Company G, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines
1st Marine Division

62. Skirmish leaving Koto-ri

Marines guard the MSR as the Chinese harass with fire from the heights. Most of the US troops in Korea could not imagine how cold it gets in Korea, particularly in North Korea. Wind chill factors of minus 120 F degrees occurred. Vehicles had to be started ever few hours to prevent freezing. Food became a problem. As you can see in the picture troops had a lot of good cold-weather clothing but that didn't prevent a lot of frostbite and cold-weather injuries. As bad as we had it, the Chinese forces had it ten times worse. They had very poor equipment and clothing. Also remember most of us lived in tents in this weather with a pot-bellied stove. I recall always being cold during this time. My truck had an open cab and driving could be very difficult.