Battle for the Punchbowl: The U. S. 1st Marine Division 1951 Fall Offensive of the Korean War Page: 133

brought a whole day's worth of supplies to 2/1, bypassing seven miles of harsh terrain.
It took 28 flights, but this was accomplished in only 2.5 hours. The amount of supplies
amounted to 18,848 pounds essential to the assaulting battalions. Meanwhile, seventy-
four casualties were evacuated via the return trips.47
"Making their deliveries close to the top and on the reverse slopes of high terrain
the helicopters greatly aided the attacking units." However, this was not something the
infantry could count on every day. "Resupply by helicopter could be had only in
emergencies and when the regular supply routes were either exhausted or not
trafficable."48
The usual method of extraction for wounded was by stretcher. PFC Frank O. Hart
was a Marine with 2/1 that day:
Before we relieved the 7th Marines on Hill 749, we were pressed into service as
stretcher bearers for them. I was helping carry a stretcher with a man who had a
serious leg wound, and as we were carrying him we kept getting stray rounds of
small-arms fire. A spent round hit the wounded man's good leg and just dropped
into the stretcher without doing any damage. I thought at the time how ironic it
would have been for this poor guy to get hit in his good leg just as he was being
carried out, presumably getting out of harm's way.49
Before being relieved this day, elements of 2/7 went again into the attack to
contact the rest of 2/7's elements still on the hill. Fox 2/7 stepped out at 0500. At 0545,
the report was received that 2/1 was moving in to relieve them from Hill 673. Fox and
Easy were trying to close the gap between themselves to create a perimeter and were
47 Lynn Montross, et al., The East-Central Front, 187-190; 1st Mar Div, "Historical Diary," September 1951,
16-17; 1st Marine Regiment, "Historical Diary," daily Intelligence Summaries.
48 st Marine Regiment, "Historical Diary," September 1951, 14.
49 Oral account of PFC Frank O. Hart, in Knox, Uncertain Victory, 387.

133