Seventh Infantry Division - Yearbook (South Korea)

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USO Show arriving in camp. Frances Langford steps from plane upon arrival at the 7th Inf. Div. for- ward area. designed to take Red prisoners. Engineer battalions di- rected the improvement and repair of UN bunkers along the line. Major vantage points in this rugged, hilly sector were Old Baldy and chink Baldy, Pork Chop, Snook, Dale and Westview. These were to be the subjects of a constant back-and-forth series of clashes for control which were both costly and agonizing for both sides. In peacetime a high pressure real estate agent couldn't have given these hills away. But in these times of attack and counterattack, they were priceless posses- sions for whichever side happened to hold them at the time. On 23 March, UN forces were in control of Old Baldy and Pork Chop. The 31st Regiment was occupying the west or left regimental sector with three battalions on line and one in reserve. The Colombian Company A was on the left, Company C was on the right and Company B occupied the Old Baldy company outpost position. It was the decision of I US Corps to relieve Company B on Old Baldy with another Colombian Company on the morning of the 23rd of March. It was decided that the relief would be accomplished during the early morning of the 23rd. Enemy artillery fire de- creased appreciably during the night of the 22nd and early morning of the 23rd. This was to be a difficult relief since Baldy and Pork Chop had both been subject to heavy fire for the past three days. To provide adequate security during the relief on Baldy, a rifle platoon from Company B, 1st Battalion, 31st Infantry was attached to the Colombian unit. Their mission was to occupy vacated positions and to rotate throughout the right company MLR position in such a manner as to insure all platoon positions were occupied at all times. At 2100, the Old Baldy outpost was blasted with intense enemy mortar and artillery fire. A few minutes later the artillery observation post reported that an unknown number of Reds were mass- ing for an attack on the hill. The situation on Old Baldy was not immediately clear since the intense shelling had blown out wire and radio communication. The Colom- bian Battalion commander dispatched an officer to his

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