Combat· Korean War
Battle of the Nevada Outposts
The Nevada Cities, the outposts Carson, Reno, and Vegas, were forward positions commanding key ground in the Marine sector, and in late March 1953 the Chinese launched the most concentrated assault of the year to take them.
Behind crushing artillery preparation, massed Chinese infantry overran the thinly held outposts, and the battle became a furious five-day struggle to hold, lose, and retake them, with the Marines committing the strength of two battalions to recover Vegas alone and defend it against successive counterattacks. The fighting was among the costliest the division endured in this period, the losses in the five-day battle amounting to the great majority of the division's casualties for the entire month. The Marines clung to Vegas while Carson held and Reno was ultimately given up, exacting a punishing toll on the attackers. The Nevada battle was the high-water mark of the 1953 outpost fighting, a contest for hilltops measured in hundreds of lives.
Record no. 49