Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 463
Note: The following article is excerpted from the book THE THREE
DAY PROMISE: A Korean Soldier’s Memoir by Donald K. Chung,
M.D. The book is currently available in ebook editions.
LEAVING NORTH KOREA
by Donald K. Chung
Copyright © 1989 by Donald K. Chung
The night I fled Chu-ul it was ominously dark. Snow crunched underfoot
and covered the surrounding terrain, made visible by headlights of the
motorized division. The longest trek I had ever made was the threehour
homeward journey on foot from the racetrack in Harbin, the day
Father bet and lost our bus fare. It didn’t take a statistical genius to
calculate that that earlier record stood no chance of survival at the ordeal
stretching out before me.
Limping along on sore or frozen feet were people of all ages,
both male and female. Their number grew as hour after hour of the
fearful night passed by. Many older men and women hobbled along
using canes and occasionally even on crutches. Not unexpectedly, they
fell farther and farther behind, unable to match the pace of the forward
moving throng. Occasionally younger family members would slow to
assist their elders, but many younger refugees tried desperately at all
costs to keep up with the line of soldiers and trucks of the retreating
army.
The farther south the march penetrated, the greater grew the
throng. Many ox-drawn carts, heavily overburdened with household
goods and human cargo, slipped off the treacherous icy roads into ditches
filled with ice and slush. If the oxen could not regain their footing on
the road, the soldiers, no doubt following orders, shot them as they
hopelessly struggled.