Engineers in combat: combat engineers are builders by trade, but in Korea they also served as infantrymen. Three of them earned the Medal of Honor posthumously

VFW Magazine, Nov, 2002 by Gary Turbak

In Korea, one side or the other seemed always in forceful advance--or hasty retreat. Roads, bridges and other infrastructure that one day served an attacking U.S. Army might the next day merit destruction to slow a pursuing enemy. Building, demolition and rebuilding became daily routine, and invariably these tasks fell to the Army's combat engineers.

But these men were much more than contractors in uniform. Never far from their bulldozers and blasting caps were the rifles and grenades that might at any moment turn them from engineers into infantrymen. Over and over, combat conditions led engineers to fight bravely, hit the enemy hard and pay the ultimate price. No fewer than three engineers received the Medal of Honor for battlefield heroism.

Engineers in Korea had two main tasks--get American troops and materiel to where they were needed and frustrate similar enemy movements whenever possible. Combat engineers built roads through rice paddies and over mountain passes, often under extreme weather conditions and enemy fire.

"One road we built over a mountain took so much dynamite that we called it Demolition Drive," recalls Dan Teoro of the 2nd Engineers. They also constructed scores of bridges over the largest rivers in Korea--including five separate spannings of the Han and a 2,400-foot railroad-ready crossing of the Taedong.

More than once, engineers built roads and bridges to facilitate an American advance only to destroy those same structures later during a withdrawal. "It didn't always seem to make much sense, but that's what the Army needed" says Ray Miller of the 62nd Engineers.

In their "spare" time, the engineers built airstrips and training facilities, assisted with the landing at Inchon, created sewage and drainage systems, rehabilitated war-torn railroads and buildings, and set up water towers and POW camps. One engineering unit established a telephone exchange. Another built a 500-bed, 62-building hospital campus. Yet another constructed a Korean "Boys Town" for war orphans. And for Christmas 1953, engineers even built a nativity scene.

Ready to Fight

But these men were trained for combat as well as construction. "We were always ready to fight" says Teoro. "When a big bunch of Chinese would come in, the infantry needed all the help they could get."

In July 1950, the 2nd Engineers helped defend Yongsan, not far from Pusan. In August, the 14th Engineers fought as infantry on the Naktong River line. When the push north came in September, the 3rd Engineers were in the thick of the fighting. And so it went throughout the war--engineers building one moment and fighting the next.

In September 1950, Pfc. Melvin Brown (8th Engineers) showed just how good an engineer could be at fighting. Under attack by North Korean troops at Kasan, Brown found himself atop a 50-foot wall that protected the American position. With an automatic rifle, he raked the attackers with deadly accuracy. When his ammunition ran out, he lobbed grenades into the advancing enemy at the base of the wall, and when his own grenades were gone, other GIs began tossing him theirs.

With the grenade supply exhausted and the attackers still trying to come over the wall, Brown held his position, smashing each enemy in turn with a shovel as the attacker climbed to the top of the wall. Eventually, however, a shovel was no match for bullets, and Brown was killed.

Sometimes engineers served as the final rear guard, holding a road or bridge open in the face of advancing enemy while other GIs and artillery withdrew.

In July 1950, the 3rd Engineers were the last U.S. soldiers to cross the Kum River during the brief Allied defense of that line.

And in November, the 2nd Engineers held off attacking Chinese troops while elements of the U.S. 8th Army withdrew from the Pyongyang region of North Korea. Once the last American artillery units had passed safely southward, the engineers pulled out, too, but with tremendous casualties. When the battalion eventually regrouped, only 266 of its original 977 men remained.

Fighting Withdrawal

During another American withdrawal--from Taejon in July 1950--Sgt. George Libby (3rd Engineers) became the sole uninjured survivor of an enemy attack on a troop truck. Hailing a passing artillery tractor, Libby helped several wounded aboard.

Then, as this makeshift ambulance lumbered down the road--stopping repeatedly to load more wounded--he positioned himself between the driver and the intense enemy fire. Though wounded almost immediately, Libby continued to blaze away at the enemy as the vehicle broke through hostile roadblocks.

When multiple wounds made it impossible for him to fire any longer, he used his body to shield the driver. Eventually, the tractor and its precious cargo broke free of the enemy, but Libby later died from his wounds.

Cpl. Dan Schoonover was another hero engineer. In July 1953, Schoonover (13th Engineers) was in charge of a demolition squad working with an infantry company to dislodge the enemy from Pork Chop Hill. When hostile fire prevented his men from performing their engineering job, Schoonover led them, as a rifle squad, up the steep hill.