Thread by @danielmkim

1/21. I covered the Lee brothers in a previous #AAPIHM thread, but considering the significance of this weekend, they deserve a closer look. The Lee brothers, Chew-Een (Kurt) & Chew-Mon (Buck) were born in Sacramento to Chinese immigrant parents.

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2/21. Kurt joined the US Marine Corps in 1944 when he turned 18, eager to join the war effort, but the Marines specifically, to counter white people's misconception of the "meek, obsequious, bland Asian," as he called that stereotype. Due to his ethnicity,

3/21. he was redirected to Japanese language school after boot camp. Undeterred, Sgt Lee applied for Officer Candidate School, & was commissioned in 1945. This gave Kurt the distinction of being not just the first non-white Marine officer, but its first Asian American as well.

4/21. When the Korean War began, Kurt was an infantry platoon commander in the 7th Marines, commanded by the legendary then-Colonel Homer Litzenberg. The 7th, comprised mostly of new Marines but sprinkled with WW2 veterans, left California in August 1950.

5/21. During the transit, Kurt, unlike many of his peers, had his platoon repeat infantry drills aboard ship until they became second nature. the 7th Marines landed at Inchon on 21 Sept 50. In November, Kurt received the Navy Cross for essentially offering himself as

6/21. a target in the open, in order to draw enemy fire & suss out their positions. He was shot in the leg & arm, but his Marines took the hidden North Korean positions. He was shot in the leg & arm, & was evacuated for treatment. While recuperating from his wounds, he ran across

7/21. his younger brother Chew-Mon (Buck), who had graduated from Army OCS & was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division as a platoon leader. Buck had also previously been wounded, & had wanted to visit Kurt before Buck returned to his unit. By 30 November, the 2nd

8/21. Infantry Division had been fighting for almost a week at Kunu-ri in North Korea, fending off the 1st wave of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers to intervene in North Korean. The combined US-Republic of Korea (ROK) force was attacked from 3 directions, with ROK

9/21. units responsible for holding 8th Army's eastern flank folding. This allowed the PLA to attack the allied rear areas while they simultaneously sought to withdraw southward. Buck & his H Company, 9th Infantry, found themselves surrounded on all sides. The company commander

10/21. was killed early on, with soldiers ready to panic if Buck hadn't assumed command & calmed them by going to every fighting position along their hilltop perimeter. When PLA snipers on an adjacent hilltop caused casualties, Buck led a patrol to clear it, then held it against

11/21. several PLA human-wave attacks. When a US tank platoon arrived in relief, Buck saw that they didn't know where friendly positions were located. He snuck through enemy lines back to the original hill, climbed on top of a tank's turret, valor.militarytimes.com/hero/7318

12/21. & personally directed the tanks' fire. 1LT Chew-Mon Lee later received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at Kunu-ri. 150km to the east, 1st Lt Kurt Lee stole a jeep at the Army hospital in Hamhung, so he could rejoin the 7th Marines, who were

13/21. preparing for their own fight, pushing towards a reservoir marked "Chosin" on their maps, but whose name was actually Changjin. The Marines fought in brutal temperatures that plummeted to -30F at night, over craggy terrain that looks like something out of a Tolkien book.

14/21. While most Marines had adequate winter garments, they didn't have proper boots for the cold weather, & arguably more Marines fell to frostbite than enemy action. The PLA used its 5:1 manpower advantage to good effect, & the Marines had to rely on air-dropped supplies

15/21. to sustain them. This battle gave birth to LtCol Raymond Murray's famous quote: "We are coming out with our dead, our wounded & our equipment; we are coming out as Marines or we are not coming out at all." On 2 December, Lee's platoon led an attack to relieve Fox

16/21. Company, 7th Marines, at Tokdong Pass, which controlled the western approaches to the reservoir. Kurt, his arm still in a cast, served as point man for the entire battalion, which slogged through a blizzard behind him in single file. After a brief smithsonianmag.com/history/celebr…

17/21. suppression with artillery, Lee led the 1st Battalion's assault, to find the PLA positions were oriented northward, not west from which Kurt & 1st Battalion attacked. Kurt was shot again, just above his cast, but refused to be evacuated until

18/21. Fox Company was fully relieved. Kurt received the Silver Star for this fight, & his battalion commander, Ray Davis, called Kurt "the bravest Marine I know." A few days later, Kurt was severely wounded by machine gun fire, & evacuated to the US. amazon.com/Last-Stand-Fox…

19/21. Both brothers would make the military their career. Buck reached the rank of colonel & served as the last US defense attaché in Taipei, but committed suicide in 1972. Kurt taught new officers at The Basic School, & his students included defense.gov/Multimedia/Vid…

20/21. Chuck Krulak & Jack Sheehan, who both went on to retire as four-star generals. Kurt served on the intelligence staff of the 3rd Marine Division in Vietnam, and retired from the Marine Corps as a major in 1968.

21/21. "I had harder to gain the same credit for my efforts than... white officers." He also took pride in training a generation of Marine officers who would take his example & lessons to Vietnam. Major Lee died in 2014, aged 88. Semper Fi, sir. loc.gov/item/afc200100…

Fun fact: when Buck linked up with his big brother Kurt in Korea, Buck gifted him 30-round magazines for the M1 carbine for his birthday because, while the Army issued them, the Marines didn’t. Kurt put them to good use within a month.m at Chosin.

Once again, to keep these multiple threads threaded, & because Elno isn't getting $8 a month from me, the #AAPIHM thread continues here:

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