Aug 21 , 2021

Hit by grenade once, mortared twice, Ranger Col Ralph Puckett is a SAVAGE!

Billy Bad Ass of the Day: hit by grenade once, mortared twice, wounded Ranger Col Ralph Puckett’s Distinguished Service Cross FINALLY being upgraded to an MOH!!!

On 25 November 1950, Puckett and his company became famous when they captured and held Hill 205, a strategic point overlooking the Chongchon River. Initially, they had to brace for attack from all sides, as the company of only 51 strong was over a mile from the nearest friendly unit and vulnerable to being completely surrounded. Fortunately for the Rangers, they had artillery support for parts of the night. Earlier in the evening Puckett had coordinated a series of increasingly more dangerous fire missions with the artillery, in order allow the Rangers artillery support to rapidly adjust to new attacks.

At 10pm, the Chinese began their attack by firing a mortar salvo against Puckett and his Rangers. Six waves of Chinese forces assaulted the hill for the next four and a half hours. Several times, Puckett was forced to call in artillery fire "danger close", placing the Rangers within the danger radius of the friendly artillery. During the course of the battle, he was wounded several times, once by grenade fragments and then twice more when two mortars landed in his fox hole. After his wounds rendered him barely conscious, Puckett ordered his rangers to abandon the position. Two of Puckett's Rangers, PFCs David L. Pollock and Billy G. Walls, ignored his orders and initially carried him and subsequently dragged him down the hill as they received ineffective small arms fire. Ralph Puckett was medically evacuated from the hill and would be hospitalized for a year for his wounds suffered that night.

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