MEDAL OF HONOR: Charging Enemy Bunkers with Rifle and Grenades | Ronald Rosser

people would say aren't you free to die and run i said i'm not even afraid of living i was born in columbus ohio and i was raised in southeastern ohio the uh i'm the oldest son of 17 children 17. wow and how what's the age range sir what were the how over how many years uh about 18 years oh my the uh it uh uh when i i when i was turned 17 i left joined the army and the rest of my brothers and sisters most of them were small and they they never knew me they just i was a rumor to them so i never come back for years being the oldest of that many kids there's probably a lot of responsibilities you had at a pretty young age i did i was always getting in a fight [Laughter] so you joined the army right after world war ii to begin with well actually uh about two months before it was over okay uh-huh and you said the war wasn't over officially until 31 december 46. the fighting had stopped for the most part in in august and uh they uh but there were still holdouts in both the mountains of europe and uh the mountain or the islands and the pacific so they never declared it officially over until they took care of those problems i understand so how long were you in the first time uh three years and what did you focus on then where were you stationed and what were you doing i was uh in the 82nd airborne i went in went in the 82nd airborne when i said right right after i turned 17 finished my basic training and joined it joined the airborne and i was uh my first three years in the army i was airborne in fact i flew a lot but i never landed once in an airplane i always jumped that sounds like a pretty good success right why did you decide not to stay in uh they uh i just at that time had a had pretty well enough of it and uh uh hadn't really thought about it as a career i just when i went in i was just interested in going in and joined a pair of troops i i saw a guy make a a parachute jump from a hot air balloon a world war one guy and i thought boy that's what i want to do so the when i went in the army i joined the paratroops and they uh the army was cutting down a lot at that time and that's one of the reasons i decided to get out and then my kid brother was killed in action in korea and i reenlisted immediately talk about your reaction to that and then how that immediately led to you wanting to get back in well like i said i'm the oldest oldest son of 17 children and he was the next in line when it was killed and all my life i'd you know [ __ ] for my brothers and sisters anybody insulted them anyway they faced me and i got pretty good at that stuff and when my kid brother was killed in action to me it was just some stranger killing my brother not an enemy and i made up my mind i was gonna kill a lot of people which i did and so you re-enlist and where did you go from there well i i had to go to a a refresher course of one week and actually all i did was crawl underneath a barbed wire with a machine gun shooting over me infiltration course and uh from there i went to got on a ship and went and stopped in japan they took me off the boat in japan and put me uh in the uh the occupation of japan and i stayed there uh about a month and a half before i finally got a chance to go to korea and uh when i got to korea the they they sent me the support company and uh which is heavy motors and i i right off the bat i became a forward observer because i've been trained since almost a day i went in the army to start with to be a ford observer and so when i got there they that's what they made me explain what that is huh explain what a forward observer does i call in mortar and artillery fire on the enemy uh when they expose themselves and even if they don't expose themselves i dust them off they uh i actually killed one awful mess of people uh more than you'd believe i killed about ten thousand chinese and north koreans with mortar fire and artillery fire because there was a lot of tarc it's the best way to put it and plus with uh a rifle fire and hand grenades i killed another 400 plus i'm the uh top soldier in hand-to-hand combat in america i've killed 20 people in hand-to-hand combat i had a bad sense of humor the best way to put it i could have shot several people but i beat him to death with my rifle instead i uh i kind of liked their rat on their cage they uh i just got i just got good at that stuff and at this point when did you first go to korea has the have the chinese already come south at this point oh yes okay uh and i got there the middle of july of 19 1951 and as a ford observer i was involved in some kind of bad situations the uh the first three months i was there uh about 2 000 men were killed and wounded around me uh the yeah almost everybody was around me was killed and wounded they uh but i i got more of the enemy than they got of us a lot more you actually had to push to get into combat right sure you had to push to get in to get over into combat yes sir in fact when i uh when i got to my unit their company my company commander said said uh russell you're an experienced uh uh mortar man i'm gonna put you down in the third platoon as a first gunner i said i'm not going down the third platoon captain i'm going online and he said i'm going to tell you ross or he said i ran the company and i tell people where they're going and when they're going he said you're going down the third platoon as a first gunner i said captain i'm not going to third potent or any other platoon i'm going online he said no you're not and i stuck my nose in his eye and i said i can't think of a way you can stop me and he said the only people we have online are for the observers and radio operators and i said sir i'm the best ford observer you're ever going to run into and so after a couple arguments there he uh put me up as a ford observer radio man then ford observer the uh i was actually wounded four times i got wounded on a up on the bloody ridge then i got hit on the heartbreak ridge and then i got hit twice the day of the action of the metal the uh through the hand and through the arm or through the shoulder the uh i never even went to a doctor or a hospital i took care of it myself we'll talk about the action that earned you the medal in just a moment what was your first experience in combat like after all that training the first three years you were in uh you hadn't been in combat and now you're in there for the first time how did it compare to what you expected