War: THE BATTLE OF NO NAME RIDGE

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Meanwhile, the heroic and unflinching South Korean stretcher bearers continued to bring the U.S. wounded out of the valley. Roman Catholic Chaplain Otto Sporrer, a Navy* lieutenant commander, stood exposed to sniper fire and two Red machine guns still chattering from the valley flanks and did what he could to help the medics. The padre spoke kind words to the stretcher bearers; when the men on the stretchers could hear him, he spoke to them too. All the while, he walked back & forth from the top of the trail to the aid station near Craig's command post. The padre was a brave man, but so was everyone who went into the valley before No Name Ridge that day.

Last Out of the Valley. Finally, at Craig's command, the second wave of the Marine assault force moved up the road toward the jump-off point. They moved in single file, on both sides of the road, for down the center came more wounded. They came in jeeps, four to a jeep, at 3 m.p.h. Medics riding with them did the best they could to make their wounds less painful. One downy-faced corpsman stroked an old, hard-faced sergeant's head above his ripped face and kept saying, "You'll be fine, Sarge."

The men going into battle watched the wounded going the other way. It was a brutal way to move fresh troops into position, but there was no other. The new wave came up unsmiling, and with not a little fear in their young faces.

The last of the wounded were coming out of the valley as the new wave got ready to jump off for the ridge with no name. General Craig came down from the edge of the bean patch and watched the last litters. Finally he walked to a litter going by and touched a badly wounded boy on the shoulder.

"Nice work, son," he said very softly. "Thank you."

It is good to report that the second assault wave carried the ridge with no name and that the Marines continued to advance, taking their objectives as they went. But it will never be good to remember those kids being carried out of that valley.