Photo By L.A. Shively | Retired Army Sgt. Maj. Elliott Sortillo is overcome with emotion and sheds tears after...... read more read more
SAN ANTONIO - Marines are taught about the Chosin Reservoir Campaign in Korea during boot camp because they fought and survived two enemies: the Chinese who vastly outnumbered them and a cold so intense, Navy corpsmen chipped ice out of the Marines’ nostrils while they huddled together in their foxholes.
Most Americans don’t understand or know much about the Korean conflict because it was labeled a police action rather than a war explained Anton Sattler, vice president of Veterans Expeditionary Media.
Sattler and his partner Brian Iglesias, who both served two tours in Iraq as U.S. Marine Corps infantry officers, pooled their funds after leaving the military to write and film a documentary, “Chosin,” about the campaign. The writer-producer team spent most of 2009 finding and interviewing survivors willing to share their experiences, contributions and sacrifices they made as Korean War veterans.
The film presents the battle of the Chosin Reservoir through the eyes of several survivors, many of whom suffered severe frostbite.
After marching into the mountains of North Korea during the winter of 1950, 15,000 U.S. Army Marines and soldiers were surrounded and trapped by an overwhelming force of communist Chinese soldiers.
After defending their position for more than two weeks, the Marines and soldiers made a fighting withdrawal, marching 78 miles back toward freedom. The campaign also rescued 98,000 Korean refugees.
Not many know about Korea because the conflict followed on the heels of World War II and Americans were war weary, Sattler said.
“We heard time and time again from veterans that we interviewed, when they came home their neighbors would say, ‘Hey Joe, where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a year,’” Sattler said. “It was the first time that Americans didn’t go to war with the troops. There wasn’t rationing. Factories were not mobilized to support the war effort.”
Chosin Reservoir was horrific in terms of casualties and is one of the most decorated battles, yet only gets a page in the history books sandwiched between World War II and Vietnam, the writer lamented.
Sattler said he and Iglesias hope their work will bring more attention to those who fought and died, as well as those survived – the ‘Chosin Few.’
“Chosin” is available on ITunes, Netflix, EPIX and DVD.
| Date Taken: | 09.06.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2012 18:07 |
| Story ID: | 94476 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 277 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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