The Outpost War — Korea, 1953

Background

In March 1952, U.S. Marines of the 1st Marine Division redeployed from east-central to western Korea, joining the United States First Corps (I Corps) in defense of the Main Line of Resistance (M.L.R.) — a section of which was code-named the Jamestown Line extending 35 miles east-to-west.  The Jamestown sector was located between People’s Volunteer Army (P.V.A.) line units to the north of the South Korean capital of Seoul.  Marine Corps aviation units assigned to the 1^st Marine Aircraft Wing (1^st M.A.W.) provided air support to their ground-combat brothers.

Marine battalions defending the so-called Nevada Cities Outposts included First Battalion, Fifth Marines (1/5), 2^nd Battalion, 1^st Marines (2/1), and 3^rd Battalion, 1^st Marines (3/1).  The Nevada Cities were a series of outposts code-named Vegas, Reno, and Carson.  According to Colonel Tony Caputa, the outposts were called Nevada Cities because it was a gamble that the Marines could them.  Joining the Marines on the Jamestown Line as part of the 1^st Marine Division was the Provisional Regiment of the Republic of Korea Army (including a detachment of Korean Marines) and the 1^st Amphibian Tractor Battalion.  The 1^st Marine Division’s supporting units included artillery, tanks, and elements of the 1^st M.A.W.

The Chinese were active and aggressive in patrolling, reconnaissance, and ambuscades throughout March.  Enemy forces included the 19^th P.V.A. Division 65^th Chinese People’s Army.  The 19^th Division had three infantry regiments placed in forward positions.  The 120^th Division of the 40^th Army (under temporary control of the 46^th Army) also had three forward regiments.

An overview

In mid-March, the P.V.A. began a series of limited objective assaults against U.S. outposts.  The missions varied from squad to regimental-sized attacks against Outpost Reno and Vegas.  They were designed to deny the American’s observation into the P.V.A.’s rear areas.  A significant battle erupted on 26 March, lasting five days — referred to in history as the Battle of the Outposts.

The U.S. Army’s First Corps assigned the mission of denying a tactical advantage to Chinese Communist Forces (C.C.F.) to the 1^st Marine Division.  The Tactical Area of Responsibility (T.A.O.R.) included defending a series of hills north of the Allied main line of resistance (M.L.R.).  Outpost Vegas was the highest in elevation of the so-called Nevada Cities Outposts, located some 1,300 yards north of the M.L.R.  Ranging north to south, Outpost Vegas included a 180-degree sweep toward the enemy held Hill 57 (to the right), U.S. Outpost Berlin, the M.L.R., and key Marine defensive highpoints on Hills 229 and 191 in the Marine sector, and the intervening terrain.

However, what the Marines could not see from Outpost Vegas, was Outpost Reno.  A rifle platoon (forty Marines and two Navy Corpsmen) manned each outpost.  A trench line surrounded the outpost.  The trench measured from 4 to 8 feet deep.  Beyond the trenches, two parallel lines of barbed wire lay linked with more parallel aprons of wire connecting the two.  Marines referred to this configuration as the Canadian System.

Outpost Reno (previously named Outpost Bruce) was the location of intense fighting on 5-6 September 1952 during the Battle of Bunker Hill.  During that fight, three Marines earned the Medal of Honor — two posthumously.

The Nevada outposts differed according to location, terrain, and enemy threat.  On the left, Carson guarded a barren hilltop where a cave provided living quarters for the Marines manning an oval perimeter protected by barbed wire, bunkers, and tunnel trenches with fighting holes.  Except for the slopes nearest the Jamestown Line (where a deeper entrenchment was dug), the main trench on Carson averaged 5 feet deep by 2 feet wide.  Most of the 28 fighting holes had excellent fields of fire, though overhead cover on some of them restricted observation and firing position.  During darkness, Marines manned two listening posts covering the likeliest avenues of a Chinese attack (from the Ungok hills to the west and Hill 67 to the north). 

