Saturday, January 30, 2016

Col Adolph Schwenk--C.O., 27th Marine Regt, Vietnam--(Korean War Duty as Capt.)--






LUBBOCK MORNING AVALANCHE--Jan 6, 1953--







OCR (Optical Character Recognition) decoded, unedited--


!Young Officer Loses Eye* In Combat 11. Patrol-05:20 Green . Ma e rin s .Shakes Up Chinese :Out ost • By ROBERT'S. ELEGANT- vital outioit "Hedy," .three-quart-WITH THE FIRST MARINE en of a.mile southwest of .much DIVISION IN KOREA, Dec. 27— fought-over Bunker Hill. • (Delayed by censor)—INS—This is ,•• • The Chinese were, enough not a hero story, though there is to throw hand grenades - into high valor in it. \ "Hedy" and sniped at /every It is the story• of an ordinary movement in. the- outpost.. One patrol of 20 Marines from Charley- man had been killed earlier that Company, 7th Marine Regiment, night no different from the nearly 60 patrols which fan out from Unit- "The Chinese were moving up gradually to take the outpost'? ed Nations divisions all.along the line every night of the• year. explained Marine Capt. Adolf The reinforced squad of 19 Schwenk, 30. Yonkers, N.Y.. %- credibly brave kids with rifles We couldn't let them have it and one light machinegun,. and led under. any -conditions. Hedy. corn-by :a ''green second . lieutenant mends enemy-held Bunker Bill and our 'bunker gate' to the. right struck out last night into the' black of Hedy. Behind Bunker Hill Is unknown which shrouds the pret-the tunnel—honeycombed fortresszel shaped main line. The Marines were ordered to mountain Teedoksan." throw back a Chinese unit which Come Under Heavy Fire The 22-year-old second lieuten-ant crept to within 90 yards of apt took the kids out througb a haze to the left of Hedy and down the ridge toward the Chi-nese. position. Directly behind the lieutenant walked a telephone man trailing a wire to the out-post and a walkie-talkie operator. As soon as they stepped out of the bunker, the Marines came under heavy fire from enemy mortars and automatic 'weapons. After a minute or two, the tele-phone man reported two "sting-ers" to Captain Schwenk *in the outpost. (Marines use the names of drinks as code names in .battle. "Stinger" was used to mean wounded in action.) "We were so close, we could hear the mortar shells leaving the tubes," Sgt. Paul H. Sheehan, 23. Boston. -Masi., told International' NeWs Service. . • "I still don't understand how they could drop in the rounds so short." 1 • . Laid Down Counter•Fire Grenades began to fall . around the patrol. But the green kids sot up the light, machine gun and laid down counter-fire. - The telephone man reported two more "stingers" before his instrument was shot out of his hand: One of the injured was the young lieutenant, who was hit in the eye. Sgt. Sheehan took command. He concentrated fire on the enemy pocket and called for mortar fire over the walkie-talkie. Then_ the pntenna was carried off the radio by a Mortar fragment and the. patrol was out of -touch with the observation post: Sheehan took a • "broruc" — nick on theiear by a mortar shell,' but the wound-was too minor to require evacuation. With the mortars and the pa-trol's own weapons raining. fire on them, the Chinese weakened. Boxed With Artillery After a few minutes. the .enemy "boxed" himself • with artillery' and mortar fire. Boxing is laying down a curtain• of fire around .a beleaguered unit. It is an extreme defense•measure. • After_ a.-.58:rninute firefight,. The patrol withdrew: They had -ful-filled their assigned_ mission: "Shake up. the= enemy and' ease the threat to Hedy." • At 11:30 the kids came back carrying their wounded. "They ran a good patrol," com-mented • Capt. Schwenk. "Just another patrol. But a good one." "I understand my young. lieu-tenant is-going tolose his eye but will be all right otherwise." the Marine offieer:continued.."If You see him, telPhim..the skipper said he did a good. job — he'll under-stand."