The mission at hand was daunting. A light infantry task force faced a larger conventional force bearing down on their positions in a foreign land. The division leaders were combat veterans of past years of global conflict, while the soldiers were mostly young and new troops yet to be hardened by combat.
The U.S. infantry force had been training the host nation security force for several years as advisers, but the local force was ill equipped and melted away after meeting an overwhelming enemy force.
After the end of major combat operations five years previously, the U.S. military focused on developing its high technology forces and capabilities. The choice to grow air force systems, global strike forces, and expand high technology naval forces came at the expense of readiness and quality of equipment for ground forces. The most pressing existential threat to the United States and its allies in 1950 was the U.S.S.R. and other communist countries. Protection of vital strategic interests and strategic allies in Europe, unfortunately, necessitated that the bulk of combat power must reside there.
As an economy of force in the Pacific, the U.S. infantry units there trained a host nation security force for several…
