Last battle for Pork Chop Hill: from July 6-11, 1953, the 17th and 32nd regiments of the 7th Infantry Division waged a deadly struggle against the Chinese

VFW Magazine, June-July, 2003 by Bill McWilliams

At 10:25 p.m. on July 6, 1953, during a heavy monsoon rainstorm, a thunderous artillery and mortar barrage began falling all across the 7th Infantry Division's Main Line of Resistance (MLR). A reinforced battalion of more than 700 soldiers from the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) 200th Regt., 67th Div., moved quietly toward Pork Chop Hill.

The small, one-company outpost, 500 yards north of the MLR, initially received no incoming rounds, but CCF batteries soon expanded their bombardment to the hill. On outpost duty facing the CCF battalion was A Co., 1st Bn., 17th Inf. Regt.

As the attack unfolded, A Company's Pvt. Angelo Palermo said, "It looked like ... a moving carpet of yelling, howling men--whistles and bugles blowing, their officers screaming like women driving their men uphill."

Located beneath the hill's crest in a bunker near the company command post (CP), Cpl. Dale W. Cain heard his radio suddenly come alive with traffic. From outguards manning listening posts in front of The Chop came reports of "enemy in large numbers." An ambush patrol from B Company called from beyond the listening posts, "We're coming in!"

In another bunker near the company CP, the sound of artillery slamming into the hills and valleys south of Pork Chop jolted Pvt. Robert E. Miller to sleepy confusion. "All hell's broken loose," he thought. He left his sleeping bunker and entered the covered trench heading toward his fighting position wondering what was going on. "Go get your rifle!" someone yelled.

The assault triggered five days of savage fighting. Before the battle ended, the 7th Division's 17th and 32nd Infantry regiments committed 12 additional companies, plus combat engineers and a weapons company machine gun platoon to hold Pork Chop. Integral to each company were 20 to 25 English-speaking South Korean soldiers.

Grinding Stalemate

Defenders counted nine enemy assaults the night of July 6-7. While suffering heavy casualties, A Company gave ground grudgingly. It fell back to an alternate CP on the hill's south slope and was forced to give up 35 of its 65 fighting positions, yet held in the face of overwhelming odds.

In spite of two reinforcing American companies, the next morning the enemy held the north, west and most of the east slopes, and the crest of the hill. The CCF's hold on communication trenches between the east and west sectors nearly cut the perimeter in half.

Defenders held most of the outpost's rear, including the covered main trench and Pork Chop's lifeline--the access road running from the 7th Division's rear, through the MLR, to the armored personnel carrier (APC) landing at the main trench rear entrance.

The first night's fighting set the pattern of shattering artillery and mortar fire, attack and counterattack, and grinding stalemate, with friendly and enemy-held bunkers intermingled. In the succeeding days, neither side was able to drive the other from the outpost.

Valiant Defense

In Pork Chop's final, hellish nightmare, American soldiers performed extraordinary feats of devotion to duty, courage and sacrifice.

A Company's soldiers saw Master Sgt. Howard C. Hovey fiercely fight his last battle the night of July 6-7. At age 42, the highly respected "old man," who, in WWII, participated in the liberation of Nazi death camps, expected to retire when he returned from Korea.

He died defending the main trench and company CP against enemy assaults. This bought time and lives for the CP's relocation to an alternate bunker on the outpost's south slope. He posthumously received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).

The swarming enemy isolated A Company's Pvt. Bob Miller, a South Korean soldier and several other members of Cpl. Charlie Brooks' squad, in their bunker. An enemy grenade tore off Miller's right leg below the knee and shattered his left. Another squad member, Paul Sanchez, saved his life with a tourniquet and bandages.

Late in the afternoon of July 7, still trapped and nearly out of ammo, Brooks faced an agonizing decision. "Can you hold on?" he asked Miller. They would carry Miller into the covered trench outside their bunker where he could sit against the wall, alone, with a box of grenades next to him, and see or hear approaching enemy. The rest would crawl through the firing aperture, make their way around the hill to the medics, and tell them Miller's location.

He did hold on through the next night. Every time he heard voices approaching, speaking Chinese, he threw a grenade in their direction. The voices ceased after each explosion.

On the morning of July 8, he heard a flame thrower behind him, around the corner toward the company CP. He yelled, "What the hell are you doing? Cut that damn thing off!" He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard an American voice say, "He's one of us." Miller soon left Pork Chop by APC, and later received the Silver Star.

Cpl. Robert Northcutt was a squad leader and machine gunner in G Co., 17th Regt., when it counterattacked into a hail of enemy fire at 3:40 p.m., July 8. Northcutt recalls, "I lost contact with my company, had two men killed and others wounded. We ran low on ammunition, and gathered weapons and ammunition from the dead."