This year we have Mother Nature to thank for a Thanksgiving weekend windier and chillier than usual.
Yet as cold as it may be, the weather also reminds us that what we have seen in New York this year is nothing compared to what Americans endured at Thanksgiving time during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. That was back in 1950, when Chinese forces attacked the day after Thanksgiving in what became one of the most decisive battles of the Korean war.
This was the “Frozen Chosin.” At the time, the American and UN forces in Korea near the Chosin Reservoir were thinking the war might be over by Christmas. Then the Chinese intervened by sending in eight divisions of soldiers. In so doing, Beijing overnight changed the entire war.
Suddenly our badly outnumbered forces found themselves surrounded. They decided to fight their way 78 miles through enemy lines.
By breaking out of the trap and inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, the First Marine Division denied the Communists their victory and transformed a tactical retreat into an offensive. Five of the seven Chinese divisions the Marines engaged were destroyed completely, never again to appear in the Korean war.
In those terrible days, the weather and terrain were as hostile as the Communist troops. Much of the fighting took place in temperatures 20 degrees below zero. Food rations froze; truck batteries conked out; weapons wouldn’t fire, men were lost to frostbite. And yet they prevailed.
Brian Iglesias and Anton Sattler are two combat decorated Marine officers who fought in Iraq. But when they came together to make a documentary, they made it about this battle in Korea.
And while “Chosin” is a tribute to their brother Marines, it is also a public service: Not only does it document first-person accounts of the fighting, it reminds us what our men achieved.
It’s a good message for a time when America gives thanks. Because we owe special gratitude to the soldiers and Marines who spent their Thanksgiving “holidays” 63 years ago fighting in perhaps the most brutal conditions any American fighting man has ever faced. And at a time when Americans sometimes wonder if the sacrifices of our troops around the world make any difference, it’s worth posing that question to the 50 million citizens who live in a free and prosperous South Korea — which would not have been possible without the war we fought there.
In their film, Iglesias and Sattler feature one Marine veteran of the Frozen Chosin who puts the battle and war in exactly the right perspective: “It’s not the forgotten war,” he says, “it’s the forgotten victory.”