Pacific Stars and Stripes, Dec. 21, 1950

Sergeant Carries Baby To Safety

WITH THE 1ST MARINE DIV IN KOREA (Delayed)- His feet were too frozen to make the long march away from the Chosin reservoir sector, so the big, nameless, sergeant, almost tearful, was hauled aboard a truck loaded with others like him.

The frozen roads were jammed with men and trucks and small groups of Korean refugees, and the enemy waited to pounce on the convoy.

In one of these raids, a Korean woman, carrying her small son, was hit. The big sergeant's truck drew alongside. Desperately, the woman looked at the Marine driver, talking rapidly in her native tongue and holding out the child.

The driver, intent on maneuvering his clumsy vehicle along the busy route, did not see her.

With an impatient grunt of pain, the big sergeant moved to the side of the truck. Leaning over, he took the child from the woman. Its feet were frozen and its hands cracked and bleeding.

For nine long hours the sergeant sat without moving. He cushioned the child's body against the bumping, jarring truck with his own.

He had placed the boy inside his parka. When enemy mortars halted the column and machinegun bullets whined, the sergeant pushed his chin down against the boy's head and sucked on his dead pipe.

When the column moved again, it drew white phosphorous shells in the light of enemy flares. The sergeant sat his ground.

When it was finally over, the big sergeant moved his body for the first time. Lifting the boy from the truck, he hobbled across the snow to an aid station.