Somehow, though he lived in reality through scenes of horror that Hollywood would have labeled with an X rating, his voice doesn't crack. But even in the pervasive atmosphere of violence in Korea, there were lighter moments, and McMorris recounts them also. He remembers a comedic scene in the midst of th chaos of gunfire. "Two of the Chinese grabbed one GI who was in a sleeping bag. They got his head and feet and were running with him. Apparently he had a 45 inside and he started shooting. There were feathers everywhere, and they dropped him and ran.

The overwhelming numbers of Chinese soldiers prepared McMorris for future nightmares. "Every night as soon as it got dark, you better be in the hole. And as soon as the mortars lifted, you better be standing up in a foxhole because they were going to blow the bugle and come." The Chinese army that encircled McMorris' group had cut off supplies and replacements and virtually all escape routes.

On the third day, the commander said, "No one is coming for us. We are going to try to break our way through. Throw everything away except your rifle, your steel helmet and all the ammunition you can carry. McMorris remembers that he got about 50 yards away from the foxhole when a bullet shot through his hip, chipping the bone. "It spun me around and burned like a coal of fire and I hit the ground. A cook picked me up and pitched me into the back of the truck."