C********g
发帖数: 9656 | 1 “李超英”这个名字，怎么看都像是1958年出生的大陆人。
其实人家叫“吕超然”！
http://chineseamericanheroes.org/heroes/kurt-lee/
在长津湖战斗中勇敢作战的华裔美军士兵
http://www.asianweek.com/2011/02/01/chinese-american-hero-major
Chinese American Hero: Major Kurt Chew-Een Lee
By Michael Robison– February 1, 2011
Posted in: Bay Area, News
Major Kurt Chew-Een Lee
Chinese American Heroes and American Legion Cathay Post 384 honors the
United States Marine Corps and their heroism at the Battle of the Chosin
Reservoir, in particular that of then 1st Lieutenant Kurt Chew-Een Lee.
Kurt Chew-Een Lee holds the distinction of being the first regular Marine
Corps officer of Asian extraction in nearly 200 years of proud Marine Corps
history. He accepted the challenges and demands to prove his fitness to
hold officer rank and to lead U.S. Marines into battle. Major Lee
undertook a self-imposed mission to consciously demolish the fallacious
thinking spread by Hollywood movies that the Chinese, as a race, are too
meek, obsequious and subservient to make good soldiers. By distinguishing
himself as an effective, fearless leader in battle under the harshest of
combat conditions, he opened the Marine Corps towards accepting more racial
minorities into its officer ranks.
He was born in San Francisco, California but grew up in Sacramento. His
father, M. Young Lee, had been born in Hawaii and immigrated to the mainland
to make a living supplying bulk farm produce to restaurants and hotels in
Sacramento. Kurt was in high school serving with the Junior ROTC as America
fought World War II. He was inducted into the Marine Corps in 1944 at age
18 while a mining engineer student. Following boot camp in San Diego, he
was assigned to learn Japanese. Most of his boot camp buddies ended up with
a unit that suffered heavy casualties landing on Iwo Jima. Private Lee was
again disappointed when he was retained as an instructor at the Marine
Corps Japanese Language School following his graduation. However, it was
sweetened somewhat by his accelerated promotion to sergeant, the rank he
held when World War II ended in August 1945. By then he had been accepted
for officer training by meeting all requirements, including passing the four
-year college equivalency examination.
The Marine Corps re-instituted its regular officer training program in
September 1945 by reactivating The Basic School (TBS) which was deactivated
for the duration of WW II. The First Basic Class was convened the following
month with Lee as a member. When he graduated without incident in April
1946, he made history by being the first non-white and Asian American to be
commissioned as a regular Marine officer.
With the outbreak of the Korean War, Lieutenant Lee found some friction with
his new recruits of the machine gun company he commanded by then. Many of
them had never seen or spoken to a Chinese man and saw all Asians as the
enemy. Lieutenant Lee was also resented for his strict and intense training
regimen. However, once his unit entered the war, the troops witnessed his
leadership and bravery in battle. “Certainly, I was never afraid,” he
says. “Perhaps the Chinese are all fatalists. I never expected to survive
the war. So I was adamant that my death be honorable, be spectacular.”
In September 1950, Lieutenant Lee and his Marines landed in Inchon, South
Korea along with other UN forces and began to push the North Koreans back
northwards. The People’s Republic of China had just intervened and begun
sending troops to support the North Koreans and engage American and UN
forces in combat. It was on the night of November 2nd that the young
officer proved his bravery and silenced many of those who doubted his
loyalty. The Americans were attacked by Chinese forces from midnight
onwards. In a pause between attacks the men were unable to see where the
enemy forces were. Lieutenant Lee directed them to watch for and shoot at
the flashes made by the Chinese weapons and then made a one-man raid on the
Chinese positions, repeatedly advancing from one spot to another while
feigning a much bigger American force. He made it up to the Chinese
position by identifying himself as Chinese in Mandarin then hurling grenades
and shooting, thus forcing the enemy into full, confused retreat. The
Chinese left several dead behind and Lieutenant Lee was able to save his men
. It was for this action that he was awarded the Navy Cross, the second
highest combat decoration given by the Marines Corps. The next morning he
was shot by a sniper and sent back to an Army field hospital at Hamhung.
