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•-■IR ... .4,..- N . By Bill Youngkin I was carrying secret orders telling the commanding general to
Special to The Eagle attack.
PART ONE "When we landed in Seoul, I called a number they gave me
and told them who I was and where I was located. They sent a
On June 25, 1950, the North Korean Army invaded South
Korea with the intention of destroying the South Korean forces
jeep and took me to an office. Upon arrival one of the sergeants
and removing the American Forces from the Asian mainland. said "We've been waiting for you Lt. Middleton" He found a key to
At first, it would be called a police action by the United Nation; unlock the cylinder from my wrist, tossed it onto a chair and said
let's go geta coffee. That was when I got the feeling that the secret
but as anyone who has ever served in combat will tell you, when
someone is shooting at you in an attempt to kill you, it is war. It is papers in that cylinder that I delivered were not as important as
now listed as the Korean War and what has often been referred to having a new infantry officer to send to the front lines.
as "America's Forgotten War" "I got a cot to sleep on that night and I was delivered the next
One veteran of that war — one that will never forget Korea day by plane to Division headquarters where I was processed in. I
— is Robert L. "Bob" Middleton of College Station. As stated by was then taken by helicopter to Regiment headquarters and then
Middleton: "The guys who fought in WWII were welcomed back as by jeep to Battalion headquarters. That was as far as we could
heroes. The Vietnam guys were spit on. We, the Korean veterans, go in the daylight. 1 had to walk to my company area at night. I
were just ignored" was now a part of Company K, 160 Infantry Regiment, the 40th
Life for Middleton began June 18, 1930 on his grandfather's Infantry Division.
farm just south of what is the present day location of Iola High "They held us behind a hill at an MP checkpoint until night.
School. His father worked as a pipeliner so they moved with Located at the checkpoint was a large sign that said 'From this
the jobs. He attended the first grade in Navasota, the second in point forward, Joe Chink directs the traffic: After dark we swung
Houston and the third in Hearne. By 1941 they had settled in around that hill and that was where I got my first sight of combat.
Tomball, where he remained until he graduated in 1947. From You could see our tracers going out and exploding and theirs
there it was off to college where he became a member of the Class coming in. It was my second day in country.
of 1951 at Texas A &M.
"I reported to company K where I was assigned as the
Middleton graduated in August 1951 and received his third platoon leader. We were located on a ridge that had
I commission in the U.S. Army. Korea was in full bloom, at that time. become famous and would have a movie named after it named
He was sent to Ft. Benning, Ga. to attend infantry officer basic. Heartbreak Ridge. My platoon was located on the right flank of
From there it was on to Ft. Ord in California where he helped train this ridge and across the valley floor. The company had trenches
troops headed to Korea. It was at Ft. Ord that Middleton would be that zig zagged down the ridge but my platoon command post
reunited with one of his Aggie classmates, Ken Schaake, who had was twenty yards behind the trench. When you left the CP you
graduated that May and already was in the army. left running and when you came back, you came back running but
As recalled by Middleton: "Soon after we re- connected at Ft. from a different direction, because we were shot at constantly by
Ord, Ken received his orders for FECOM which meant Far Eastern the Chinese army on the opposing ridge.
Command. If you were a reserve officer you were sent to FECOM.
If you were a regular army officer, you were sent to EUCOM or °The CO wanted me to meet the other officers and took me
Europe. If you were Regular Army you had to volunteer to go to around to meet them. We had one tank unit consisting of five tanks,
FECOM. That was just the way it was back then. and crews with their officers. When the CO was taking me to meet
the tank commander he said, 'I have a hard time remembering
"Shortly after Ken left I received my orders but before 1 how to pronounce his name.' It was my Aggie classmate Ken
shipped out, I returned home to Texas and married Bobbie. I Schaake. We were glad to see each other but I would be so much
returned to San Francisco where I was placed on a four engine more thankful for his being there several weeks later"
DC4 with about 20 other officers. We flew at 6,000 feet to Hawaii,
then to Wake Island and then to Japan. It was a long, choppy, The next part of Bob Middleton's story will invole both
miserable flight with me being the only one not to get sick. classmates in an action that led to Middleton and another
All the other officers on board the plane were artillery so I member of his patrol being awarded the Silver Star Medal.
was the first to be hustled through processing. It looked to me Robert L. "Bob" Middleton's name can be found on the
like infantry officers were in greater demand than artillery guys. Brazos Valley Veteran's Memorial. For more information, to
During processing, they told me I would be a courier and they make a contribution, or if you know a WWII or Korea War
strapped a .45 pistol on my side, and chained a cylinder to my Veteran whose story needs to fie told, contact the BWM at
wrist and took me to a waiting airplane under guard. I thought www. veteransmemorial .orgor Bill Youngkin at (979)776.1325.