The most vulnerable of the three outposts was Reno, in the center.  It was closest to enemy lines and occupied terrain that forced Marines into a perimeter vaguely resembling a wishbone — the open end facing north.  As at Carson, a cave served as living quarters for the Marines and might also serve as a final redoubt.  A tunnel provided access to the cave from the main trench, ranging from 5–7 feet deep.

Relying exclusively on fighting holes in the trenches, the Marines at Reno built no bunkers.  Their cave would be their last resort.  Reno has limited fields of fire in the direction of Chinese forces (Hill 67), which the Marines called Arrowhead Hill, but Carson (on the left) provided fire support in the battle area.  The approach that seemed to pose the greatest danger to Reno’s defenders followed a ridge extending southward from Hill 150.

As with the Marines defending the other two outposts, those at Reno were sustained by C-rations.  When the Marines finished their meals, they threw empty tin cans into the nearby gullies.  At night, clattering tin cans signaled the possibility of enemy activity at the base of the hill.[1]

To the south of Outpost Reno lay the Reno Block — an L-shaped trench with a small bunker at the end of the shorter leg and a machine gun position where the legs joined.  At night a reinforced squad was sent to man the blocking position, which also served as a listening post.  Reno Block, sited at the top of a hill, afforded excellent visibility for the Marines — which was also easily observed by the Chinese.  Marines manning Reno’s east–west trench could fire to support the blocking position, as could the garrison at Carson.

This brings us back to Outpost Vegas, the highest elevation of the three, which was located to the right of Reno and afforded the best view of the entire region.  Barbed wire and a well-constructed trench encircled the egg-shaped perimeter of Vegas.  There were three bunkers (two living cubicles and one warming bunker).  Despite its elevation, the fields of fire on Vegas were handicapped by irregularly sloped hills, which gave the enemy concealed firing positions.  The Marines at Outpost Vegas could not see Reno but had pre-registered their long-range weapons to support Reno Marines.

In the daylight, Marines on Outpost Vegas were targeted by Chinese snipers and harassing mortar and artillery fire, which forced the Marines to remain undercover for extended periods.  In late March, Allied intelligence anticipated no major enemy offensives.  The frigid winter turned into spring, and the melting snow turned the roads and pathways into muddy ruts, making resupply nearly impossible.  The newly deployed 1st Marine Regiment expected a comparatively quiet front in western Korea — it would be a welcome change to the fighting they experienced elsewhere.  In any case, the battle lines had remained (more or less) static for most of the war.

The P.V.A. had several reasons for their assault on 26 March.  One prevailing argument is that the Chinese and North Korean negotiators wanted to capture the Nevada outposts before the end of the war to gain leverage at the Panmunjom peace talks.  If the P.V.A. gained a victory at the Jamestown Line, they could threaten Seoul, embarrass, and pressure United Nations negotiators at the peace talks.  Marine Corps historical analysts agree.

Battle

The P.V.A. launched their assault on 26 March, hitting all Nevada outposts along with Dagmar, Esther, Bunker, and Hedy.  The assault came as a complete surprise to the United Nations forces.  When Marine headquarters issued its orders, they were simple and to the point: contact the enemy, take prisoners, and deny the ground to the enemy.

The attack began at 1900 with small arms and machine gun fire focused against 1/5.  This was followed by fifteen minutes of mortar and artillery fire on the regiment’s rear areas and supply routes.  Ten minutes later, thirty-five hundred Chinese troops from the 358^th Regiment assaulted Carson, Reno, and Vegas.  One enemy infantry company attacked the Marine platoon atop Vegas.  Marine artillery responded with Variable Time (V.T.) proximity fuses targeting areas around the outposts and the enemy’s avenues of approach.[2]

When VT was fired at P.V.A. soldiers close to the Marine positions — as was often the case — the Marines would withdraw into previously dug caves on the opposite slope of the hills.  With that protection, the Marines waited until the overwhelming numbers of P.V.A. soldiers were pushed off the hill by the V.T. shells, and then the Marines would reemerge from the caves to man their prepared defensive positions. 

