cover image From the Hudson to the Yalu: West Point '49 in the Korean War

From the Hudson to the Yalu: West Point '49 in the Korean War

Harry J. Maihafer. Texas A&M University Press, $29.5 (296pp) ISBN 978-0-89096-554-2

The author, a member of the West Point class of '49, has written an absorbing memoir of his service the following year in Korea as a platoon leader with the 24th Division and later as an aide to the division's commanding general. Maihafer was on the scene during the most perilous period of the conflict: the defense of the Pusan Perimeter, the push north after the Inchon landing and the Eighth Army's retreat after the Chinese Communists entered the war. He sets his memoirs within the overall tactical dynamics of the 1950-1953 conflict and, as openings present themselves, relates the combat experiences of his West Point classmates throughout the war. This includes the brief, spectacular, tragic combat career of Lt. William Douglas Bush Jr., an F-86 pilot who, as a lark, asked for and received permission to make a parachute jump with the 187th Regimental Combat Team during his annual 30-day leave, and served as one of its forward air controllers until he was killed by mortar fire. Maihafer's running descriptions of action at the platoon level, combined with his comments on small-unit leadership in battle, make this one of the most memorable books to come out of the Korean War. Photos. (Dec.)