A Story of Combat

In the Army, the tough, patient professionals who train recruits are not generally given to talkativeness, and Master . Sergeant Hubert Lee, 36, was quieter than most. After six months, even his fellow instructors at Fort Sill, Okla. knew only that he came from Mississippi, was a 13-year man, had fought in Europe and Korea. He wore the Silver Star for gallantry. But when he was asked how he got it, Lee always begged off. "I'm not very good about telling combat stories," he would say.

Last week the Army put Master Sergeant Hubert Lee in front of a battery of flashbulbs and ordered him to tell a combat story. The sergeant edged forward in his chair and nervously blurted it out.

The date was Feb. 1, 1951 on Hill 333 near Wonju in Korea. He was a platoon sergeant in the I Company, 23rd Infantry, 2nd Division, fighting off a Chinese Communist "human sea" attack. "The lieutenant lasted about 20 minutes," said Sergeant Lee. Then Lee was in command. "I had been with the platoon a long time," he explained diffidently. "There wasn't anyone left to lead them." The platoon fired until their guns clicked empty. The Chinese surged over the crest, and Sergeant Lee's platoon reeled 50 yards back down the hill. The sergeant carried a wounded buddy, shielding him from mortar bursts with his body. "I knew we'd have to go back up," said Lee. "I told the men to wait for ammunition."

The platoon got its ammunition and charged up the hill, hollering banzai. A grenade exploded in front of the sergeant, riddling his legs with fragments. He told the men not to stop, limped after them to retake the hill. The Chinese knocked them off the hill again. Four more times Sergeant Lee and his platoon drove forward. Each time the Chinese drove them back. Another grenade blasted the sergeant flat, again riddling his legs.

Crawling on his hands & knees, Sergeant Lee led his men forward on one final charge. Only twelve were left of the original 46. A rifle bullet smacked into the sergeant's body as he waved them on. He kept going. The platoon took Hill 333 on that sixth charge and this time they held. When reinforcements came up, they counted 83 Chinese dead strewn about the summit, estimated that another 200 had been wounded. Sergeant Lee, still conscious and in command, was carried down on a stretcher.

When Sergeant Hubert Lee had finished his story last week, the Army announced that he would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor "above and beyond the call of duty." He was the 39th fighting man to win the nation's highest decoration in Korea. Said the shy sergeant: "I'll be glad when this day is over."

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