it was it's exactly what i expected uh you know um a great risk to yourself of course and uh but uh i'm one of them kind of people that like living on the edge so it didn't bother me the uh i was i was very good at what they'd what they put me to doing the uh uh people would say aren't you free to die and ron i said i'm not even afraid of living the guys was kind of a comedian you know i do things there just to irritate the enemy so did it take much getting used to in terms of figuring out exactly where to call in air support already no i couldn't call in air support i called in mortar and artillery fire gotcha the uh and i could more about three different days i've killed and killed more than a thousand people the uh i was good at it was trained right from it almost the day i went in the army originally to be that and hadn't swayed it up do you have to develop much of a relationship with the people firing the artillery and the mortars or is it just a matter of here's the order here's the coordinates yes i said i say fire mission on coordinates so and so and and whatever else i needed and i almost knew nobody the i didn't make friends easy the only person i've had with me was a radio man and i lost eight of them three killed and and five wounded and then i had to send four back because they couldn't cut it they uh just panicked too much afraid of dying and that was a thing could happen any day you talked obviously about the the enemy lives that you successfully took out you ever think about the american lives you saved yes i am a lot of these guys i run into later and uh be quite a reunion i can promise you they uh they had hugged me and their wives had hugged me and their their kids hugged me and margot get me nervous as heck yeah they made me feel bad too mr rosser let's go to january of 1952 now and set the stage for us where was your unit what was the objective that day my unit was live company of the 38th infantry and our objective that day was a a battalion uh defended the mountain uh about a mile out in front of us and uh we we had a reinforced rifle company of 170 men counting all attaches people attached to them like ford observers whatever the by the time we got to the hill the artillery forward observer had been wounded and lost his sergeant and his radio the uh we by the time we were within 40 yards somewhere about 40 45 yards from the top of the mountain we had went from 170 down to about 35 still on their feet uh the description of the thing was the weather was very cold and the enemy was close and the things just got pretty nasty and uh i got on my radio which was the only one left in the company and i called the regimental commander gave him a situation report about out of ammunition down to 35 effectives and uh he he went as a corporal evil and talked to me what wouldn't know if there's any officers alive and i said yes sir we have two officers alive and they were both badly wounded and he's and he said is the company commander alive i said yes sir he's hit in the face his whole face was cutting too and the he's not very realistic to talk to his best way to say it the uh he's about half out of his head and i drug my radio up to him and told him the colonel wanted to talk to him so the colonel said i want you to reorganize your men and make one final attempt to take the hill and colonel or captain ronnie's her captain said yes sir and he looked up the mountain and get this hopeless look on his face and uh i heard somebody say i'll take him up for you captain and i realized it was me talking i tried to put my hand over my mouth to shut up you know because i knew you know i could look i'm like the captain i could look up and i could see about a 200 man burp gun line submachine gun line and five heavy machine guns and and all the same time we're getting motor and artillery in on top of us and they and i knew it was going to be nasty and uh the captain davis said said ron how are you going to do that and i said well only way i know sir is straight in shooting move fast and go in shooting and i said if we make the make the trench maybe we got a chance and he said you know you're not going to make it don't you and i said well we'll try sir and so i got all the men that were left and told them you know what what our objective was and i said you don't have to worry about which way to go just follow me boys we're going in shooting and i said okay so i i gave the word and jumped up and i said let's go and i didn't even look back i could hear the bin behind me in this crunchy snow about a foot of crunchy snow it was 25 below zero too and uh they i got oh about three feet from the chinese and i stopped to look back and i was by myself all the other men that went with me were killed or wounded and laying in the snow and i thought well i went to a lot of trouble to get here and they're used to wasting the whole day and i let out a scream and jumped in the trench with them with the enemy and uh i was so close i was actually sticking my carbine in the rear barrel macabre and i started i would shoot one or two and beat some to death and shoot another one or two meet some more you know they i was having a good good go at it and they i just cleaned out a whole trench they uh then i got to enter the trench and knocked out this machine gun bunker with a hand grenade and they and then went around the corner trench and here comes about 35 chinese charging down right at me and i'm by myself and so i charged them you know that works both ways you know and they and they broke first boy and i just stopped and started shooting them in the back of the head and said run from me and uh they went around the corner of their trench and i cut across in front of them and they were running by me and i was stacking them up in the trenches they run by me they i finally run out ammunition and i went back to where i where i started after i got to the top of the hill and uh some kid broke through to me and he he was wounded badly almost immediately and i threw him on my shoulder and started walking down the hill and the chinese run run down behind me trying to ban at me and shoot me i just ignored him because i wasn't i don't didn't have no ammunition and got this kid on my shoulder and i can't i'm not going to let him down and try to run and the wounded men down in front of me started knocking them down around me and i thought it was funny i got to laughing and they i walked i walked down about 35 yards and i was laughing and this lieutenant