How Edward R. Schowalter Jr. Held Outpost Harry in Korea

Oct 09 , 2025

How Edward R. Schowalter Jr. Held Outpost Harry in Korea

Edward R. Schowalter Jr. stood knee-deep in frozen mud, a shell fragment ripping through flesh and bone. Blood mixed with slush as enemy fire screamed overhead. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and broken in spirit. Yet Schowalter didn’t falter. He led. Every breath, every movement was a fight against death itself. This was the crucible where valor was forged.

The Blood Runs Through

Born in 1927, Schowalter came from Missouri’s heartland—a place where grit wasn’t optional. Raised in the American Midwest’s modest soil, he absorbed a code buried deeper than blood: duty, honor, faith. He wasn’t just a soldier. He was a man grounded in the unyielding belief that sacrifice bore meaning beyond the trenches.

His family leaned on church pews and small-town resolve. This faith wasn’t ornamental; it was a weapon. In the darkest nights, it was the light that refused to go out.

Holding the Line at Outpost Harry

July 18, 1953. The Korean War was winding down, but the fighting was brutal, unforgiving. Schowalter, then a captain commanding Company E, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, faced a nightmare nightmare of relentless enemy assaults on Outpost Harry. The Chinese People's Volunteer Army threw wave after wave against his position.

Schowalter was cut down early in the fighting—multiple wounds tearing through his shoulder and chest. Doctors thought him done. But he refused evacuation. Every time they tried to pull him back, Schowalter punched through the pain and dragged himself forward—back to his men.

His orders carved in stone: hold the outpost at all costs.

From the rubble and blood-soaked trenches, he rallied the surviving troops, directing mortar fire, organizing defense lines, and calling in artillery, all while bleeding profusely. The enemy was relentless, savage, and swelling in numbers. Yet Schowalter’s voice never broke. His spirit never cracked.

“Captain Schowalter’s indomitable leadership and valor in the face of overwhelming odds exemplified the highest traditions of military service.” — Medal of Honor citation¹

He refused to let the line collapse, famously shouting orders despite his injuries. His presence became the anchor point—the line wouldn’t fall while Schowalter stood.

A Medal Forged in Flesh and Fire

For his extraordinary heroism, Schowalter was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States military’s highest decoration. No medal can ever repay the blood poured out on that hill, but the citation crystallizes his sacrifice: “He fearlessly exposed himself to the relentless fire to direct his men and maintain the critical position.”

His company survived, the outpost held. Historians agree the action at Outpost Harry was pivotal in securing final armistice negotiations, a rare moment of victory in a grinding conflict.

Comrades remembered him as a “rock of resolve,” a leader who embodied a warrior’s heart, and a man who knew pain but refused defeat.

The Echoes of Valor

Schowalter’s story doesn’t end with a medal or a telegram home. It’s etched in the DNA of combat courage—proof that human will can defy the brutal calculus of war.

His wounds were physical, but his battle scars ran deeper: the weight of command, the burden of sacrifice. He embodied Romans 5:3–4:

“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Schowalter’s legacy is raw and honest. It teaches that courage isn't born in ease—it’s carved in misery, by men who, against all odds, choose to stand.

The war may have been won on weapons and tactics, but it was sealed by men like Edward R. Schowalter Jr.—who chose redemption, not ruin; duty, not despair.

That hill at Outpost Harry? It wasn’t just terrain. It was a soul laid bare. A testament to what one man’s heart can hold under fire.

And in that witness, there is hope.

Sources

1. United States Army Center of Military History, “Medal of Honor Recipients: Korean War” 2. “Outpost Harry: The Fight for a Strategic Hill in Korea,” Infantry Journal 3. “The Last Stand at Outpost Harry” – Korean War veterans’ oral histories, Military Archives