‘Anyone trying to kill me, I’m going to kill them’
Joe Owen served as an enlisted Marine in a forward observer squad during World War II, but as the 90-year-old vet looks back on his life, it's his Korean War experience that really stands out to him.
"I was overseas in WWII when I got selected for OCS," Owen remembers. "I went to the old man and begged him to let me stay with my squad. He told me I was given an opportunity rare among all Americans to become an officer of Marines and if I were successful I would be leading the finest fighting men in the world. That was the end of it. As it turned out, I am extremely proud that I was able to fight as an officer of Marines. It was my privilege."
Becoming an officer changed his world, to put it mildly.
Owen was a second lieutenant in command of a mortar platoon when the Korean War broke out in 1950. Later Owen was at the Chosin Reservoir, the site of one of the iconic battles of Marine Corps history. Seventeen Medals of Honor were earned in the battle that saw 10 divisions of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army against the 1st Marine Division. The Marines were forced to withdraw, but not before inflicting massive casualties on the Chinese.
"Our Marines beat the enemy, position by position, with no safety margin and under heavy fire because the enemy could see everything we did," he said. "So we had to keep our guys moving in the heavy snow and cold. The fatigue factor is serious. The guys forced themselves to keep going because they had to keep going, first for survival and because that was their nature. That's the fighting spirit of Marine riflemen. That's how we beat them."
"When were fighting in the cold, we couldn't dig holes in the ground. It was completely frozen," Owen remembers. "So we would take Chinese bodies, stack 'em up and that would be our position. The sons of bitches would come at us and keep coming and keep going down and they would be piled up, running over each other to get at us. The sons of bitches would never stop, so we had to keep on killing them. Can you imagine that?"
If not for the victory at the Chosin Reservoir, the entire U.S. X Corps, nearly 200,000 troops and civilians, would have been lost and maybe then the entire U.N. effort in Korea. The 1st Marine Division received the Presidential Unit Citation for their tenacity. The fighting was often close and brutal.
"We never figured out why, but when we go in close, it'd be a fight with grenades," Owen said. "We had fragmentation grenades. They had concussion grenades. So we would toss frags at 'em and kill 'em and they'd throw theirs at us and stun us. I got hit by one of those things one time. It blew me up in the air and I came back down, I didn't know where the hell I was. Well, that's when they broke through. Fortunately, I had my bayonet on my carbine, and I just turned around and the leader of the Chinese ran right into my bayonet and I couldn't get the thing out. The poor son of a bitch just struggled there. We both went down. I couldn't get my weapon out. So I picked up his weapon and from there on in it was a fight with rifle butts. I was swinging that thing and knocking 'em out, one by one."
In Owen's mind, the confidence enlisted Marines have in their leaders is what sets Marines apart. Lieutenants are the first line of that confidence in combat. This is why Owen calls Korea a lieutenant's war.
"You have to be visible. Anyone who stands up under enemy fire… that takes balls. You become a target and the sons of bitches try to kill you and you have to return fire or move forward. You gotta keep the men going, give 'em direction, let them know you're moving with them."
This spirit was embodied in Chew Een-Lee, the Marine Corps' first Chinese-American officer, who served with Owen.
"A guy like that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Owen says of Lee. "If you spent time with him it was rewarding. It lasts forever. We said things to each other that can only be stories, experiences that you talk about and you think son of a bitch, I should have done that."
Lee died on March 3, 2014 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Owen gave the eulogy at his funeral.
"He was a conceited, self-centered sonofabitch but he was my pal," Owen said. "We had some classic arguments. What I say about him may not be entirely complimentary, but it was a great experience to know him. And when you think of it, that's better."
"He and I and another guy named McCluskey, we used to get together to talk about combat leadership," Owen recalls. "Chinese officers were very emphatic, screaming and yelling at their people to keep on going. They wouldn't hesitate to kill the foot soldier who didn't move forward. They had no feeling for the men who got killed under their command. In contrast, every time I lost a man, I felt as though I lost a son. Even though I was only 23-24 years old. I just felt my men trusted me and were entrusted to me. I had to bring them forward with care - to be damn sure that they were in a position where they could effectively use their weapon and defend themselves."
He never felt sympathy for the enemies at the reservoir, but he remembers the Chinese differently from the North Koreans.
"They were trying to kill me," Owen says. "I didn't forget that. Anyone trying to kill me, I'm gonna kill them."
Owen was injured at the Chosin Reservoir; doctors almost amputated his arm, but his verve convinced them he would survive his injuries without losing his arm.
"When I woke up at the Naval Hospital near Tokyo, I was in an examination room, and I see several doctors looking at X-rays on a light panel," he said. "One of them says 'we don't have any choice, we have to amputate.' I figured some poor son of a bitch is gonna lose something. I look around, and mind you I just came out of the morphine, and I see I'm the only guy in there. I figure they're gonna cut something off me. So I yelled out fuck you. In my head I had to go back up on line with my men. If I lost parts, I can't go back up. That saved it. The spirit saved my arm."
He did lose full use of the limb and was soon discharged from the service, but Owen's life didn't stop there. He credits his longevity to the same spirit that kept his men going and saved his arm.
"If I could muster Baker 1-7 today, I would tell them we're alive because you kept fighting," he said. "You were invincible. You maintained the fighting spirit. You went through one of the most difficult fights ever experienced by American fighting men and you damn well held the line. You became the best goddamn rifle company in the Marine Corps."
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