This month remembers the fateful day on 7 February 1951 when the footsoldiers of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry (Wolfhounds) Regiment, under the command of 30-year-old CAPT Lewis Lee Millett Sr., would undertake a successful bayonet charge on an enemy position atop frozen Hill 180 near Anyang, South Korea.
An understrength unit of just ~100 men, they fought their way up every step of what later became known as Bayonet Hill, and for good reason.
S.L.A. Marshall described the attack as “the most complete bayonet charge by American troops” since Cold Harbor in 1864.
Millett, who had received a Silver Star for driving a burning ammunition truck away from a group of soldiers before it exploded during WWII, would become a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions. He went on to found the famous Recondo school and left the military in 1973 as a colonel. He passed in 2009.
Here is Col. Millett describing his service and the action at Hill 180.
The U.S. Army in Korea remembered the event earlier this month.
For more on the Army in Korea, please visit the CMH site.