After five days in hospital and about to be sent to Japan for treatment,
Lieutenant Lee “liberated” an Army jeep with another wounded Marine and
dashed back to Baker Company. His surprised but pleased company commander
immediately assigned him to take over the 2nd Rifle Platoon whose leader had
just been injured and evacuated. With his arm in a sling he retrained the
platoon whenever he had the opportunity under combat conditions. He and his
platoon played a major role in the unfolding drama of the Chosin Reservoir
Campaign when the US X Corps, including the 1st Marine Division, fought
against 120,000 Chinese Communist troops from November 27th- December 11th,
1950.
Despite many ignored warnings about how many Chinese soldiers were coming
into the war the UN forces blithely advanced to the Chosin Reservoir, about
80 miles inland from the port of Hungnam near the Chinese border. They were
then completely surprised by the attack on November 27th of over 120,000
Chinese soldiers that badly outnumbered them 6 to 1. The Marines were
forced to consolidate their far-flung positions at Yudam-ni, Hagaru-ri, and
Koto-ri in order to fight their way out of the trap. For the 7th and 5th
Marine Regiments at Yudam-ni to reach Hagaru-ri about 14 miles to the south,
they must go through the vital Toktong Pass held by Fox Company of the 7th
Marines. Fox Company was located on high ground (Fox Hill) that overlooks
the Toktong Pass, which has been under savage attacks for four days and five
nights. In a third effort to relieve Fox Company, which was in imminent
danger of being overrun, 1/7 got approval to relieve Fox Company but strong
roadblocks had been established by the Communists on the narrow main service
road. They would have to make an overland trek of 8 miles through the
unmapped mountains occupied by unknown numbers of Chinese troops overlooking
the service road.
It was already evening of December 2nd when Lieutenant Lee got the word that
the 500 man battalion would continue the attack with the men of his Baker
Company at the lead with himself at the point. It was a virtual “mission
impossible” because of the confluence of five factors: the troops had
been in constant combat for several days and were completely exhausted.
They were now expected to bear additional heavy loads on their march;
extreme sub-zero weather conditions (20 degrees below zero); poor visibility
(complete nighttime darkness hampered further by snow blizzards);
unfamiliar and extremely rugged mountain terrain; and unknown enemy numbers
and dispositions. With no available information it wasn’t possible to plan
the march and normal land navigation techniques were unworkable.
Lieutenant Lee, still hampered by his right arm in a sling, and without any
instructions from battalion, had to improvise and rely on his own judgment,
initiative, survival instincts, and dogged perseverance to lead his 500
heavily-laden Marines in a single file extending for one-half mile to Fox
Hill. His only aid in this highly challenging endeavor was a simple compass
and a big dosage of luck. As it was, only Marine discipline kept the men
going under their excruciatingly heavy combat loads through cold and thigh-
deep snow and up and down the mountains.
After a brief rest of about three hours called by the battalion commander
because of the total physical exhaustion of the men, Lieutenant Lee resumed
the attack toward Fox Hill at first light of December 3rd with Baker Company
still in the lead. As they moved out of some light woods, the lead
elements came under heavy fire and were pinned down. Noting that it came
from enemy positions located under some big boulders near the crest of a
steep rocky hill, Lieutenant Lee quickly deployed his platoon on line with
maximum fire power forward, including his sole remaining machine gun. At
his signal all weapons opened fire at the same time to establish fire
superiority and his platoon marched forward employing marching fire to keep
enemy heads down. His men swept up the steep hill to overrun the enemy
positions and killed about ten soldiers in their foxholes. Upon reaching
the crest with his assault troops, Lieutenant Lee, who personally shot and
wounded two soldiers himself, was astounded to see the reverse slope
pockmarked with enemy foxholes. The enemy had been facing the opposite
direction towards the service road and had now abandoned their positions. A
staggered line of about 20 enemy soldiers were floundering in the snow
about 400 yards distant, fleeing in panic from the Marines. Lieutenant Lee
said he never felt more exhilarated in the flush of victory over a defeated
enemy or prouder of his men — regulars and reservists — all now uniformly
professional Marines.
