Word: taejon
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...hero." On another occasion, he said: "I expected to be court-martialed." In his home town, Carlyle, III., he insisted that "the reports of my heroism have been greatly exaggerated." He was reluctant to wear his Medal of Honor, won for gallantry in the battle of Taejon. "I don't deserve it," says Dean flatly...
Dean knew that in these circumstances his half-trained troops needed their commander at the front. He lived hazardously and miraculously, jeeping through enemy roadblocks, leading relief columns to the front, jogging and rallying his men everywhere. Once the enemy crossed the Kum River, the pivotal city of Taejon was doomed, but Dean decided to give the Communists a real fight. He sent the bulk of his troops south to dig in for the next battle, and stayed on himself in Taejon with elements of the 19th and 34th Regiments to direct the last and greatest delaying action before...
Three Precious Days. On July 18, Taejon waited in steaming silence. The Reds were grouping on the plain in front of the ramshackle city. That night, disguised in U.S. fatigues and baggy Korean civilian dress, the Communists came. The next day, Taejon rose convulsively to life in a hail of sniper bullets, a thunder of Communist artillery fire, the rising, smoky glare of burning gasoline stores. For three days. Dean and his ragged men fought in the streets and alleys and from house to house, contesting every inch of the Red advance. On the third day, Dean manned...
...military historian, Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall, has this to say: "To my mind, there is no doubt of the critical and decisive nature of Dean's holding action outside Taejon. He carried out the maneuver under the worst possible conditions, was forced to feed his green forces piecemeal into the fray, but he succeeded in stopping the Communists. If the Communists had had a clear right of way to Pusan, the war would have ended right there. There is no doubt that this was one of the. great pivotal points of the war. Personally, I feel that...
When the enemy had overrun the city and surrounded it to a depth of three miles. General Dean gave the retreat order and led the last Americans in a motor column south from Taejon. Outside the city, he picked up seven walking wounded, loaded them into his jeep and climbed aboard the prime mover of a howitzer. At an enemy roadblock. Dean's aide and his interpreter were wounded. Finally the battered motorcade was stopped by a stalled truck which blocked the road. Dean ordered the vehicles abandoned, and led the men on foot across country into a bean...