| There was plenty of enemy, hard work, and combat action up ahead for the Marine tankers. In June, they started
to travel about two miles to the east on the MLR to a hill top called Red Hill. "It was a little gumdrop of
terrain sticking up in the rice paddies," Sarno recalled. "The whole topography east of Panmunjom corridor was
laden with low hilltops. They were just little pieces of shit that Marines were dying for every day and night. At
the time, I didn’t know that it was called Bunker Hill. I just knew it as Red Hill, Number 122-124—two gumdrops
connected with a little saddle between." Sarno said that the two gumdrops were the scene of intensive combat
during the month of June 1952. "In the daylight," he said, "we would clobber this little hill after the gooks beat
off small Marine defensive forces. We would just empty our whole load into it. Through our telescopes we could see
that the sand was like powdered silt from the impact of our rounds and the horrific counter battery firings by
both sides. This hill was the first of the new phase of warfare—the fight for these combat outposts. We won Red
one night, then the gooks kicked us off. The next day we kicked the gooks off." Bunker Hill was a treasured piece
of ground for both sides because whoever controlled that hill also controlled the highest observation point in
that sector. "It was a meat grinder with no winners," Sarno said. "We obeyed and shot the hell out of it. War by
committee is immoral," he said. "All the combat in Korea from 1951 until the end of the war in 1953 was to fight
and die, but not to win. MacArthur was one hundred percent correct in taking issue with Truman for forsaking an
all-out military victory in Korea. Harry-Ass-Truman was one hundred percent incorrect." Sarno said that Bunker
Hill was a great arena to "train" new career officers in daily tactics. "The king-of-the-mountain daily battles
that took place on Bunker Hill were sheer madness," he said. "Marines died and were wounded unnecessarily so that
generals could play war. Few colonels, generals, or majors died at Bunker Hill. Heroic grunts were the casualties
as Truman parlayed the war. He should have won first—parlayed later." Harry-Ass-Truman was never a friend to the
United States Marine Corps. |
