Talk:Task Force Faith

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I wrote the original article. I first heard of Task Force Faith, many years ago, when I was in the Army and scheduled to go to South Korea for my first assignment. I read an article, Chosin Reservoir, in a book called, Combat Actions in Korea, thinking it would be about the U.S. Marines and their famous, "advance in another direction." I was surprised to find it was about the Army, and that this Chosin Reservoir...did not have a happy ending, to put it mildly. At the time there was nothing else in print about Task Force Faith, and what happened to the Army troops east of the reservoir. They had been forgotten.

Later, in the 1980's, Clay Blair's, The Forgotten War, and Roy Appleman's, East of Chosin, were published. Both are excellent, and have restored to history, to some extent, the men of Task Force Faith. I would also recommend the official U.S. Army history of the Korean War, all three volumes(for a general overview of the war itself), though they lack the personal touch and human interest that Blair and Appleman provide. Finally, there are various websites for the Korean War and 7th Infantry Division which make reference to the task force, although the information found there is not as well presented, or as accurate as the works I have already cited.

The Controversies

There are still hard feelings between the Army and Marines over TF Faith, and the role of Army troops in the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir. Many Army veterans of the Korean War, especially the survivors of the task force, resent the world-wide fame the Marines earned in the battle, while the role, even the presence, of soldiers at Chosin Reservoir is largely unknown, even today. Saying this, it is interesting to note that one of the most effective officers in TF Faith was Captain Stamford, the Marine air liason. Without his skillful and heroic direction of air support, TF Faith would have been destroyed much earlier than it was. Nevertheless, many books have been written about the U.S.M.C. at the "frozen Chosin." Exactly one has been written about the Army there.

The Marines, of course, deserve the glory and honor which they won at Chosin Reservoir. Their's was a magnificent feat of arms. But Task Force Faith deserves more recognition than it has received. By engaging the Chinese 80th Division and wrecking it as a combat worthy force, TF Faith prevented it from joining the Chinese attack on the Marines, and also bought time for General Smith(the 1st Marine Division commander)to get his units concentrated and ready for battle. If not for the sacrifice of the Army troops at Chosin, the key Marine base at Hagaru-ri might have been captured, the loss of which would have blocked the Marines' only escape route.

There are also grudges held by some(not many, I think, but some) Chosin Marines against the Army. In a number of books by Marine veterans of the battle, the Army troops are dismissed as little more than cowards, or, at best, as something of a rabble who ran away from combat, abandoning their equipment along the way, which was then recovered by the Marines in their breakout march.

The coward story has a basis in fact, though only a small basis. Most of the soldiers who reached Marine Corps lines from TF Faith were wounded(many several times)and/or badly frostbitten. As stated in the article, the able-bodied of these(including many who were lightly wounded or mildly frostbitten)formed a provisional battalion which fought alongside the Marines in their, "advance in another direction." In other words, they continued to participate in the battle.

However, there were some(not many, but some)survivors who, though fit to fight, feigned or exaggerrated their injuries so they would be evacuated by plane. Only a few actually slipped through and were flown out, the rest being assigned to the provisional battalion, but the incidents became common knowledge among the Marine infantry, fighting their way out of the trap.

The story about the Army abandoning equipment for the Marines to pickup is actually true. But it didn't happen at Chosin. The 5th Marine Regiment, which fought at Chosin, had also fought at the Pusan Perimeter the previous summer. On one occasion there, an Army column was ambushed and its soldiers panicked and fled, abandoning vehicles and equipment to the enemy. The 5th Marines(fighting as part of the Provisional Marine Brigade)counterattacked, driving the enemy back and recovering all that had been lost. Apparently, in the memories of some Marines, what happened at Pusan became mixed up with what happened at Chosin.

Finally, there is the controversy about the withdrawal of Army troops from Hudong, which was reached the following day, in its dying gasp, by TF Faith. Roughly 350 troops and 17 tanks had been stationed there after being blocked by the Chinese from joining the task force to the north. This force was powerful enough to probably have saved at least some of the task force from destruction if it had not been ordered south to Hagaru-ri the day before.

The question of who ordered its withdrawal is still debated. There is no written record of the order or who gave it. The army officers at Hudong did not know who originated it, only that it came from "higher up." Some accounts "blame" General Smith, the 1st Marine Division commander, who had operational control over Army units at the reservoir. Hagaru-ri was under siege and in danger of being taken by the Chinese, and Smith wanted the 31st Tank Company and the other troops from Hudong to reinforce his perimeter at the Marine base.

Another story, probably more reliable, cites Major-General Donald Barr, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, who supposedly told General Almond that he(Barr)had ordered the pull-back from Hudong because he believed the task force troops to be lost and didn't want to lose any more.

65.54.154.25Beau Martin/aka dubeaux65.54.154.25