Part2

From the book Saints at War;Korea and Vietnam:

In early spring of 1952 some of our company was assigned to occupy a hill;I think it was called “Warsaw.”  It

was about four to five hundred yards in front of the MLR (main line of resistance).

We had daily and nightly contact with the North Koreans and Chinese which amounted to mostly mortar fire and enemy probes to test our resolve to hold the hill.  Next to that hill was a slightly less elevated hill where there were several reinforced rifle and machine-gun squads.  Forward of the main bunker and trench line was a sniper’s hole.  It was dug on the forward slope about forty to fifty yards.  It was camouflaged with scrub brush,and it was almost impossible to see.  The routine was that an hour or so before sunrise one of our snipers would belly out to that sniper’s foxhole and wait for sunrise.  With his snipe’s rifle,silencer,and high-powered scope,he could observe throughout the day and especially in the early morning the movement of enemy troops in the trench line and bunkers across the shallow valley.  They were his target.

For several weeks he did his job.  Then one day just after dark,which was the usual time for the sniper to crawl back to the safety of the trench line and his buddies-that night he was late.  He never showed up.  They tried to make contact but with no luck.  Finally,under the cover of darkness a fire team of three from his unit crept down to his sniper’s foxhole and found him slumped over his rifle with a single bullet in his head.  An enemy sniper had somehow caught him during a split second of exposure and with just enough time to get off a single shot.  It was a very sad day for all of us.  Everyone placed a special value on these courageous Marine buddies. Unfortunately it did not end there.

A couple of days later his replacement showed up and took his position in that same sniper’s foxhole each morning before sunup.  Three days or so went by and one night after dark he was late and did not return.  The word quickly spread and all of us could not believe that we might lose another one.  It would be too much.  We still felt the deep pain from losing our other friend.  That night the fire team crawled down to his foxhole and found him with a single bullet to his head.  The word spread.  No one would believe it.  But this tragedy and deep loss was even more staggering when we found out that they were brothers!

Even as I write this story that occurred a half century ago,the personal heart-wrenching emotion of that day brings a lump in my throat and tears to my eyes,and I can hardly contain myself.  That was the last time they used that sniper location.