December of 2002 was no different. I prepared to run in the U.S. Marine Corps “Toys for Tots” 5k race in Auburn, Alabama. Unlike most of the other runners, I had jogged extensively in Wisconsin, Delaware and Washington, D.C., so the 10 degree temperature that morning was nothing new. But I have to admit that 10 degrees in the South is different, because you don’t get that every day down here. So my body rebelled against the plunge into the icy weather.
I probably would have skipped the race that morning, had it not been for a story I had just come across, involving the sponsors of the event. It’s called the “Chosin Reservoir Campaign.” In an interview with historynet.com, Marine Sgt. Lee Bergee said “I met a Marine after the battle who had served with the U.S. Army in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. He told me that he had always believed nothing could be worse than the Bulge, but the Chosin campaign changed his mind.”
Imagine the film “300” (about the Spartans at Thermopylae) or the Battle of the Alamo with the temperature 40 degrees below freezing. That’s what the 15,000 U.S. Marines had to contend with in that December campaign 58 years ago, surrounded by six divisions of Chinese soldiers and some remnants of the KPA. Survivors have been called “The Chosin Few.”
“I had a Sheaffer fountain pen that I carried in my breast pocket, and the ink in it froze and split the pen,” Bergee said in the interview. “The water in our canteens froze. We had to work the operating handles on the breechblocks of our M-1 rifles every now and then so they wouldn’t freeze shut. Beads of ice formed in our beards and in our nostrils, and some of the men had to get the corpsmen to chip the ice out of their noses. Standing watch, you stomped your feet constantly and wiggled your toes inside the shoepacs to keep the circulation going. The cold seeped through your clothing, and you were always miserable. The wind hit your face until it was raw, and the driving snow whipped into your eyes and half-blinded you as you searched for enemy activity.”
Compared to that horrific experience, I could get through the day’s race, I told myself. Sure enough, I gritted my way to the finish line, and placed in my age group. While I didn’t get a gaudy trophy, the little ornament I received as a prize will always mean something special to me.
Of course, you don’t have to run or walk several miles in the bitter cold as I did Saturday at 8:15am at Trinity Lutheran Church in Auburn to help out this holiday season. As G.E. Loveless said in a recent column, the U.S. Marines will be conducting their own campaign here in LaGrange to get new donated toys to children who won’t have any gifts otherwise this holiday season. And if a U.S. Marine can go through frozen limbs and bullet wounds in Korea, then you can find a few extra dollars to help out someone even less fortunate than yourself.
Incidentally, the next time that I ran the U.S. Marine Corps “Toys for Tots” 5k, it was about 35 degrees. But the weather provided cold wind and rain. Here we go again, I thought. But I made it through without any limb loss. As for the gift I donated that year, I bought a Milton-Bradley classic board game: “Battleship.”
I’m sure the US Marines were at least proud of the latter.
Post a Comment
