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Introduction |
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Called to Honor Memoirs of a Three-War Veteran World War II • Korea • Vietnam |
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Colonel John Gray’s life has been characterized by loyal service to his country, community, and his fellow veterans. A seagoing Marine in the Pacific Theater of World War II, Gray served as an antiaircraft gunner on the battleship Maryland, engaging the Japanese fleet at Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and surviving suicidal kamikaze explosions during the Philippines campaign.
Much later in his life, after fighting and bleeding in three wars, Colonel Gray returned to the surviving veterans of Task Force Faith and other Army units who fought in the Frozen Chosin campaign and successfully led their efforts to gain full recognition by the Marine Corps and the Department of the Navy for the significant contribution of the soldiers to the successful breakout from the encircling Chinese by the Marines and the entire X Corps and their eventual evacuation from North Korea. Nothing in John Gray’s life came easy. Like many other members of his generation, he came of age during the Great Depression, worked hard and resourcefully to support his family, and fought in three bloody wars within a quarter of a century. Additionally, an abiding sense of duty caused him to seek responsibility in all things, taking action where needed, taking charge when others held back. Everything John Gray undertook reflected this selfless sense of duty to others. He never hesitated to step forward, pick up a fallen banner, rally the troops, and accomplish the mission. This is his remarkable story—six decades of service and sacrifice on the ramparts of America. —Joseph H. Alexander Colonel, USMC (ret.) Military historian, and frequent military history commentator on cable television Author, Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa |
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Completing his college education on the GI Bill, Gray accepted a lieutenant’s commission in the U.S. Army just as communist North Korea invaded the Republic of Korea, jarring the world with new military aggression at the onset of the Cold War. As an infantry officer, Gray served at the forefront of this savage war, landing at Inchon under General Douglas MacArthur, then landing again far up the eastern coast of North Korea as the tide of battle turned. Commanding an 81-mm mortar platoon in the storied 31st Infantry at the Chosin Reservoir, Lieutenant Gray endured ungodly winter weather amid the surprise attack of two Chinese divisions against outgunned Task Force Faith. The five nightmarish days and nights of this little-known but gallantly sacrificial battle, fought virtually to the last man, saved the key Marine outpost at Hagaru-ri, the linchpin of X Corps’ fighting retreat to the sea. Badly wounded, exhausted, and frostbitten, Gray struggled out of his stretcher in a medical evacuation truck to help the last survivors fight clear of the Chinese trap, escaping at length across the frozen reservoir to the Marine lines. Rarely was an Army Distinguished Service Cross more nobly earned.|
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