November 1950 the Korean Peninsula: After General MacArthur ignores Mao’s warnings and pushes his UN forces deep into North Korea, his 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Their only chance for survival is to fight their way South through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge in Nanguim Mountains. This crucial choke point will need to be held open at all costs…
The mission is handed to Captain William Barber and the 260 men of Fox Company, a courageous but undermanned unit of the Seventh Marine Regiment. Barber and his men are ordered to climb seven miles of frozen terrain to a rocky promontory overlooking the pass. The Marines have no way of knowing that the ground they occupy—it is soon dubbed “Fox Hill”—is surrounded by ten thousand Chinese soldiers who have poured over China’s border into North Korea in the past month. The Marines are outnumbered by forty to one.
As the Sun sets on the hill, and the temperature plunges to thirty-four degrees below zero, Barber’s men dig in for the night. At 0200 in the morning they are awakened by the sounds—bugles, whistles, cymbals, and drumbeats—and—smells the pervasive odor of garlic, a natural Chinese cold remedy—of a massive assault by thousands of enemy infantry. The attack is just the first wave of four days and five nights of nearly continuous Chinese attempts to take Fox Hill.
Amid the relentless violence, three-quarters of Fox Company’s Marines are killed, wounded, or captured. Barber, shot in the leg, drags himself from foxhole to foxhole to direct the remaining Marines. His men are reduced to gnawing at frozen C-Rations and sharing sleeping bags with their own wounded to survive. Six of our seven officers were wounded from the second nights attack and on the third night the last officer was also wounded. The cold becomes so intense that rifles and machine guns jam with ice, bazookas will not fire, and Marines are forced to load bullets into the chambers of their automatic weapons one at a time.
But the temperature is also a blessing: scores of men are saved from death when their bullet wounds freeze over almost as quickly as they are opened.
There were not enough tents to accommodate our wounded. We had to dig holes in the snow and rotate our wounded from tent to the snow and back again.
It went without saying that WE had the feeling we would die defending this hill, but we would give a good account of ourselves, we would not let our comrades down, and our mission to hold this strategic hill.
With newspaper headlines across America beginning to report the bleak situation at the Chosin, and President Truman, General MacArthur, and the Joint Chiefs debating the use of atomic weapons in North Korea, the increasingly desperate Marine on Fox Hill fight off the Chinese with entrenching tools (shovels) knives, rocks, and their bare hands. Just when it looks like the outfit will be overrun, LtCol Raymond Davis, a fearless Marine officer who is fighting south from the Chosin, volunteers to lead a force of five hundred men on a daring mission that will seek to cut a hole in the Chinese lines and relieve the men of Fox Company.

FAST FORWARD TO 3 DEC
OF FOX COMPANY’S ORIGINAL STRENGTH OF 260 ONLY 82 MARINES WERE ABLE TO WALK AWAY FROM TOKTONG PASS, AND ONLY 22 OF THE 82 WERE CAPABLE TO CONTINUE OUR FIGHT IN THE BREAKOUT OF THE 78 MILS TO HAMHUNG, STILL SURROUNDED BY 10 CCF DIVSIONS. MORE THAN 1200-1300 ENEMY BODIES COVERED THE COUNTRY SIDE AROUND OUR POSITION ON “FOX HILL”
For the action on FOX HILL against the enemy, two Medals of Honor were awarded. Pvt. CAFFERATA, for his conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life. Capt. BARBER also at the risk of his life and in addition the loss of his command and the loss of 8000 Marines north of FOX HILL. LtCol Ray Davis was also awarded the MOH for his role in the relief of FOX HILL.