Seventy years after the Korean War’s Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, 91-year-old Plant City resident and retired U. S. Marine Sergeant Joe DeMello, received a box of Tootsie Rolls in the mail, with the label “Tootsie Rolls salutes The Chosin Few. We are proud to have been with you.”
Korean War and Chosin Reservoir veteran DeMello, originally from New Bedford, Massachusetts, first enlisted in the United States Marines in 1948 at age 17. He had to overcome the opposition of his father, a World War II Army veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. After boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, he was assigned to Camp Pendleton, California. When North Korea attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950, DeMello was sent to Korea with the First Marine Division.
In August, 1950, DeMello was wounded for the first time when a Chinese bullet went through the flesh of his thigh. He was evacuated to Japan, and when his wound healed he was returned to the Division as a replacement.
After the Division’s storied September, 1950 amphibious assault behind enemy lines on the west coast of Korea at Inchon, U. S. General Douglas MacArthur wanted to exploit the huge success of Inchon and force the reunification of North and South Korea. Assigned to D Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, First Marine Division (Reinforced), then 19-year-old Sergeant DeMello was part of the 30,000-man advance of the 1st Marine Division, a part of two Army divisions, and a unit of British Royal Marines north to North Korea’s border with China, to the Chosin Reservoir.
China responded with a surprise attack of its own on November 27, 1950 by sending 120,000 of their soldiers south across the Yalu River to surround the Marine, Army, and Royal Marine Allies at the Chosin Reservoir. American Marine Major General O. P. Smith said, “Retreat, hell. We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction,” turned his attack 180 degrees and ordered a fighting withdrawal.
During the two and a half week battle the Marines ran short of vital 60-millimeter mortar ammunition, without which they could not hold off the Chinese Army “human wave” attacks. Using the code for mortar ammunition, “Tootsie Rolls,” a radio operator called for the precious ordnance. In addition to air-dropping the ammunition, the Marines sent “Tootsie Roll” candy. In the 30-degree-below-zero cold the Navy medics thawed the Tootsie Rolls in their mouths, along with packets of morphine, to dress wounds and reduce pain.
The Allies fought through the 78-mile road from the Reservoir to Hungnam, the nearest Korean port, and the Chinese Army opposed General Smith’s men every step of the way. Allied casualties included an estimated 1,029 killed, 4,894 wounded, 4,582 wounded, and 7,338 non-battle casualties, chiefly from frostbite. With the cold and 230 sorties per day of close air support from five U. S. aircraft carriers operating offshore and a Marine air wing, the Chinese experienced nearly 20,000 battle casualties and 30,000 non-battle wounds.
Suffering several wounds in the Chosin Reservoir battle, DeMello was one of the battle’s wounded. The heel of his right foot split open from the frostbite, but he determined to remain in the fight. Then he was thrown in the air from an explosion and his back was the first thing to hit a hard embankment.
DeMello was placed in a U. S. airplane, whose crew was risking their lives in the battle to land and evacuate wounded men, but with the pain and the morphine he was given he does not remember much about his evacuation. Over many months he was sent to Japan, California, Bethesda Naval Hospital, and finally a hospital in Boston. In Boston he met Hilda, the woman who was to be his wife of over 60 years. He was also invited by President Truman to attend a function at the White House with a group of recuperating servicemen, where he met Winston Churchill’s daughter Sarah.
Despite efforts over many years by military doctors who kept operating and who made several braces and body casts, he could hardly walk at times. His back remained a problem until the Marines finally discharged him. He returned home to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where a civilian doctor operated on his back yet another time and finally fixed it. Today Sgt. DeMello walked upright into his interview for this story in the way all our Observer readers would wish, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
The Observer salutes Joe DeMello and all the veterans of Korea, the Forgotten War.