Today in this part of the world is Christmas. You'd never know it withoutlooking at the calendar however. Right now we are underway with otherunits of the fleet for Pusan.

The last week or two I have witnessed something I'll never forget, or beable to forget. You've probably heard on the radio about the retreat ofour forces to Hungnam under the pressure of the Chinese Reds. Well I saweverything that went on and our ship was so close to the ground forces attimes that small arms fire could be easily heard. With the naked eye ourtanks could be seen in action and with field glasses you could pick outthe man loading a 75 mm artillery piece and the one firing it and soforth. Again we were fortunate for the enemy had no planes, ships orartillery of any size.

About a week ago it was comparatively quite at Hungnam with bomb and shellexplosions in the distance from our planes and big guns from the Missouri,several cruisers and other ships. The merchant marine was wellrepresented and the ships were continually moving into the docks, loadingand moving out.

This went on for several days and nights.

Two Korean ships loaded with civilians tied alongside the Askari fortemporary repairs and we escorted them one night down south. They had8400 Koreans on one of them and you can imagine how crowded it was. Thecooks on the Askari boiled GI cans of rice for them and they nearly killedone another to get it. When the weather is cold enough for spray from thesea to freeze on your clothes, it's pretty chilly. Some of the littlechildren had only enough clothes to cover the upper portions of theirbodies. The dead people were stacked on the bow and why they were notthrown overboard is beyond me, unless the people believe in sacredburials. When we were underway on the high seas with them, we'd look overat the people huddled on the open decks in the icy wind and realize howlucky we are. Those jammed below decks were fortunate to be out of theweather, but if I would have had to be on a crowded dirty ship among dead,wounded, dirty and sick, I would have taken an airy spot. I imagine theyall consider themselves fortunate to be taken out of Hungnam however.

We immediately returned to Hungnam and in the two days we were gone theenemy had advanced considerably, for now our shells and bombs weredropping as close as the other side of Rattlesnake would be to you. During the day the Navy planes continually bombed and rocketed the enemyadvancing up the hillsides all around the city and we were able to watchit from one end to the other. At night the planes would all return totheir carriers and the fleet would take up with the bombardment. It takestime to make an evacuation and the Reds were pressing harder and harderupon the city. The St. Paul was anchored near to us and when she wouldfire over our heads the concussion would rock the ship. Every night was aFourth of July that as a civilian I would never have seen. One night theReds were taking advantage of the darkness and making a big siege on thecity. The rocket boats that used to sit so useless with us in San Diegowent into action and sprayed the beaches with rockets, which repelled theReds. The enemy forces were lit up by flares fired from other ships.

On the 24th and also the 23rd we were lucky for our ship was made controlship of the inner harbor. We had special trained personnel aboard fordirecting evacuation boats etc. In other words, we were a traffic cop forthe ship and boat units in behind the breakwaters. From here we could seeour men on top of the hill looking down upon the enemy numbering about120,000.

On the 23rd it was realized that we needed at least another day tocomplete the "strategic withdrawal" so the gunfire was stepped up. Without sea and air support the Reds would have run over our ground forceslike nothing. All the evacuating boats from our area had to stop by theship for directions and even though the soldiers looked weary and beaten,you could tell they were happy to get off the beach and go aboard a clean,warm ship where they could shower and eat a Christmas meal. Some of thearmy's amphibious tractors came along for fueling and the soldiers saidthe Reds weren't taking any prisoners and were stealing their clothes andweapons. They said some of the Reds were armed with things like shotguns.

On the 24th the last troops were being taken off and the artillery wasblazing away at the Reds who were now coming down on our side of thehills. All the ships were out of the docking area by now and only theamphibious boats and tractors were left on the beach to take the lasttroops.

A mile and half from us explosions began rocking the city for fires hadbeen set to destroy everything of value, and ammunition and otherexplosives began going off. In another area, a huge ammunition dump wentoff unexpectedly or prematurely and the troops were showered with debrisand things were still dropping in the water a half a minute later in andaround our evacuating boats. Our two hospital boats were hastened to thescene to aid in medical attention.

Thousands of civilians were now jamming the docks and beaches begging fortransportation that never came. Others rowed out into the bay in sampansto escape the fire and explosions. We watched the figures clad in mostlyblack and white rags running around in the city and on the beach; notgoing anywhere in particular but trying to escape somewhere. Anotherexplosion went off that nearly knocked the sightseers on our ship down. The different colors of flame and smoke were quite awesome and burningmaterial dropped all over the fleeing Koreans and started fires in a widearea.

While the Reds were held back by Naval gunfire and bombs, our last troopscould be seen coming out of the hills and proceeding to the last boatswhich were loading others. Soon the transports were commencing to leavethe area and the cruisers and destroyers began shelling the area. Aterrific explosion all along the waterfront went off and when the smokecleared, the harbor area was in a shambles and burning. These chargeswere set by demolition crews and consequently the enemy will have a job onhis hands before the docks can be used again. The rocket boats moved inapparently to flatten the whole city, but they decided not to evidently. A destroyer came in by us and began shelling oil storage areas. She kepthitting the same place and soon we wondered why she was using ammunitionon what appeared to be nothing of value to us. Soon we knew, because anoil explosion threw barrels of fuel all over hell. It was like lighting astring of firecrackers and throwing them in the air. The shelling of thedestroyer caused two more like explosions and where I once looked at thefirst United Nations flag flying, there was nothing but fire.

We finally got underway and after a quick check of a certain area for anyremaining soldiers we joined the column of ships going out to sea.

Everyone is feeling low about not being home for Christmas, but everyoneis a lot better off than other people I'll never forget. At least we areall dry, warm and have our bellies full.

I have found that movies, pictures or even letters can never point out howdevastating war can be. If it ever comes to The States, people will learnsomething back there.

Well I only hope that next Christmas won't be like this one even thoughI'll remember this one more than any I have ever seen. Next year at thistime I hope I can be home with a big bottle of champagne. I hope everyoneelse will too.

No mail yet.
Love, Leo

Causes of the Korean Tragedy ... Failure of Leadership, Intelligence and Preparation

The Foundations of Freedom are the Courage of Ordinary People and Quality of our Arms