The Marines of Autumn: A Novel of the Korean War

James Brady's Korean War novel tells the story of the first autumn of the war from a U.S. Marine's perspective. Brady, a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, presents a compelling portrait of a typical Marine officer called into action at an inconvenient time.The protagonist of the novel, Thomas Verity, is called from his teaching post at Georgetown University to serve as an observer of Chinese action in North Korea. A veteran of World War II, Verity is an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve. Upon the beginning of action he is recalled because the government "needs" him. Verity leaves his young daughter with a nanny and sets off for a "short" tour. Early in his service he frequently writes letters to his daughter telling her of Korea and promising to return to take her to Paris. As time passes, the weather grows bitterly colder, the situation in North Korea grows more desperate, the letters become less frequent--it is no longer possible for him to keep his letters cheery and optimistic. Verity becomes a pawn whose expertise in Chinese is no longer needed but who is used by the military to lead Marines in battle.Brady presents a typical Marine view of the war which strained their sense of duty. The American troops are directed by "Dugout Doug" McArthur (a reference to McArthur's escape from Bataan peninsula in WWII) who never spends a night in Korea and oversees the war from a hotel in Japan. The force is divided, separated by a range of mountains, making it easier for the invading Chinese troops (whom McArthur never believed would attack) to reek havoc. As the Chinese move in, the Americans are forced to retreat quickly and, in the process, many dead and wounded are left behind--a violation of the Marine promise to leave no one behind.Captain Tom Verity, Gunnery Sgt. Tate, and their driver Mouse Izzo maintain their commitments to one another and to the Marine Corps ideal, in spite of the situation, and each is honorable in his own distinct way.A good read, this is a true-to-life story about a time when Americans were sent into harm's way without proper planning or appropriate leadership. Yet, these soldiers still performed in a way that should make us proud of their service.

Background: As autumn approached in 1950, it appeared to Supreme Commander Douglas McArthur that a U.N. victory in South Korea's war against its northern neighbors was all but won. Beginning with a brilliant and daring assault at the western port of Inchon, allied forces had wrecked the war machine of the North Koreans, who were retreating on all fronts. Then, as the U.N. forces drove across the 38th parallel, MacArthur made a critical mistake. He split his forces into two elements, and ordered them north along either side of the bony spine of North Korea, the Taebaek Mountains, to press the communist troops all the way to the Yalu River - Korea's border with China. When China suddenly intervened, reinforcing the North Koreans with hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened infantry, the U.N. forces were isolated from one another and critically vulnerable. In the west, the U.N. 8th Army was routed with significant losses, and thrown all the way back beyond the South Korean capital, Seoul.Unlike the 8th Army, the eastern U.N. force, called X Corps, did not run. X Corps was bolstered by 25,000 troops of the U.S. 1st Marine Division. The Marines, dug in at points around a kidney-shaped lake called the Chosin Reservoir, were engaged and quickly surrounded by about 120,000 CCF (Chinese Communist Forces) soldiers. In late November, they fought a nightmarishly bloody, desperate battle in arctic temperatures and snow - the Chinese trying to annihilate the Americans before they could escape the trap. By the time the 1st Marine Division managed to withdraw in good order with their wounded to the port city of Wonsang, they had lost about 6,000 killed, wounded, or missing - while killing at least 25,000 of their foes and wounding over 12,000. Although they had to relinquish the Chosin, Marines consider the fight one of the proudest engagements of their history. The Marines of Autumn is a novel of the Chosin Reservoir battle. Its hero is Tom Verity, a captain in the Marine Reserves who at the outset of the war is teaching Chinese language and culture at Georgetown University. He is a recent widower; his young daughter Kate and the still-fresh memories of his dead wife are the centerpieces of his life. Activated by the Corps in October of 1950, Verity is ordered to travel with the Marine 1st Division and monitor Chinese radio traffic, to ascertain whether the Chinese have begun sending military forces into Korea. Along the way, Verity picks up two enlisted assistants, a laconic gunnery sergeant named Tate and a wiseguy PFC driver, Izzo. Finally catching up to the Marine field headquarters in Yudam-ni on the western shore of the Chosin, Verity and his crew are just in time to be caught up in the battle when the Chinese launch their offensive. Author James Brady was a young Marine rifle platoon leader in the Korean War. Though he wasn't engaged at the Chosin, he fought the following year in the surrounding Taebaek Mountains. So it's no surprise that his writing on

The Marines of Autumn moved me to tears.....noother book in my adult life has done this....Brady's depictions of the Korean campaign miseryreally hit home....his flashbacks to his all topefect wife are also not fanciful but realisticof a man in combat so recalls everything in his former life as being pefection....when in retrospect and the misery of presentcircumstances brought into play.Brady knows humans, be they chinese soldiers or Marines or just the suffering of people in that clime....the troops on both sides did not ask to be there but suffered and performed for the "leaders"....Kudos to Brady for his insight.former

I'm not a lover of war stories, perhaps because I fought in one and I find realism lacking in most writers. Brady has proved to be an exception. His depiction of the misery suffered by the Marines at the disaster that was the Chosen Reservior made me grateful that I spent a year in the infantry in the virtual paradise (by comparison) of Vietnam. You feel the cold as the Marines retreat from an untenable position, fighting a numerically superior Chinese army and becoming victims of Douglas MacArthur's meglamoniacal career plans. Brady gives MacArthur a justified raking over the coals and mixes his fictional characters with real ones; Chesty Puller is here as is Bob Hope and others. All in all a fantastic read.

Who knew James Brady, puff piece-er to the stars, had this great book in him? I was a kid when the Korean "conflict" took place, and remember more of the politics than the warfare, so, altho the Chosin Reservoir retreat was in my memory bank, I could not have explained why. Now I know, and memorably. Brady's prose is so vivid, you can almost feel your own toes becoming frostbitten as you read; the icy roads and the snow, the cold, the Chinese troops relentlessly attacking or sniping at our troops as they retreat down a narrow mountain road at the rate of a couple of miles a day. Brady lets MacArthur have it, for putting our troops in this untenable position in the first place. The main character, incidentally, is loosely based on the late Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island. I've read a few other war books, but this is perhaps the most vividly done. It leaves me wanting to be sure to pay homage to all our soldiers in some way this Memorial Day. A powerful book. Don't miss it.