Cecil McMorris recalls that when he joined the Army a few days after his 17th birthday, neither he nor any of his friends saw any particular danger in warfare. We didn't think we were going to die -- we were just kids. Five of his friends with whom he spent 18 months while stationed in Japan before the outbreak of the Korean War, however, didn't survive beyond 1950. And McMorris lost his feet to wounds and the bitter cold of Korea in December of that year.

Like many who have survived physical disabilities, McMorris has never surrendered to discouragement. Instead, he has often shared experiences of the past with Vietnam veterans and others who have lost the convenience of limbs but not the meaning of life. The Chosin Reservoir in Korea, where McMorris was headed as an infantry soldier, became one of the war's early disasters for American forces, according to research done by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Seventh Infantry Division's Task Force MacLean/Faith, which contained elements of the 31st and 32nd infantry Regiments, was annihilated in an area east of the reservoir. Only 385 out of a 3,200 man force survived. McMorris' Company B lost 136 of its 139 men in battle. Cold is the inevitable common memory of soldiers who shared the battlefield in the Koreran winters. "whenever the trucks would stop, we would run into a house and stick out boots into the fire, trying to get them warmed up, "McMorris said."