Communication was established with Fox Company for the first time. Within
an hour, after pulverizing the next ridge with heavy mortar fire followed by
an air strike, Baker Company moved forward and joined Fox Company, whose
men lined their hilltop waving colored parachute panels and cheering the
arrival of their Marine brothers. Lieutenant Lee participated in several
other firefights leading his platoon until he was finally wounded by a burst
of enemy machine gun fire on December 8th. It seems fitting that that
this was the last firefight that Baker Company participated in before
leaving North Korea. Lieutenant Lee has been credited with giving Baker
Company its fighting character, and the name Baker Company of the 1st
Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment is the only rifle company that is allowed to
retain that phonetic name when the US military switched to the NATO phonetic
alphabet in 1956.
Although a lost battle, the example set by the Marines and by Lieutenant
Kurt Chew-En Lee at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir is still seen as
epitomizing the highest ideals of bravery and dedication to duty in the long
history of the US Marine Corps. According to retired USMC Major General
Michael Myatt, the CEO of the Marines Memorial Association, a personal
tribute was paid to Kurt Lee. “In November 2002, General Ray Davis (former
Assistant USMC Commandant) spoke here at the Marines’ Memorial about the
Chosin Reservoir campaign. General Davis, then a Lieutenant Colonel,
commanded Lieutenant Lee’s unit, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines in Korea (Davis
earned the Medal of Honor in the battle.) He called 1st Lieutenant Lee the
bravest Marine he ever knew.”
Major Lee considers his most challenging, high-pressured, and gratifying
assignment in the Marine Corps was his four-year assignment to The Basic
School at Quantico during the period April 1962 – April 1965. He was
initially assigned as Commanding Officer, Enlisted Instructor Company.
When he was promoted to major on 1 January 1963, he was selected by CO
Colonel Jonas Platt to be the Chief, Platoon Tactics Instruction Group for
27 consecutive months. He and his instructor staff of three majors and
seven captains provided tactics instruction to a whole new generation of
Marine Lieutenants and Warrant Officers to qualify as rifle platoon
commanders. Luminaries among his TBS graduates include Generals Charles
Krulak (former Commandant) and John Sheehan. His greatest sense of
satisfaction was to follow them in assignment to Vietnam and personally
observe the superb job they were doing as infantry platoon commanders in
combat. Major Lee served in the Vietnam War from 1965-66 with the 3rd
Marine Division, III Marine Amphibious Force, as the Division Combat
Intelligence Officer. He established the Division Document Translation
Center for timely translation and processing of captured enemy documents for
field use by Marine units.
After leaving the Marines, he worked for New York Life and then for the
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association before retiring for the
second time. His bravery was recounted in the Smithsonian Channel
documentary special “Uncommon Courage: Breakout at Chosin” aired on
Memorial Day, 2010. In his 22 years of commissioned service, Major Lee was
fully conscious of his unique position in the bastion of America’s male
chauvinism — a pure warrior caste. Racism, he feels, is inherent in the
nation’s historical makeup, and it is his nature to meet all challenges,
including racial incidents, head on without equivocation. Some may charge
that he operates with a big chip on his shoulder, but he says that this is
fine as long as people know that the chip is “my teaching tool to dispel
ignorance.”
For additional information about Chinese American heroes, including military
heroes like Lieutenant Colonel Frank Fong, Colonel Richard Hum, Rear
Admiral Gordon Chung-Hoon, Major General John L. Fugh, and Captain Francis B
. Wai, Medal of Honor winner, please visit the Chinese American Heroes
website at www.chineseamericanheroes.org. |