Overwhelming numbers of Chinese troops and enemy artillery fire forced the Marines on Vegas to abandon the outer ring of less easily defended trenches.  During the Chinese assault, Marine tanks and artillery began supporting an infantry raid intending to destroy the P.V.A. bunkers.  It was called Operation Clambake.  It was pure chance that the Marines started their raid just as the Chinese attacked along the same front.

Forty minutes into the attack, enemy artillery and mortar fire disrupted communications between Vegas and the 1/5 command post (C.P.).  Marine communicators and engineers repaired the landlines (telephone wire), which would only last until the next enemy barrage.  In another ten minutes, a hundred or so Chinese communist forces occupied the lower trenches of outpost Vegas taking cover from Marine Corps artillery — but the number of enemies overwhelmed the Marine platoon, causing them to withdraw from Vegas.

An hour later, the 1/5 commander directed that a rifle platoon be sent to reinforce the Vegas Marines, but before the backup could tie in with the withdrawing Marines, the enemy pinned them down with intense fire.  Three minutes before midnight, the battalion C.P. lost communications with the Marines at Outpost Vegas.  All of those Marines were either killed or captured.

After five hours of ferocious combat, the P.V.A. assault had been partially successful.  The enemy captured two outposts (Vegas and Reno), thwarting Marine efforts to reinforce the outposts.  The Marines still had possession of Carson.  Shortly after midnight, “FRED” Company 2/1 tried to recapture Vegas, but the lead platoon could only close with the enemy sufficiently to know that the P.V.A. controlled Outpost Vegas.  By 0300 on 27 March, reinforcing Marines retreated to the M.L.R.  Wounded Marines were either carried to the aid stations or, in extreme instances, evacuated by helicopter to hospital ships in Inchon Harbor.  On the other side, in the first eight hours of fighting, C.C.F. lost an estimated six-hundred men, four times the number of U.S. Marines.

Counterattack

The general commanding the 1^st Marine Division was Major General Edwin A. Pollock.  Early on 27 March, he ordered observation planes to direct ground artillery fire at detectable P.V.A. artillery positions and enemy fortifications atop outposts Reno and Vegas.  Marines delivered more than sixty fire missions on the Chinese communists.  Additionally, two dozen Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft delivered ordnance on the enemy-held outposts.

Instead of attacking both Reno and Vegas outposts, General Pollock ordered concentrated air attacks on outpost Vegas.  “DAVID” Company, 2/1, was the first to assault Vegas, but those Marines never reached their objective.  When the company finally withdrew, only nine able-bodied men remained.  After ten hours of intense combat, “FRED” Company was still four hundred yards behind the advanced units approaching Outpost Vegas.  At the end of daylight, Marines held the lower slope of the hill, and the P.V.A. maintained the opposite lower slope.  There was no one left alive on the summit, inside the outpost.

The Third Day

On the morning of 28 March, General Pollock directed an aerial attack against Outpost Vegas.  1stMAW dumped an estimated 28 tons of ordnance on Vegas, enough to cause irredeemable harm to most of the enemy holding it.  After heavy fighting, Marines from “EASY” Company 2/1 gained control of outpost Vegas at around 1300 hours.  An hour and a half later, the outpost was back in U.S. hands.  Navy doctors set up a temporary field hospital on the slope of Vegas, where 200 wounded Marines received treatment.  Just after 2300 hours, the medical staff learned that a battalion-sized unit of P.V.A. was moving toward the hospital.  Armed with as many grenades as they could carry, wounded Marines threw the grenades down the slope to blunt the enemy’s maneuver.

The fourth and fifth days

For two days, Chinese communist forces continued to attack the Marines to retake Outpost Vegas.  Historians tell us that in these two days, the Chinese lost 4,000 men, an equivalent of two infantry regiments, killed or wounded in action.  On 30 March, Marine Artillery and air attacks devastated whatever remained of the People’s Volunteer Army, and given such tremendous losses in manpower, the Chinese accepted their defeat and withdrew.  The battle for Outpost Vegas was over.  A Turkish Brigade replaced the 1^st Marine Division in May, which went into reserve after a week of heavy fighting. 

