Letter of 5 Jun 1989 (p2)
This page of the letter makes several factual mistakes which I will point out below. See, I put the blame for the mistakes on "This page" rather than using the lame excuse that, in 1989, I did not like to bring to memory any details of the events of 31 Jul 1952. However, I admit that, once in a while, I would inflict a chorus or two of "Arirang" on one of my two ex-wives (who are still among my dearest friends) and whatever number of my four kids were present when the urge came.
Mistake 1: Spelling Kelly as "Kelley" throughout the letter. It may have been the first time I ever saw "Kelly" in writing.
Mistake 2: Not remembering that it was not Baker Company that lost Kelly (as I said in the first paragraph) but a Battalion other than the 1st.
Mistake 3: Saying (also in the first paragraph) that our usual outpost was Tessie. If I had thought harder, I may have remembered that the usual outpost for Able Company in the first half of 1952 (when on the MLR) was Nori. Somehow, this mistake got fixed in my mind and nobody straightened me out until the job was done by one of the guys in our Bunker. Now I know that Tessie was probably the hill to which we got sent later in the day (as mentioned in the 7th paragraph) after the fiasco on Breadloaf.
Mistake 4: The hill from which we were receiving fire was 317, not 310.
Comment 1: I now know that the name of the hill to which we were first dispatched that day was Breadloaf and, from John Toland's book, that the Division Commander, the Regimental Commander, and other assorted big brass (including John Eisenhower, Ike's son, who had joined the 1st Battalion on the previous day) were watching (from a somewhat safer position, I assume) us move out
Comment 2: The reason I wasn't carrying a gun when Snyder handed me his was because, by then, I was a gunner and, therefore, carried only the tripod for my gun. Snyder, who was carrying another gun, must have been an assistant gunner on the other gun in our squad. But, neither gun was operating properly (as stated in the letter) and mine, at sometime in the day, got a shrapnel hole in the chamber. MK.
