Korean War Vet Recalls Battle Of Chosin Reservoir
November 11, 2016 at 5:49 p.m.
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“I didn’t want to live at home and let my mom and dad take care of me, so I went into the Army to make a living,” the 86-year-old said Oct. 27 in his Miller’s Merry Manor Assisted Living apartment.
He was born April 10, 1930, in?Oakley, Ky. He went through basic training at Camp Breckinridge, Ky,, with Company H 516th 101st Airborne Infantry, receiving infantry training M1.
“Then I went to Japan. In Japan, I got put into the Army Artillery – 99th Field Artillery, Baker Battery, 1st Cavalry Division. We took artillery training until Korea,”?he said, adding that they went over to Korea on June 6, 1950.
“We went into Korea and we made a beach head landing. They called it amphibious. At P’ohang. And then from there, we went across to the middle of it – Taejon. Then we fought from there, north to the Kanggye Reservoir,” Cochran said.
On Nov. 27, 1950, that’s when he said China hit them.
“That was the beginning of the frozen Chosin Reservoir,” Cochran stated.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir was a decisive moment in the Korean War. On Nov. 27, the Chinese 9th Army surprised the U.S. at the Chosin Reservoir area. A brutal 17-day battle in freezing weather followed.
“We left the capital of North Korea, P’ohang, Nov. 24, going in. We pulled in and we were surrounded for three days and three nights. When the Chinese hit us, they came in in three waves,” he explained.
“Then they would blow whistles and bugles, and they would change directions on us and hit us from the front, the rear and the sides.”
He said he and five other guys from his unit were the only ones who got out. “We were lead battery,” he said.
“We lost Able battery. Charlie battery. Headquarters battery. Service battery. We lost guns. Ammo. And men,”?he said, estimating that around 250 men died.
They got replacements and went back in.
“What they call Wall City, I couldn’t get enough elevation on the Howitzer ... I had to dig a trail down and my hand slipped digging a trail down. I tore the skin off the back of my hand, and I got an infection in my hand,” he recalled.
“I was entitled to a Purple Heart, but I told them no” because there were men who lost limbs and deserved a Purple Heart more.
“I guess I could still get one, I don’t know,” he said.
After an injection of Penicillin, the infection cleared up.
During his tenure in Korea, Cochran said he was a part of a lot of battles.
“We never ran. We never retreated. We just took strategic withdrawal – to the rear for a better position,” he said.
He said the 10 months he was in Korea was the first 10 months of the war. He was there from June 1950 to April 1951.
He returned to the States but got what was called a “Truman year” put on him – they added an extra year to his service. He enlisted for three years but was given four. He got out of the Army on June 10, 1953, as a private first class.
While he was waiting in line for a discharge, he was told to go to the hospital. He went the next morning and spent the day there.
“There was a colonel who was a doctor. He said, ‘Boy, I don’t know whether to let you have a discharge and go home or put you in the hospital,’” Cochran said.
The doctor told Cochran he had the worst case of nerves he ever saw in a human being. The doctor then told him he’d let him go home if he went to the VA, and in June 1953, he went to the VA and “I’ve been (going) to the VA ever since.”
In 1958, Cochran had two-thirds of an ulcer from his upper stomach removed.
Sugar is his worst enemy now. He has a subtotal gastrectomy subject to hypoglycemic attacks.
When he got to Miller’s five years ago, Cochran said he met his buddy George Denney, a Miller’s resident until he died Feb. 24, 2013. Denney also served in the Korean War aboard the USS Leyte.
“The plane from that carrier (USS Leyte) destroyed what we lost. The Chinese and North Koreans didn’t get to use them. They blew up trucks, ammo and howitzers,” Cochran said.
“It’s a small world,” he stated.
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“I didn’t want to live at home and let my mom and dad take care of me, so I went into the Army to make a living,” the 86-year-old said Oct. 27 in his Miller’s Merry Manor Assisted Living apartment.
He was born April 10, 1930, in?Oakley, Ky. He went through basic training at Camp Breckinridge, Ky,, with Company H 516th 101st Airborne Infantry, receiving infantry training M1.
“Then I went to Japan. In Japan, I got put into the Army Artillery – 99th Field Artillery, Baker Battery, 1st Cavalry Division. We took artillery training until Korea,”?he said, adding that they went over to Korea on June 6, 1950.
“We went into Korea and we made a beach head landing. They called it amphibious. At P’ohang. And then from there, we went across to the middle of it – Taejon. Then we fought from there, north to the Kanggye Reservoir,” Cochran said.
On Nov. 27, 1950, that’s when he said China hit them.
“That was the beginning of the frozen Chosin Reservoir,” Cochran stated.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir was a decisive moment in the Korean War. On Nov. 27, the Chinese 9th Army surprised the U.S. at the Chosin Reservoir area. A brutal 17-day battle in freezing weather followed.
“We left the capital of North Korea, P’ohang, Nov. 24, going in. We pulled in and we were surrounded for three days and three nights. When the Chinese hit us, they came in in three waves,” he explained.
“Then they would blow whistles and bugles, and they would change directions on us and hit us from the front, the rear and the sides.”
He said he and five other guys from his unit were the only ones who got out. “We were lead battery,” he said.
“We lost Able battery. Charlie battery. Headquarters battery. Service battery. We lost guns. Ammo. And men,”?he said, estimating that around 250 men died.
They got replacements and went back in.
“What they call Wall City, I couldn’t get enough elevation on the Howitzer ... I had to dig a trail down and my hand slipped digging a trail down. I tore the skin off the back of my hand, and I got an infection in my hand,” he recalled.
“I was entitled to a Purple Heart, but I told them no” because there were men who lost limbs and deserved a Purple Heart more.
“I guess I could still get one, I don’t know,” he said.
After an injection of Penicillin, the infection cleared up.
During his tenure in Korea, Cochran said he was a part of a lot of battles.
“We never ran. We never retreated. We just took strategic withdrawal – to the rear for a better position,” he said.
He said the 10 months he was in Korea was the first 10 months of the war. He was there from June 1950 to April 1951.
He returned to the States but got what was called a “Truman year” put on him – they added an extra year to his service. He enlisted for three years but was given four. He got out of the Army on June 10, 1953, as a private first class.
While he was waiting in line for a discharge, he was told to go to the hospital. He went the next morning and spent the day there.
“There was a colonel who was a doctor. He said, ‘Boy, I don’t know whether to let you have a discharge and go home or put you in the hospital,’” Cochran said.
The doctor told Cochran he had the worst case of nerves he ever saw in a human being. The doctor then told him he’d let him go home if he went to the VA, and in June 1953, he went to the VA and “I’ve been (going) to the VA ever since.”
In 1958, Cochran had two-thirds of an ulcer from his upper stomach removed.
Sugar is his worst enemy now. He has a subtotal gastrectomy subject to hypoglycemic attacks.
When he got to Miller’s five years ago, Cochran said he met his buddy George Denney, a Miller’s resident until he died Feb. 24, 2013. Denney also served in the Korean War aboard the USS Leyte.
“The plane from that carrier (USS Leyte) destroyed what we lost. The Chinese and North Koreans didn’t get to use them. They blew up trucks, ammo and howitzers,” Cochran said.
“It’s a small world,” he stated.
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