'God ... Let Us Survive': Remembering Korean War's Chosin Battle And Evacuation
Seventy years on, war participants are drawing starkly differing conclusions from the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. The decisive conflict's lasting legacy is still visible on the Korean Peninsula.
John Lee was not trained for combat, but he eventually found himself in the thick of a pivotal battle in the Korean War.
Lee was a sophomore at Korea University in Seoul when the war broke out in June 1950. He joined the South Korean army and was assigned as an interpreter to the U.S. 1st Marine Division.
At one point later in the war, he was taking cover under a truck, under fire from Chinese troops, on the main road leading away from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, in an area dubbed "Hell Fire Valley."
Marines around him were running out of ammunition. There was some on the truck, which was piled high with wounded Marines.
"Chinese bullets were flying like rain, and nobody dared to climb
