown at their snowy post as the 1st and 7th Marine kingdom for centuries, had been annexed Forces made up the bulk of the UN coalition, Regiments were retiring under heavy pressure by three enemy by the Empire of Japan in 1910. During with 326,863 troops sent over the course divisions. One soldier, right, has a bayonet fixed on his weapon. the November 1943 Cairo Conference, the of the war. The UK sent the next-highest Allied Powers agreed that when Japan number, over 14,000 troops, and 19 other was ultimately defeated, she would be countries contributed smaller numbers of The Reckless Rifle stripped of all colonies she had acquired by fighters, as well. force—and Korea would be guided toward The UN armies overwhelmed the North independence. Koreans and pushed their army all the way A critical armament in the Americans’ Days after they had dropped the atomic back toward North Korea’s border with effort to hold back forces from Communist bomb on Hiroshima, US officials read reports China, occupying the capital Pyongyang China from penetrating into of the Soviets’ advance with great concern. along the way. But then, the Chinese entered South Korea was the recoilless Perhaps the Russians would occupy the the war. With might in sheer numbers, rifle. When positioned on high entire peninsula—putting Korea under the Chinese pushed the Americans back ground, the big guns could sole Communist control after the war. US Marines in Korea on the move, 1951. south. Eventually, a more stable battlefront shoot their 75 mm shells Although the Americans emerged, snaking back and forth along the several thousand yards and Soviets were allies in 38th parallel. with utmost precision, 90 | ZMAN • July 2017 ZMAN • Tamuz 5777 | 91.
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