Kingston: Men on our company outpost saw North Koreans creeping past them. The outpost began firing, alerting the rest of the company, whereupon the enemy tried to overrun the outpost but were beaten back. Finally, during a lull, the outpost force, along with their six wounded, rejoined the main body. I called my battalion CO (commanding officer), said it looked like a main attack was building, asked for permission to pull in my flanks and said we might be needing reinforcements. All he said, which made me pretty sore, was to do what I had to, that he was three hours away from me, so in effect I was on my own.

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MH: What did you do?

Kingston: First, I called the company exec, Lieutenant Bill Rogers, and asked him to bring forward any available men and extra ammo. Then I left the command post, which had been turned into a sort of aid station, and headed up on line. I could see masses of men about to attack. Soon they came on in waves. Our heavy machine guns opened up, breaking the momentum of the initial charge. Meanwhile, our artillery and mortar fire was tearing into their formations. The first waves had weapons, either rifles or burp guns. They were followed by people carrying mortars, Maxim machine guns and sacks of grenades. Incredibly, the last ranks were unarmed. I guess they were supposed to arm themselves with the weapons of those who had fallen.

MH: How successful were the North Koreans' wave attacks?

Kingston: Well, at one point they pushed us off the crest of Hill 902 and we were taking pretty heavy casualties. Lieutenant Boyle, leader of our 1st Platoon, was killed leading a counterattack. He had come to Korea as a sergeant and had won a battlefield commission. We began running low on ammunition, and some of the men were using captured enemy weapons and ammo.

MH: It must have been extremely noisy.

Kingston: Yes–not just from the firing, but from all the yelling. I moved along the line, trying to encourage people, and even told them, 'Whenever those guys scream, you scream right back at them!' Around 4 a.m., I knew we had to retake the lost ground, so I organized the men around me, including the mortarmen who had fired all their ammo, and told them to fix bayonets. Soon we got a lift when Rogers, my exec, arrived with more ammo, plus a few replacements, including various rear area cooks, drivers, or KATUSAs he had rounded up.

MH: Not a happy way for new men to be introduced to combat. Did any other help soon arrive?

Kingston: Fortunately, yes. Around 5 a.m., a soldier on all fours tugged at my pant leg. He said he was a runner from Able Company, and his company commander wanted me to come back and tell him where to fire his mortars. I said to go tell his CO where I was, and that if he needed to coordinate, he could just come up to where I was! About then, Lt. Col. Gillis, commander of the 1st Battalion, appeared out of the morning mist and asked what he could do to help. I said, 'Sir, I need some men up here who can fight!' Soon, with his help, a platoon from A Company came hurrying up. We formed on line, fixed bayonets, and I told them we were going to retake 902. As we started, I turned to say something to the man next to me. Just then, a bullet hit him squarely in the ear and he went down, as did a few others. However, we retook 902, held on, and by daylight more reinforcements were on hand. King Company suffered 17 killed and 55 wounded. There were also five killed and 17 wounded in the attached units. I don't know how many enemy casualties there were, but there were hundreds and hundreds of bodies piled in front of our position. I later learned we had been up against an entire regiment of the 45th North Korean Division.

MH: Was the last bayonet attack the turning point?

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