Combat· Korean War
KMC Outposts
In the autumn of 1952 the Chinese turned their attention to the outposts in the Korean Marine Corps sector, the forward positions later famous as Carson, Reno, and Vegas, and to the neighboring combat outposts the Marines screened their line with.
Behind heavy artillery preparation, the enemy struck the forward positions in strength, overrunning some and forcing the defenders off commanding ground that then had to be retaken or written off. The Korean Marines, organized, trained, and fought alongside their American counterparts as part of the division, bore much of this fighting, defending their hills against repeated assault and counterattacking to recover lost ground. The struggle for these outposts foreshadowed the far larger Nevada battle to come the following spring over the very same heights. It was characteristic outpost warfare, a contest for exposed forward hills whose possession was measured in lives rather than territory of any strategic depth.
Record no. 641