Long paused for a second. The young lieutenants weren’t even drinking at this point; they were simply hanging on to his every word. “The CO and the XO were both killed, and two of the other platoon leaders had been injured. At this point, Lieutenant Culley was the last officer alive in the company, so they promoted him up. I suppose that’s why I push you guys so hard to know each other’s jobs and be ready to step into new and unfamiliar roles. You never know when you may suddenly find yourself in charge. It was at that point that I was promoted from E-5 to E-7 and given command of the entire platoon until a new officer showed up. There just wasn’t anyone else to lead the platoon, so I had to step up.”
“Wow,” said one of the young men. The mood was now very somber.
After a long pause, another lieutenant asked, “What happened next, Captain?”
“Well, we kept fighting the People’s Liberation Army, and let me tell you, they were fierce. They fought significantly better than I’d thought they would’ve, or anyone else had led me to believe they would. That’s why I yell at anyone who says the Chinese don’t know how to fight — they do, and they’re good at it. They fight like men possessed, and they won’t surrender. They fight to the death. Anyway, we were attacking a heavily fortified ridgeline, and as I was charging an enemy machine-gun position, my rifle ran out of ammo. I had no time to reload it. I charged forward and jumped right on top of the men, tackling them to the ground. It was hand-to-hand combat at that point. One of the guys shot me three times in the chest, but fortunately, I was wearing body armor.”
Captain Long rubbed his chest as if talking about the memory had sparked some phantom pain there.
“At first, I thought I was fine,” he explained, “but then I vomited up blood. My CO told me I had to be medevacked out. Apparently, the trauma of the gunshots from such close range had broken several of my ribs and punctured my right lung. I spent the next six weeks recovering at a hospital in Japan before I was sent back to my unit, which was now down in Busan, getting ready for our next assault in the Russian Far East.”
“Is that where you were awarded the Navy Cross?” asked one of the lieutenants as he looked on with a new sense of awe.
“Sadly, no. I was given a Silver Star and Purple Heart for that action. It was during the Chinese counterattack that I was awarded the Navy Cross and my second Purple Heart. That story, however, is for another day, because I think I’m in love with that beauty over there,” said Captain Long. He nodded toward a gorgeous woman in shorts and a bikini top who had long flowing brown hair and big beautiful brown eyes. Long got up to approach the young lady and her friends; she spotted him staggering a bit as he walked toward her but smiled warmly at him nonetheless.
Forty-eight hours later, Long’s company boarded a 737 that would ferry them to Saipan International Airport, where the rest of the 6th Marine Division was forming up for the next operation.
Coming Storm
General Yang Yin sat in his office sipping on a cup of tea as he reviewed the latest casualty report from the Philippines. Following his success in the Vietnam campaign, General Yang had been given command of all PLA forces responsible for capturing the Philippines and Formosa. It was a daunting challenge, but one he thrived on.
Still, things hadn’t exactly been going his way lately. What Yang hadn’t predicted was the level of casualties the northern army group was taking. The “trap” they had laid for the American and ROK forces by allowing them to cross the Yalu River had been nothing short of disastrous. While the counteroffensive appeared to have worked when they’d lured the Americans across the border, the Americans’ ability to make use of their heavy bombers and the quick reassignment of the US Marine Force from Busan had ultimately doomed the offensive. The northern army group had sustained nearly 112,000 casualties over four weeks and at the end of the day, had been pushed out of Korea for the second time in four months.
As he read the papers in front of him, General Yang was happy to see that the 43rd Airborne had done a superb job in capturing key targets within the Philippines. However, the rest of Lieutenant General Sheng’s Army Group B, which consisted of the 20th Army and the 27th Army, hadn’t secured all their objectives yet. It was frustrating for Yang having to use General Sheng’s army group rather than his own. Yang’s Army Group A had been given the tasks of reuniting the renegade province of Formosa, which frankly had been consuming most of his time.
Looking up from his papers, Yang eyed General Sheng’s deputy, a brigadier general. “Why hasn’t General Sheng captured the remaining objectives yet? We’re under a strict timeline to secure the Philippines and begin fortifying them against the Americans. They’re going to invade soon, and your boss is failing to get the country secured,” Yang grilled.
Squirming in his seat a bit, the general did his best to respond. “As you can see, General, our forces are sustaining heavy casualties. The Filipinos are fighting more fiercely than we had anticipated. I know that the objectives we haven’t secured will be captured in the next couple of weeks. We ask for more time and reinforcements.”
Yang took a deep breath to stop himself from having a loud outburst over Sheng’s inability to complete his objectives. If he had his way, he would have replaced him. Unfortunately, General Sheng was politically well-connected, so removing him without sufficient cause would be difficult. “General, do you know how many casualties we sustained unifying Formosa?” Yang asked through gritted teeth.
The deputy’s face remained stoic and emotionless as he shook his head.
“During the first day of the invasion, we suffered 31,000 casualties. On the second day, we sustained another 18,000 casualties. To date, a total of 72,000 soldiers have been taken out of commission during this effort. During that same time, General Sheng has also lost nine thousand.”
General Sheng’s deputy now looked nervous as he realized their request for more reinforcements in light of the number of casualties being sustained on Formosa seemed trivial. Even during the Vietnam campaign, they hadn’t sustained that level of casualties.
Knowing he needed to try and save face for his commander, the deputy inquired, “Sir, is it possible for us to get some added ground-attack planes and additional landing crafts? Part of the problem we’re having is getting our various units to the many islands. Presently, we’re bypassing the smaller islands until we’ve secured the larger, more populated ones. We’ve prioritized the capture of the islands where the engineers have said they need the anti-ship missile batteries to be placed.”
General Yang grunted. “Tell General Sheng that I’ll order an additional squadron of ground-attack aircraft and additional troop landing ships to your command. I won’t give you more troops. The reinforcements we have available are being sent to reinforce Formosa and our forces in the north battling the Americans. I’m also giving you a hard deadline to complete your objectives. You have four weeks to finish securing the Philippines. No more delays, or there will be problems,” Yang said with a bit of heat in his voice. He didn’t have time to deal with incompetence, and his reputation was also on the line. The Americans were coming, and he was still not ready for them.
After dismissing Sheng’s deputy, he returned to the task at hand, getting Formosa ready to repel an American invasion. While his forces now controlled the eastern beachheads that would most likely be used, the challenge was building them up sufficiently to withstand the brutal assault the Americans would launch.