bloodycrackdown6

...MY REGIMENT (1 of 'em)

...another blast from the past:

For over 57 years the RAKKASANS have been a part of the Army. We don't claim to be better than any other Airborne Regiment, just that no other has exceeded us.



The RAKKASANS fought in 6 major wars; WW II , Korea ( 2 combat jumps),

Vietnam, The Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The RAKKASANS participation in these battles

was merely a result of being in the right place at the right time, other regiments

I'm sure could have, but our pride reigns because...............We Did! We members

of the RAKKASANS do however hold great pride and admiration for all of our

fellow Airborne units and salute them for there particicpation and accomplishments.



The following is a newspaper account of a RAKKASANS battle......This is what

being Airborne was and still is all about.
Parachutists Fight A Costly Blitz; Sparks Sees Cream of G.I.'s

By: Fred Sparks



(This account of the battle of Inje by Pulitzer prizewinner Fred Sparks appeared in the

Chicago Daily News on Monday, June 4, 1951)



With the 187th Parachute Regiment, Korea---For nine days this regiment of

paratroopers attacked the Chinese foe. In a dashing move they drove a wedge into

the tail of the retreating Communists, capturing and killing thousands.

To hold open an escape corridor north of Inje the Chinese organized strong defensive

positions and haltered the paratroopers. In an ugly battle ( which I followed from the day it began) many paratroopers, the very cream of our military youth, were killed or wounded.

These tough lads are trained to drop out of planes. Instead, they have been motoring,

hiking and mountain-climbing to catch the Chinese.

UNTIL NOW, for logical security reasons, I could not write that the Jumping Joes were

in the line. By today the Oriental foe knows (Ouch) that the paratroopers are shooting

at them. So it's no longer hush-hush. Parachuting around this part of Korea with its

thousands of rocky peaks would be like tap-dancing barefooted on a spiked fence. The

previous two jumps the 187th made here were in pancake terrain.

I was at 10th Corps headquarters six days ago when Gen. Edward Almond, his military

sixth sense working overtime, guessed correctly that Mao's mobsters were winded. Their

great spring offensive had bled itself against our unbreakable ramparts. He ordered the

paratroopers, then in reserve, to make a dramatic 60-mile motor march through Inje to

the town of Kansong on the coast of the Sea of Japan. This would be an end run through

the Red badlands, actually behind the main body of Chinese and North Koreans, which then

was still south of the road to be used but rapidly retreating. Thousands of Communists in

the eastern part of South Korea figured Almond would try to get their cozy collective cribs

in North Korea via Kansang.



STANDING in a rice paddy in a steady downpour I heard the troopers told:

"Get your vehicle on the road. The convoy will be 12 miles long, spiced with tanks.

Keep going! If your jeep is shot up, push it off the road and climb into the next one.

Don't delay! Delay might mean disaster." Parachutist Gen. Frank Bowen told me:

"This is a typcal airborne operation on wheels instead of wings."

Got the big picture around Inje: Chinese were retreating north along several roads

--like a line of ants--whih crossed at Inje. The lead battalion of paratroopers drove right

up the same road, shoving the surprised Chinese into ditches. They actually ran down

many! By moving so fast they prevented enemy mine-laying units from operating. THEN--trouble--and our casualities began. Apparently the Chinese sniffed a plan to cut

through them. Other battalions had to run an actual gauntlet. Chinese go on the hills on

both sides of the narrow road and zeroed-in-machine guns and artillery.

In one instance a fanatical Chinese stood on a cliff and simply drooped a grenade down

on a jeep. I saw mortars bursting on the road behind my vehicle. SCORES of vehicles were knocked out. Chinese snipers wearing green uniforms and using no-flash rifles peppered

us at will. They couldn't be seen in the thick growth. One jeep driver ahead of me quietly

slumped over his wheel. A sneak bullet in his right ear.

Several "Suitcase Charlies"--fanatical Chinese carrying valise-shaped explosives--ran

right up to a few tanks and tossed their packages between the treads. But like a covered

wagon train in the Wild West Indian days we pulled our way through the comparatively

primitive foe. The paratroopers NEVER GOT A BREAK. The heavens simply wept. The roads

were hugh mud pies. A bridge was washed out, forcing the convoy to crawl. At one point

we made 8 miles in 10 hours.

Part of the motor march was made at night. Whew! Riding through mountain valleys

after dark with positive knowledge that armed is on both sides of the road is hardly

calculated to lower your blood pressure. I can author a book entitled "I was a Duck in

a Shooting Gallery."

BARRELLING up the road to Inje, the chutists collected straggling Chinese. One lad

went off the road a moment and saw four Chinese cooking rice. He pitched a grenade

right across home plate and broke up the dinner. During a pause another Jumpimg Joe

caught two Chinese swimming in a brook. Like the old swimming-hole trick he simply

collected and sat on their clothing--and gats--until they paddled in for capture.

The paratroopers traveled as lightly as escaped convicts. Typical attire: Weapons,

ammo, jump boots, fatigues, toothbrush and comb and wicked "jump knife", a snapping

affair ordinarily used to cut away chute lines when you dangle from a tree--used for more

deadly purposes in this operation.



Yes, many of these fine lads, picked for telephone wire nerves as well as bulging biceps,

will never come down that winding road from Inje. Blitz technique means condensing

ordinary infantry fighting into a few furious days--You lose more men that way quickly

but in the long run you might lose less. Furthermore, the airbone is a "hold until death"

outfit. It is the infantry plus that added something that makes elite troops like our marines

or the British Commandos.



PERSONALLY, I believe that if they had been so ordered the chutists would have got

through to the coast and would have kept going as long as one man could stand. One

company leading a convoy out of Inje heading north (still seeking the sea) made 4 miles.

Then it ran into thousands of Chinese dug in around and over the road. They gave not

one inch of this drenched Korean soil. They stood patiantly until relief columns with tanks

walked up on both sides of the road just before dark. SEVERAL fellows wounded in

one hand kept firing with the other. An artillery liaison officer radio-directed the cannon

(inside Inje) while lying on his stomach under a tank with 10 shrapnel chunks in his body.

The paratroopers physical stamina kept them going with hardly a wink for five days--

another testimonial to brass-knuckled training. Even after the drive to sea was canceled

(Kansong later fell to another UN force which advanced up the coast with naval protection) morale remained as high as a Hollywood starlet with a freshly inked five-year cotract.

They sought no chair-borne jobs when the asked for airborne a shooting war is their

career. When the Chinese fanatics attacked, one group screeching "Shanee" (Chinese

for Banzai) the paratroopers screeched back "KILL".

PERSONALLY my pigeon chest is stuck out as far as it will go. I am proud to have been

with the paratroopers in this end run operating and see them pen yet another classic

chapter in their adventurous archives. And I sniffle a bit when I think of those boys who

died around bloody Inje fulfilling their assigned mission.