Edward L. Rowny
If I may, I'd like at this point to leap forward a year or so. General Young took
over the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and brought me and two other
of his regimental commanders to the school. He put each of us in charge of a
major division of the Infantry School, instructing us to bring the school up-to-date
on what we'd learned in Korea. In a matter of months, we revolutionized the
teaching and brought it up-to-date. Prior to that time the Infantry School was still
teaching World War II tactics.
The association I developed with General Boatner, the assistant division
commander, also paid off handsomely. Soon after I took over the command of the
38th regiment, a truce was declared. We were forced into a "no war, no peace"
situation. We were under instructions from Washington to present an alert
appearance, to patrol, and to capture prisoners. But we were not allowed to
commit units larger than a platoon to combat.
Early in 1952, I repeatedly tried to capture Chinese prisoners. The usual tactic was
to strike at some small outpost occupied by two or three Chinese soldiers. We
would try to hit them by surprise and bring back a prisoner or two. This became
extremely difficult-almost impossible-to pull off. By this time, the Chinese had
dug in and were well protected in bunkers and underground tunnels. We didn't
really know where they could be found. Moreover, they were always within
supporting distance of their fires or reinforcing troops.
On one occasion I committed a platoon against an outpost of what I thought was
a squad or so of Chinese. The Chinese brought a great deal of firepower against
my platoon and it completely bogged down. I went to see for myself what the
situation was. What I found was that the platoon was pinned down by fire; they
could neither move forward nor backward without taking casualties.
My platoon just lay there in the extreme cold, &fording themselves what little
cover the terrain provided. They were simply frozen in position, frozen in by the
firepower and frozen in by the weather.
My solution was to order the rest of the company into action. They were to attack
through the platoon and take the outpost. The attack proved successful. Our
troops snatched two prisoners before the Chinese reinforcements arrived. Several
of our troops were wounded, but there were no fatalities.
The next day General Hayden Boatner, who was then acting division commander,
came to my headquarters with orders from Washington to relieve me. I had
violated instructions by committing more than a platoon. I explained to Boatner
the situation I had faced, saying that I had no choice. If I didn't want to lose the
entire platoon to the weather or to enemy fire, I had to apply more power. The
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