artillery porter's river who was shot in the chest he stepped out there and he said soldier said do you know what you're doing i said yes sir i'm killing these varmints as fast as i can but i'm out of ammunition i got to get me some ammo and he looked at me real funny and he said i want to shake your hand and i thought well that's kind of silly so we're standing out in the open and he and the chinese are shooting at both of us with you know with machine guns and everything else and i thought i'm gonna get killed shaking hands with his ignorant lieutenant but uh the uh i am i passed him by and went on took his kid you know a wounded man down and laid him down where he was reasonably safe loaded up on ammunition again and back up the mountain i went again by myself and i blasted my way through their line and got in behind them and and i took on about 200 chinese this time and uh they were jumping on my back and tackled me and beat me with rifles and and about another dozen piled on me and uh they uh it was getting kind of hectic here you know running out of space is the best way to say it i loaded up again and this time i had i really lived up with hangar as many as i could hang on me and i i slung my rifle on my shoulder and pulled the paint on two hand grenades was holding the spoons down and went dog trotting up the hill towards the chinese and they couldn't believe one guy was coming at him again and they hesitated and as i got closer a couple of them raised up to shoot me and instead of waiting i threw my first kicked my spoon and threw my first hand grenade instead of shooting me they was watching where the hand grenade went and it went right in the trench with them and i knocked blasted a big hole in in their line there and as i went over the trench i flipped the grenade other grenade in on some other chinese and was trying to get at me and they got in behind the chinese this time started knocking out their bunkers and a strange thing happened uh when i was up there the first time i carried this kid back and he was laying he was actually laying right in front of a machine gun i picked him up and carried him back and i went like that to the machine gunner chinese machine gunner and pointed to this wounded kid and he didn't fire and so that's the kid i picked up and took to safety and i got back up here and i started knocking out bunkers with hand grenades and i started to throw a hand grenade in this one bunker and this machine gunner turned around and looked at me and it was the guy that let me pass didn't fire on me and they i started to throw the hand grenade in and i thought nah he gave me in this get a chance at life and i passed him by i'd never done that in my whole life and let him live and went on down and knocked out the rest wrestle machine guns and stuff and the uh as far as i know that chinese soldier never fired another shot that day and so i picked uh i ran out of ammunition again and went down and got some more grenades and stuff and went back up again and was throwing hand grenades all over the place and they i'm at the chinese on the run but bunches of them they were running like heck away from me and uh they i finally ran out of ammunition and uh i went down i got in a show hole there and i i got five wounded men and in there with me and with some ammunition and i i told one of the kids i said you get all the walking wounded you got or we can find and get these dead and wounded off the mountain and i said we'll cover for you and the chinese would try to storm down and and knock us out and knock out the wounded and we we had busted real good and they they never did quite get to that opportunity and finally that one of the kids come up and said ron we got everybody we can find and i said okay i turned to the boys i said let's get out of get the heck out of here and we got out of the hole started walking down the mountain and the chinese never fired another shot at us and some general asked me said said sergeant rosser why do you think they didn't fire on you i said frankly i think they was glad to see us go the uh and that pretty much ended the the thing that day but we lost every man every man was killed wounded or missing the 170 men and in fact i was wounded twice that day got hit in the hand and through the shoulder the uh uh that was the fourth time i'd been wounded that's a lot of purple hearts no no no see they had a program going if you got wounded twice they'd take you off the line so you shouldn't report it so i got hit in the foot the first time and all it did was hurt a little bit and i just patched it up went on about my business and i got hit the second time and i knew that i'm probably going to get hit again and so i didn't turn that in either my company knew i was wounded both times but they didn't press the thing because i didn't press it and then the day i got the the action of the medal of honor i got wounded twice that day but only one purple heart the same day and so they made me take the purple hearts this time and uh so i was careful not to get hit again because they'd take you off the line and uh i didn't want that they uh i liked it up there i get even for a lot of a lot of bad things they uh and i was really good at that stuff i mean really good they uh it's hard to say you know that somebody's good and you know killing other people but i really was good at it the people would say aren't you free to die and ron i said i'm not even afraid of living so how long did you stay in theater after that several months in combat and uh my regimental commander offered you know when i got put in for the medal of honor ordered me off the line but i wouldn't come off and he he kept telling me you got to come off and i said colonel you need to go see see the medics he said what do you mean i said you're getting a hard hearing and so he didn't want to say this week he said i'll get back with you and then a few days later my paperwork hit eighth army where i was recommended and some general called colonel rowney up and went to want to know where he had put me to keep me alive and colonel ronnie said sir he's still in the line he won't come off and the general got mad he said you go get rusher off right now right today and you tell him that he's coming off and it's an order from a general officer and colonel ronnie called me up and told me that and i said sir i said would you tell the general this and he said what's that and i said one i'm not coming off the line in two if he bothers