Seventh Infantry Division - Yearbook (South Korea)

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H E I. I I. I F T lot of memories were revived in that moment. Ralph Sigwald, a baritone from Charleston, S. C., sang the Lord's Prayerv and then, in typical American fashion, the unit chose a band from the Colombian Battalion to compete in a contest during the Heidt show. They beat three other local acts and won a chance on a radio show. But even in these days after the War, there were con- stant reminders of war days. On 13 August, the same day Horace Heidt entertained us, Corporal James C. Taylor, 21 years of age, from Mt. Pleasant, Texas, en- tered Freedom Village. He was the first 7th Division member freed in the Big Switch. Taylor had been cap- tured 30 November, 1950, While serving as assistant gunner with a 60 millimeter mortar crew in B Com- pany of the 3 1st Infantry Regiment. Those who saw him there recalled, grimly, the battle at Chosin Reservoir, Colonel Faith and Colonel MacLean and the rest of the men who had died there. Taylor was one of the first to describe the terrifying existence of prisoners at the hand of the Reds. He told of being forced to attend lectures and propaganda talks and how the Chinks had tried to make the men salute the Progressives, turncoats who traded information on their own companions for extra privileges, rations and cigarettes. On 30 August, Corporal Enrique G. Diaz, 23, of Los Angeles, who had been an ambulance driver at the time of his capture, entered Freedom Village and told a tale of sheer brutality--the murder of American prisoners who had been wounded during the 1950 battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Tagged as a reactionary from the very start, Diaz had been sen- tenced to five months at hard labor for organizing a group which kept the Progressives in linef' Most of the men, now, were thinking in terms of going home but there Was still a lot of work to do and home was still a long Way off for most of them. For the first weeks after the armistice, the Division had re- mained on the line in readiness for a possible outbreak of hostilities. Peace or no peace, the chance of things starting all over again was always there. An extensive salvage program was underway and men from several units were assigned to screen the entire combat area and its reserve sector for all salvageable material. Planning and construction of the MBP was initiated and two regi-

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ments were deployed along the line with one in reserve. On August 21, the Division was relieved and we moved to assembly areas in the vicinity of Camp Casey. From there we were assigned to the Division sector of MBP Switch, south of the Hantan River. In addition to con- struction in the Switch sector, the 7th Division was also assigned the responsibility of counterattacking and de- fending the Switch sector should hostilities be resumed. Throughout October and November the construction of defensive positions in MBP Switch occupied the main part of the Division's time. By December, the construc- tion had progressed to a point where the main effort of the 7th was shifted to a formal training period. During this time Operation WOODTICK was conducted. WOODTICK was an operation in which 70 helicopter flying hours were utilized in the transportation of forti- fication material to inaccessible locations in the Switch area. The operation was similar to HAYWIRE, during which the same kind of material was transported by helicopter into the mountainous terrain. On 23 November, The Order of the Bayonet was instituted, and on 22 December, the Division motto was adopted: In War, Invincible, in Peace, Prepared. Two University of California courses, one in public speaking and the other in American Government, were offered to men during their off-time hours and English- speaking courses were offered to the United Nations troops attached to the Division. Eight USO shows were also offered during the month of December, climaxed by the big VIP Special Christmas Celebrity Unit. In addition to the USO performances, sixteen all-soldier shows were brought into the Division sector and these, too, played to large enthusiastic audiences. The Rest and Recuperation program was now handling about twen- ty-five hundred 7th Division men a month, everybody seemed to be going to church and Chaplain's section re- ported very high attendance? The latest motion pic- tures were flown in by Special Services and the mail volume was terrific. All in all, the morale of the 7th was very good. For Christmas, Cardinal Spellman visited us for the third time in a row. One of the most prized war souvenirs belonged to the 17th Infantry Regiment. A tired-looking field piece long overdue its rotation to the scrap pile, it was an Ameri- can-made 75 mm howitzer, christened the Buffalo Gun. It was captured from Communist forces by the regiment during its push to the Yalu River in the fall of 1950. The full history of the gun was unknown but it was believed to be one of the lend-lease variety can- nons originally sent to Nationalist Chinese forces and later captured by Communists. Because it was Ameri- can-made, the gun never had to be turned in as a cap- tured enemy weapon. It now stood in an honored place at Regimental headquarters and for many months had been fired every night at retreat. The practice finally had to be stopped when the howitzer ceased to function correctly. The gun still holds its honored place and prob- ably will for the rest of the history of the 17th Regi- ment. It is a proud symbol of the fighting qualities of the men of that group. Training was the big thing during the first three months of 1954 and it culminated in March when the Division took part in the IX Corps field exercise HAMMER. On 21 March, final maintenance and con- struction work was completed at Switch and the Divi-