Semper Fidellis: Kelso and Watkins, USMC

Some of our Servicemen have earned the Medal of Honor for amazing feats of daring and courage, others for self-sacrifice.  Staff Sergeant Lewis Watkins and Private First Class Jack W. Kelso performed both on a bloody hill in Korea.

October 7, 1952: the Korean War had degenerated to a brutal stalemate, as the Chinese and North Koreans fought with the UN forces to take and retake hills and ridges north of the 38th Parallel.  Each hill lost or gained gave a slight propaganda advantage to one side or the other at the negotiations table, but the American public had grown war-weary and would oust the incumbent President Truman in favor of Eisenhower one month later.  

Seldom has one regiment distinguished itself as thoroughly as did the 7th Marines in Korea.  Beginning with the bloody winter of 1950-51 in the Chosin Reservoir, where nine of their unit earned our nation's highest award, and gaining the last one only a few days before the armistice, the 7th finished the war with 20 Medals of Honor, surpassing all others from Korea and most from the Second World War.

On October 2, 1952, the Chinese poured over Detroit Hill a short distance northeast of Panmunjom, where the armistice negotiations were in progress.  They began to dislodge the Marines in a very bitter fight, surrounding a bunker known as Outpost Warsaw.  Five Marines fired out of the bunker, but the Chinese surrounded them and began throwing grenades in.  Private First Class Jack Kelso from Fresno, California, caught one grenade, ran outside and threw it back.  He was wounded in the explosion, but stood his ground, firing at the Chinese and drawing their fire.  His heroic stand until he fell mortally wounded allowed his four companions to break out and rejoin their unit.  

Five days later, the Marines were still fighting doggedly to retake Detroit Hill.  The ebb and flow of advancing and retreating lines had caused twelve Marines to get cut off by the Chinese.  They had held out for three days in a bunker when Staff Sergeant Lewis Watkins led his platoon on a rescue mission.  Since his platoon leader and platoon sergeant had already become casualties, the 27-year-old non-commissioned officer from Seneca, South Carolina was the senior leader available.
Chinese fire wounded Staff Sergeant Watkins, but he continued and reached a trench line near the bunker where their fellow Marines were trapped.  When a burst of fire wounded a Marine with a Browning Automatic Rifleman (BAR), Watkins grabbed the weapon and rushed a Chinese machine gun team, firing as he ran.  The South Carolinian fired skillfully from the hip, silencing the gun crew and opening a way to the bunker of trapped Marines.  A Chinese grenade fell among his platoon and Watkins took immediate action.  Pushing a fellow Marine out of the way, he grabbed the grenade, attempting to throw it back.  The grenade went off as he threw it, wounding Watkins mortally.  His platoon pushed forward, however, and rescued their twelve brothers in arms.  Kelso and Watkins gave their lives so that sixteen of their fellow Marines could have a chance to live.
Today, Watkins' Medal of Honor is on display at the Veterans Museum in Walhalla, South Carolina.