Marine casualties in March were 141 killed in action (K.I.A.), 29 died of wounds, 701 wounded and evacuated, 510 wounded and not evacuated, and 104 missing in action.  P.V.A. forces suffered 1,351 killed in action, 3,631 wounded, and four captured.  The U.S. Marines’ counterparts, the Korean Marines, had a minor presence during the battle for Outpost Vegas, but they suffered 26 killed in action, 97 wounded, and five missing in action.

The Battle for Outpost Vegas (and surrounding outposts) was among the bloodiest fighting in western Korea (1950 – 1953).  It was also unique because of a war horse named Reckless — a war horse.

Staff Sergeant Reckless, U.S.M.C.

Marines assigned to the 5^th Marine regiment purchased the Mongolian horse from a Korean stable boy.  The popular story is that the stable boy needed money to buy an artificial leg for his sister and sold the animal to a Marine for $250.00.  They named the animal Reckless.  The horse was a chestnut-colored animal with a blaze and three white stockings.  Her date of birth and parentage are unconfirmed, but she was estimated to be around three or four years old.

Reckless was assigned to the Recoilless Rifle Platoon, Weapons Company, 5^th Marines.  Note: The weapon used during the Korean War was the M20 75mm Recoilless Rifle.  This crew-served weapon (crew of two) included a gun tube and the M1917A1 tripod.  The weapon’s mass was 103 pounds, and its length was 82 inches (barrel length 65 inches).  Each 75mm round weighed from 20.5 to 22.6 pounds.  The shells were high explosive (HE), high explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and smoke rounds.  There were five guns in the Recoilless Rifle Platoon (two officers and 14 enlisted men).  Reckless meant the Marines would not have to haul these heavy weapons up and down Korea’s mountainous terrain.

Reckless quickly became part of the weapons company and was allowed to roam freely through camp, helping herself to Marine’s tents during cold nights and sharing their chow of green scrambled eggs and warm Black Label beer.

Reckless served in numerous combat actions, carrying supplies and ammunition and helping to evacuate casualties to field medical facilities.  Learning each supply route after only a few trips, Reckless could make the resupply runs on her own without the benefit of a wrangler (even during intense enemy fire). 

Reckless had been moving between the Nevada Cities when the P.V.A. attacked on 26 March 1953.  When artillery began to hit Outposts Vegas and the support network behind it on the M.L.R., the shocked animal ran unassisted to the nearest bunker, remaining until fitted for her next mission.

The next morning, on the 26th, as the 5th Marines recovered from the previous day’s assault, the Marines readied the horse for her duties as an ammunition carrier.  She was fitted with eight recoilless rifle projectiles (192 pounds of weight) and led by her wrangler to firing positions opposite the southern slopes of Outpost Vegas.  Even though she was twice wounded by enemy fire, she remained steadfast and calm while completing her ammunition resupply missions.  Reckless made 52 solo trips to resupply multiple front-line units during the battle. 

Reckless was the first (and only) horse to make an amphibious landing with her Marines. She received a “battlefield promotion” to corporal and sergeant in 1953 and 1954. After the war, the Marine Corps awarded her two Purple Heart Medals, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, and two Presidential Unit Citations.  The Saturday Evening Post and Life Magazine featured the animal’s wartime exploits — where she was recognized as one of America’s 100 all-time animal heroes.

After the war, the Marines transported Reckless to the United States.  While quartered at Camp Pendleton, California, she made several “P.R.” appearances on television and participated in the Marine Corps Birthday Ball celebrations.  In 1959, Reckless was promoted to staff sergeant by the Commandant of the Marine Corps.  In her life, she birthed four foals.  Admirers of Reckless placed a bronze statue of the horse in the Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington.  Staff Sergeant Reckless passed away in May 1968.  She was buried at Camp Pendleton, California.

Notes:

[1] During the Vietnam War, Marines continued using C-Rats cans to alert against possible enemy movement — or rock apes, more than a few of which died from multiple gunshot wounds.

[2] A proximity fuse is an explosive device that detonates automatically when the distance to the target exceeds a predetermined value.  They were designed for such targets as planes, missiles, ships at sea, and animated ground forces.  They are five to ten times more lethal than other fuses. 

---