Frank Pruitt

Reminiscence of a Forgotten War Frank Pruitt

The memoirs of Frank O. Pruitt and his Korean War service with the 40th Division in 1952 and 1953. It covers his service as a rifle platoon leader in "E" Company and Company Commander of Tank Company of the 223rd Infantry Regiment. The book is more of a study of the characters and personalities of the officers and men of the 223rd Regiment and 40th Division, than a combat narrative. The author develops the tension and interplay which occurred when the regular Army officers who had been assigned to the stateside airborne divisions were released from those assignments in 1952, and anxiously sought assignment in combat units before the war was concluded. It is the story of life and combat on the Main Line of Resistance in the Kumwha Valley, Punch Bowl, and Heartbreak Ridge. The book deals with there training of the Division at Kapyong during the Summer of 1952, and the conversion of a National Guard Division into a combat-tested regular Army unit led by regular Army Airborne officers eager to join the fight. The author, a late World War IIOCS graduate, was recalled to service as a reserve officer in June of 1951 and describes the stateside retraining, replacement pipeline, and Japanese R&Rexperience. He returned to Korea in Septemberof 1998 and, accompanied by a Korean guide, revisited sites where he served at Kumwha, Kapyong, and the Punch Bowl. His account is a blueprint for those interested in more than the quick in-and-out Korean Veterans package tour, or for those veterans or their families who want additional insight into the Korean War experience and what has occurred to this troubled land in the last 50 years.