2nd Infantry Division

I, too, am a 27-year Army veteran.

I served in the 82nd, 2nd ID, and 1st ID.

I'm currently an educator at Washington Middle School in Rock Island.

I'm also a pastor and a longtime community servant here in Western Illinois.

The Chinese hit the ROK units hard, and again several units broke.

Two out of three regiments of the ROK's 2nd Division fled the battlefield, leaving their valiant 17th Regiment to fight alone and hold its position for hours, despite heavy losses.

Ridgway reluctantly ordered a general but orderly withdrawal, with units instructed to maintain contact with the enemy during their retreat, rather than simply giving up real estate without inflicting losses on the enemy.

Initially, 8th Army pulled back 30 miles to a defensive line along the Han River to protect Seoul.

In addition, the ROK 3rd Corps in central Korea had virtually collapsed.

Only the ROK 7th Division was in a position to help stabilize the line.

The ROK 2nd Division was down to less than a regiment.

The ROK 5th and 8th Divisions were in complete retreat toward Wonju.

At that time there were some 30,000 troops and 170,000 trainees in North Korea, according to later United States Army intelligence estimates.

The 4th Infantry Division was formed in 1948 from trainees plus a veteran regiment transferred from the 2nd Division.

Two new infantry divisions, the 5th and 6th, were organized the following year when Korean veterans of the 164th and 166th CCF Divisions returned as units with their arms and equipment.

It is probable that the leaders of the North Korean state were committed early in 1950 to the invasion of the Republic of Korea.

Unfortunately, the brigade reached Korea one day too late.

When the 5th RCT debarked at Busan on 1 August, it was earmarked for the 25th Division and placed in 8th Army Reserve.

Also debarking on the 1st was the Army's skeletonized 2nd Division.

This unit cleared Busan and hurried to the hard-pressed Taegu area where it also passed into 8th Army Reserve.

And it is going to explode exponentially over just the next couple of years.

But with the main conventional unit, this big army division that goes to Vietnam in '66, that's most of the soldiers at Fort Lewis, so what's gonna replace them?

Right.

Well-

And the Army, like, here it is.

Fort Lewis is where it begins.

You hear me talk about an Army division.

That is like, that's like a shoulder patch a soldier wears.

At that time there were some 30,000 troops and 170,000 trainees in North Korea, according to later United States Army intelligence estimates.

The 4th Infantry Division was formed in 1948 from trainees plus a veteran regiment transferred from the 2nd Division.

Two new infantry divisions, the 5th and 6th, were organized the following year when Korean veterans of the 164th and 166th CCF Divisions returned as units with their arms and equipment.

It is probable that the leaders of the North Korean state were committed early in 1950 to the invasion of the Republic of Korea.

Unfortunately, the brigade reached Korea one day too late.

When the 5th RCT debarked at Pusan on 1 August, it was earmarked for the 25th Division and placed in 8th Army Reserve.

Also debarking on the 1st was the Army's skeletonized 2nd Division.

This unit cleared Pusan and hurried to the hard-pressed Taegu area where it also passed into 8th Army Reserve.

The Battles Along the Changchun On the night of 25 November, The Chinese struck 8th Army again.

The first CCF attacks hit the 9th and 38th Infantries of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, about 18 miles northeast of Kunruri along the Chunchon River.

Charging to the sounds of bugles, the Chinese 40th Army found gaps between the units and struck their flanks.

They hit units on both sides of the river just south of a low mountain called, ironically, Chinaman's Hat.

One 7th Cavalry Company commander was killed in aid of his men wounded by enemy infiltrators throwing hand grenades.

As in the summer, Eighth Army orders directed that refugees be diverted from main roads, escorted by South Korean police, and routed around Allied defensive lines, although the strictures were often difficult to enforce.

The brunt of the renewed enemy attack fell on the exposed U.S. 2nd Infantry Division.

With his division almost cut off from the rest of the Army, Major General Lawrence B. Dutch Kaiser said, relied upon the Turkish brigade to protect his right flank as he prepared to withdraw from Khun Nu Ri.

There's tons of...

I was in the 2nd Infantry Division.

We had well over 22 deaths hundreds of casualties.

And I lost some real good friends, man.

I had a little heater.

I was in the 2nd Infantry Division.

I remember this one field problem.

The tracks in my...

That takes a lot of time.

So, you know, of the 12 infantry divisions that we have here, a bit of a misnomer, the 2nd Infantry Division is actually forward deployed to Korea, and it's a combined division between us and the Republic of Korean Military, so they're kind of stuck in Korea.

The 7th Infantry Division, really interesting unit there.

They're actually being transitioned to this multi-domain command task force thing for the Pacific Air Force.

And, yeah, I probably wouldn't have learned that anywhere else.

The other place, it was 2nd Infantry Division in Korea.

Same thing.

Got literally disciplinary people, problem children.