이것이 전쟁이다! evacuated and promptly moved his CP more than a mile back along the road! All contact with the men up along the ridge was broken. The wounded now had an additional heart-breaking mile to walk, or crawl, before reaching medical care of even the roughest kind. Night was rising swiftly over the mountains; 626 still belonged to the enemy. Rain began to fall almost as soon as I started back to Kigye in the jeep which Colonel Paris had left for me near the deserted aid station. The night was suddenly inky and the road little more than a sandy trail through the paddy fields. Everything was in favor of the Reds, especially with the ROK's lines badly overextended and all communications broken. In the division CP I found Colonel Paris deep in discussion with his KMAG assistant, while they pored over their maps plotting tactics to be suggested for the next morning's action. In the opposite corner of the room the atmosphere was poisonous. The Capital Division's Commanding Officer, Colonel Paik in Yop, in a slow sensuous voice was blasting a line-up of his staff. I did not need to speak Korean to understand him. I had but to look first at his flaming, scornful face, then across the table through the murky shadows and into the rigid faces of his officers. No doubt about it, these were the men responsible for the last two days' miserable imitation of an attack, and they were being word-beaten by the one officer in the South Korean Army best qualified to do it. Despite his youthful appearance, Colonel Paik had become an almost symbolic officer in the also youthful South Korean Army. When the war started he was commanding the same 17th Regiment, now a part of his division. It was he who drove it through the combat so brilliantly that it won its reputation as the finest fighting outfit in the ROK Army. For his leadership he was promoted and given command of the entire Capital Division, the crack unit which had been based in Seoul. Colonel Paik also suffered three wounds in the battles which drove them south as the Communists poured over the 38th. Ⅲ. Korea 1950 l 43
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTMyNzcxNA==