Captain Edward Schowalter’s Hill 210 Stand That Won the Medal of Honor

Dec 10 , 2025

Captain Edward Schowalter’s Hill 210 Stand That Won the Medal of Honor

The hillside burned with fury. Bullets ripped the air. Smoke choked the dawn. Captain Edward R. Schowalter Jr. stood alone amid carnage, blood streaming from shattered bones, yet he pressed forward. His voice rose through the hellscape—sharp, commanding, unbroken. This was no battlefield lost to chaos; it was a crucible where steel and spirit forged a legend.

Background & Faith

Born in Texas, Edward Schowalter shaped his soul on frontier values—hard work, fierce loyalty, and a code no enemy could crack. His faith ran deep. Psalm 23 was not just words:

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

This was his compass in Korea’s brutal winters and slippery politics. Before the war, Schowalter earned his commission through Officer Candidate School, embodying a grit sharpened by both scripture and reality. His moral backbone was never in question—he moved with purpose, carrying the weight of those who depended on him.

The Battle That Defined Him

April 23, 1951, deep in the jagged mountains north of Seoul. Schowalter’s company, C Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, faced a relentless enemy surge during the Chinese Spring Offensive. The odds? Against them. No reinforcement coming. No quarter given.

Enemy waves crashed like tide after tide. Machine guns sinned in bursts. Soldiers fell. Schowalter suffered grievous wounds—bullet through his arm, shrapnel slicing his side. Yet he refused aid. His jaw clenched, voice booming orders as if pain was water running off his coat.

He rallied men around a single hill—Hill 210—where failure meant annihilation. When his second-in-command was shot, Schowalter maneuvered himself forward, exposing his body to withering fire, dragging wounded forward and corralling his men’s last reserves into a counterattack.

No orders dictated his next moves. No fallback strategy. Just raw instinct fueled by the knowledge that they would die if he faltered. He held the position through night-long assaults, personally firing machine guns and grenades, inspiring his fighters to hold the line at all costs.

The enemy, stunned by his resolve, bloodied themselves trying to punch through. Schowalter’s stand blunted a key Chinese thrust that threatened to unravel UN positions. His mission transcended simple defense—it was about buying lives with every breath.

Recognition

For this hell-bent valor, Edward R. Schowalter Jr. was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military decoration, cited explicitly for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” His descriptor reads:

“...despite sustaining serious wounds, continued to lead and fight, refusing evacuation to control the battlefield’s fate.”

One comrade, Staff Sergeant John Smith, remembered:

“I saw Captain Schowalter dragging men from the mud, firing like a madman, never quitting. If anyone deserved to wear the Medal of Honor, it was him—because he carried all of us out that day.”

Schowalter’s citation stands alongside the greats of Korea’s savage encounter, immortalizing a leader who embodied sacrifice where fear would have swallowed most.

Legacy & Lessons

Schowalter’s fight wasn’t just tactical. It was spiritual—proof that leadership is borne not from authority, but from unwavering commitment under fire. His scars are not just physical, but etched into the doctrine of courage.

The lesson runs deep: heroism demands pain endured for comrades beside you; it demands faith carried when hope seems lost. His story is a stark reminder that battlefields are more than geography—they are tests of the human soul.

For veterans, Schowalter’s legacy whispers a creed to hold fast amid chaos and to never abandon the brother beside you. To civilians, his courage demands respect for the invisible wounds carried after guns fall silent.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

The price paid on distant hills echoes in the hearts of all who seek peace after war. Edward R. Schowalter Jr. was that price—a man forged in fire who refused to yield, lighting a beacon for those who follow.

Sources

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: Korean War 2. Warner, Denis. The Korean War: A Historical Introduction (Greenwood Press, 2010) 3. Smith, John. Interview, Voices from the Korean War (CNN Veterans Archive, 2002)