Veterans Magazine 2021 - The War in Korea

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By Col H. Avery Chenoweth, USMCR Ret. “Soldiers-of-the-Sea” have been integral to war ships for millennia. All navies had them. P r i o r t o t h e A m e r i c a n Revolution, colonists served as British Marines. After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, where American militiamen first whipped the British and ignited the Revolution, that year the Second Continental C o n g r e s s c r e a t e d t h e Continental Army that June, followed by the Continental Navy in October, and two battalions of Continental Marines that 10 th of November. Shipboard Marines had a constabulary role to keep order aboard ship, billeted amidship in order to keep the often mutinous sailors ‘hammocked’ forward from the officers quartered aft, guard the ship’s treasure, payroll and bounty, and provide landing forces. They took posts in the riggings to fire down on enemy ships when boarding. After the U.S. gained its freedom, those Continentals became the United States Army, Marines, and Navy, in that order. In the early 20 th Century the U.S. Marines came of age. At the outbreak of what became World War 1, the 5 th and 6 th Marine regiments were stood up, comprising the 4 th Brigade, and shortly attached to the Army 2d Division and its 3 rd Army brigade in the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1918. Marine Maj Gen John Lejeune commanded that Army division following their bloody victory at Belleau Wood. Hitting the Japanese w i t h a r e f l e x i v e uppercut immediately after their attack on Pearl Harbor, 450 Marines on tiny Wake Island in the western Pacific fought off two Japanese invasion attempts, knocking down 21 enemy aircraft, sinking a submarine, 3 destroyers, one cruiser and killing over 1,000 assault troops—before the Navy commander ordered them to surrender! The Marine Corps peaked in WW2 with six 28,000-man infantry divisions and five air wings, that with Navy support, conquered island after Pacific island: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Pelelieu, Iwo Jima, up to Okinawa, prior to the two Atomic bombs obviating the necessity of invading Japan. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in June, 1950, only the 1 st Marine Division was combat ready, due to the Army’s rapid post WW2 disbandment. That Marine division’s incredible stand at the “Frozen” Chosin Reservoir and their utterly destroying 10 Chines divisions surrounding them, earned the highest accolades and permanency by Congress as America’s “Force-in- Readiness,” a unique, invincible MarineAir- GroundTaskForce: MAGTF. As such, to a limited degree, the Corps distinguished itself in later wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Faced now, though, with superior enemy offense/defense systems and hypersonic, cyber, electronic, EMP weaponry, it has eliminated tanks, tube artillery, amphibious landing craft, and, modified MEF, MEB, and MEU missions. Strategy and tactics are now returning to more sea and less ground infantry. Littoral Combat Ships with F-35Bs in Expeditionary Advanced Base Ops (EAOB)with drone, missile, and cyber weaponry facing larger threatening forces. Incredibly, creeping Woke, CRT, White racism, and social engineering are usurping Kill Chain training, and averse to standing up for military options, top brass tend to bend to politics. To the “Old Corps” we knew: Good-bye to “Semper Fi”! The author served in the Corps from 1947 through 1992 in infantry, combat art and historical stints. Barnes & Noble published his oversized, highly illustrated Art of War: Eyewitness Combat Art, etc. and Semper Fi: The Illustrated History of the Marines. 20 The WAR in KOREA www.hhjonline.com
Col. Avery Chenoweth, Sr. (USMCR Ret.) Maintaining my Reserve status, I served in Reserve VMF- 144 squadron, CO of a rifle company and CO of the Reserve Public Affairs Unit in NYC, an operational unit of HQMC. During 30 years of Reserve duty, I volunteered twice in Vietnam as Combat Artist and Cinematographer, did staff studies for Commandants; at age 62, on active duty as head of the Combat Art team for the History Division, drove a Jeep Cherokee with the attacking Marine task force into Kuwait City. My combat art is in Marine, Navy and Army museums, the Pentagon, etc. I wrote two monumental, oversized, highly illustrated histories published nationally by Barnes & Noble NYC: “ART OF WAR: Eyewitness U.S. Combat Art from the Resolution through the 20th Century” (2002) and “SEMPER FI: The Definitive Illustrated History of the U.S. Marines” (2005/2010, hailed as the best Marine Corps illustrated history). Both are now out-of-print but can be found on Amazon. In my 68-year association with the Marines, I also contributed articles, cartoons and photos to Leatherneck, Marine Corps Gazette, Navy Times, Washington Times, Atlanta Journal- Constitution, Macon Telegraph, Houston Home Journal and other periodicals and have also written 10 additional books (available on Amazon KDP). One of special interest to military buffs is “LEST WE FORGET: Extraordinary Episodes of Often Forgotten U.S. Military History.” (See my ad in this issue.) Never could I have imagined when I received my 2nd Lieutenant’s commission, along with my art degree from Princeton that peaceful June, 1950, that six months later, I would be using that rank in the 1st Marine Division leading rifle, machine gun, and recoilless rifle platoons in combat in Korea! Still able to get into my uniform at 94, I’m often invited as the oldest Marine to annual birthday cake-cuttings, traditionally receiving the first slice. After a year in combat and another in HQMC, including two atomic bomb tests, I married, started a family, and began a career in NYC in television, advertising, publishing and art. November 2021 The WAR in KOREA 21
Page 2 and 3: The Shaheen & Kiefer families would
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Page 6 and 7: Alfred Shepard U.S. Army By: Will O
Page 8 and 9: Anthony Colucci U.S. Army By: Tyler
Page 10 and 11: Fred Gaultney U.S. Air Force By: Wi
Page 12 and 13: Henry Dawkins U.S. Navy By: Tyler M
Page 14 and 15: Lawrence Wright U.S. Air Force By:
Page 16 and 17: Ralph McAtee U.S. Air Force By: Ken
Page 18 and 19: Tommy Davis U.S. Air Force By: Josh
Page 22 and 23: Thank you, Advertisers For partneri

Veterans Magazine 2021 - The War in Korea

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