| He took his men to the ridge as told. He
arrived on schedule at 0200 hours. He saw the enemy directly
below, sound asleep, tanks dismounted, guns not even assembled.
He thought, “If we wait for ten munutes one of my
men may make a sound, and the enemy could be alerted to
full strength.” So, thinking the General had made
an error, he sent his men down the hill to engage the enemy.
When they reached the bottom at precisely 0202 hours, the
air was filled with artillery shells from the allied guns
many miles away---an all out attack.
Everyone died but the platoon leader. At 0210 hours the
shelling stopped. At 0211 amid the stony silence, the platoon
leader said but one thing; “I didn’t know what
the General knews.”
- As told by SGT. Steve Seideman,
Uijongbu, Korea, DEC., 1995
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