him anymore he could take that medal and stick it where the sun does shine the general channel want to know if i if i was crazy [Laughter] so when did you find out that you you had been chosen for the medal of honor i i well i knew then okay i knew then and but like everything else you know it you never know if you're going to get it you know you're in for it and when i got when i got back to this day i got back to the states they uh they had me report to some folks there they they asked me said uh were you ever awarded the medal of honor and i said no sir and i said well we don't know what you've done but you've been awarded it now you're going to washington here in a few days and that's what i did my whole family ended up going to washington too this whole greyhound bus load described that day huh described the day for us when you were at the white house with president truman well uh i went there with my whole family and president truman shook hands with everybody but one of my uh his dad and uh uh his dad hid behind my dad my father and uh my youngest brother of course and he was scared he wouldn't didn't want to shake that president's hand and never did be but i thought it was kind of funny and finally the president took me and the family outside in front of a big audience and he presented me and another boy the medal of honor they a reporter from whiz uh was recording the whole thing and he said that here was a soldier that came to the white house to get his get his medal from the president he said he looked like a scared school boy in the office of the principal but i don't think that was true at least i didn't feel that way did you have a private conversation with the president yes sir what did he say yes sir oh we just talked about things the uh uh but i've had a private conversation with every president of the united states uh to back to include harry truman in fact i just finished having a nice conversation with mr mr trump the uh we were to ro or the oval office and uh the president said mr rosher said how does it feel to be in the oval office with the president united states i said sir i've been in this office under every president since franklin roosevelt he said you're kidding it was kind of funny the uh you know your way around the place that's good yes sir i've been there many times uh plus i've been to every inauguration inaugural ball since harry truman the uh i was with obama five different times twice at the white house three times on the road with him the uh george bush a whole bunch of times [Music] and his father and oh my goodness the i was with the president truman the day before he was killed he had promised to take me right on his yacht and he kennedy kennedy not true kennedy and he uh uh president kennedy when he landed at palm beach international airport i met him there that i was going to check see if he's going to be there long enough to take me a ride but he's told me there he said he stopped interceding mother and he was on his way to dallas so he got there the next day and and was killed the uh but uh it's a strange thing to be around something like that well it certainly is we just but we just have a few minutes left in our conversation mr rosser so obviously it's been more than 60 years now since the armistice oh yeah uh-huh the armistice of the of the korean war um there's two different ways to look at this number one the efforts of you and everyone else who fought on the side of the south can see a huge difference between the north and the south and at the same time there's still a threat from the north so when you see all that what do you think i think somebody ought to shoot that turkey that's running the country down the uh north korea they uh i dusted off an awful lot of people up there i i never fought in south korea i always fought in north korea and uh against both north koreans and chinese they uh it was kind of interesting to be able to do all that stuff they uh uh i never bothered me once never bothered me the uh my job was to say protect the lives of about 800 young soldiers in a in a uh battalion and i was very conscious about taking care of them the like a couple times at one time we got hit with about 25 000 chinese and 800 students there was kids you know waiting there for them to come and they know they can't stop them and guys like me have to slow them down or thin them out or the them kids are all dead and once they break through they just murder them all you know i'd i'd bust them up a lot they uh and i actually enjoyed it you know known that they couldn't get to tear them kids up the uh i was always out in front of the whole line the whole american line you know where i could see him coming from every direction where i could adjust my fire and uh many a time i killed a lot over a thousand people and bloomed and wounded and got out i have no idea how many more they uh but they were laying all over the place what does it mean to you when you see the difference between north korea and south korea north korea's sparse and autocratic and just a miserable life for most of their people and south korea is thriving as one of the great economic powers in the country i've been to panmunjom with both north koreans and south koreans there and the south korea is a big husky guy standing like this you know and north koreans are scared of because they're little skinny guys they don't need good and in fact about a half starved really and him north koreans on one no part of south korea i can tell you that i've watched them i've been there many times in fact my second tour i was on the i was up on the dmz the uh and uh a piece of cake really i never once worried about the environments the uh it doesn't doesn't seem right but uh that's the way i was you know i was trained for this stuff and uh if you listen to us today uh me and pat brady and general brady and and mr morris training mates makes a difference really it does they you have confidence in what you do the uh even even uh sergeant morris said he wasn't afraid the uh he didn't have time and mostly i didn't have time either to be afraid the fact i'd be i'd love if things get real hot i'd get laughing they uh and i think them chinese thought i knew something they didn't know they but uh i wasn't afraid i never was afraid of them people

Channel: American Veterans Center

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Id: FvqjI00BeY4

Length: 34min 31sec (2071 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2020