Korean War Marines

“If I were God, what would you want for Christmas?” With a thousand-yard stare, a haggard and bloodied marine looked incredulously at the war correspondent who asked him this question. In an answer that took “almost forever,” the marine responded, “Give me tomorrow." After nearly four months of continuous and bloody combat in Korea, such a wish seemed impossible.

Bloomsbury presents The Frozen Chosen: The 1st Marine Division and the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir by Thomas Mckelvey Cleaver, read by Matthew Hendrickson. Based on unpublished first-hand accounts of the battle, this is a dramatic retelling of the desperate Battle of the Chosin Reservoir...

Bloomsbury presents Holding the Line: The Naval Air Campaign In Korea by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, read by Robert G Slade. Naval and air power were crucial to the United Nations’ success in the Korean War, as it sought to negate the overwhelming Chinese advantage in manpower. In what became...

Bloomsbury presents The Farthest Valley: Escaping the Chinese Trap at the Chosin Reservoir by Joseph Wheelan, read by Jeff Harding. A history of the legendary extraction of the Fifth and Seventh Marines from a Chinese trap, told for the first time using Chinese sources. Knee-deep in snow, and...

Joe Owen tells it like it was in this evocative story of a marine rifle company in the uncertain, early days of the Korean War. His powerful description of close combat in the snow-covered mountains of the Chosin Reservoir and of the survival spirit of his Marines provide a gritty real-life view of frontline warfare.As a lieutenant who was with them from first muster in California, Owen was in a unique position to see the hastily assembled mix of some 200 regulars and raw reservists harden into a superb Marine rifle company. The action and narrative move fast as the company learns to fight under enemy fire, eat frozen rations, and keep pushing forward when its wounded and dead go down.

Richard Edward Carey came from a broken home. Enlisting in the Corps in 1946 he later earned a commission, fighting at Inchon and Chosin in Korea before becoming a pilot. During his thirty-eight-year military career he witnessed and participated in major historical events, though a high school wrestling injury would eliminate him from the Mercury-7 space program. As a second lieutenant, he tackled General Douglas MacArthur on the way to Seoul in 1950. Carey would provide critical intelligence decisions enabling the successful defense of the Chinese attack on Hagaru-ri at the Chosin Reservoir.