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By Bill Youngkin we could move back, they saw us and the battle was on. The
Special to The Eagle Chinese would send one guy down the hill in a suicide attack
and then another and another until they had us all located.
PART TWO Very soon they had us surrounded and we were trapped.
Bob Middleton, on his second day in Korea in 1952, found The man next to me was PFC David Reynolds and he had
himself in the front line and in combat as a platoon leader of
the third platoon company, K. 160th Infantry Regiment, 40th been hit in the chest, and it had penetrated his flank jacket.
Infantry Division. It knocked him down and he was bleeding, but he got up
As related by Middleton, We were located on a ridge and kept returning fire. As we withdrew another man was
called Heartbreak Ridge. My platoon was assigned the right hit and went down. We were not going to leave him behind,
flank and the valley floor. The Chinese army was on the ridge so I crawled to him with fire support from Reynolds and then
opposite and they shot at anything that moved during the crawled and dragged him back. He was dead but he was going
day. The only time you could move without being shot at was back with us, if we could make it back.
at night. "I called in artillery and I called for it to come in right
"At night we moved out in ambush patrols out in front of on top of us but they either couldn't or wouldn't do it. That
our lines. It really was a forward position about 200 to 300 was when I called my A &M classmate Ken Schaake, who
yards in front of our lines. The ambush patrols would monitor commanded the tanks in our company, asking him for fire
enemy activity and would be the first ones hit if the enemy support. I told him that was the only way we were going to
launched an attack at night. be able to get out of our trap. He and his tanks were what
"We would also send out a combat patrol one to two saved us that night.
times a week. The sole purpose of a combat patrol was to "We were finally relieved in the line by the 45th Infantry
make contact with the enemy. Every third patrol was mine Division that spring. It was the coldest winter I ever spent,
and my platoon's turn. You also need to understand that before or since. In the rear we finally could get clean clothes,
the enemy was doing exactly the same thing with the same bathe, shave and become human beings again. At one of the
purpose, that was to kill or capture each other. formations PFC Reynolds and I were called out before the
"One night we had an ambush patrol out and it was troops and were awarded the Silver Star for what happened
really cold. If it was real cold we would relieve the men on the on that patrol that night.
ambush patrol at least twice a night. One night we sent eight "While in the rear, we were given an assignment to
out but only seven returned. We couldn't figure out when he help gain control over a POW camp that had rioted and the
was captured. It was my job to get a patrol together to try and POWs had taken over the POW Camp. We were under Colonel
find him. We had no shortage of volunteers. My only problem
was picking the ones to go and having to tell others they had Hayden Boatner, who had been my commandant at A &M. I
to stay. We went up and down the valley, finally finding his don't know if this is true, but it was reported that when he was
helmet and his rifle but no body. About daylight we returned asked if he could handle this riot he responded, "I had to deal
to our lines. Two days later our CO called and said to look at with Texas A &M Mothers Clubs for five years. If I could handle
a certain ridge. There was our guy, staked out on the ridge, them, I certainly can handle this riot." He did quell the riot
obviously dead. That was the worst I've ever seen a human and very quickly by surrounding the camp with our artillery
being treated by another human being. pointed in the air. He fired the artillery pieces together and
"We knew we needed to go and retrieve his body then leveled the tubes at the center of the camp. They gave
and again, we had no lack of volunteers. We spent all day up quickly"
planning our trip but before we could carry out our plan, After his year was up, Middleton returned home,
Battalion sent word to cancel the mission because it would was discharged from the army and went to work in the oil
have been a suicide mission. They were right but everyone business with Magnolia Petroleum, which became Mobile
was mad we couldn't go. Thankfully, the next day his body and now Exxon Mobil. He lived all over the world constructing
had been removed.
pipelines, retiring in 1989. A few years ago while several of
"We went on so many patrols, and it wasn't hard to make his grandkids were attending A &M, he and Bobbie moved to
contact. We were looking for them and they were looking for - College Station. As stated by Middleton, "It has been a happy
us with most contact happening in 'no man's land' between place for us. When asked about his service, Middleton's
the lines. On one of my patrols, I fell through a small river that response was "I didn't volunteer to go, but it was my duty and
had frozen over. The river wasn't deep and after we waded that is what I did. And, I would do it again"
out, our pants legs froze. It is hard to walk around quietly with
ice cracking and breaking on your pants with each step. Robert L. "Bob" Middleton's name can be found on the
"On one of my last patrols, we had been out for awhile Brazos Valley Veteran's Memorial. For more information, to
and not made contact. When we finally located the enemy, make a contribution, or if you know a World War II or Korea
there were seven or eight of them above us on a hill. I then War Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the
noticed more to our left. We had to move back as quietly as BVVM at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at .
we could because our patrol had penetrated too far. Before (979) 776.1325.