Retreat, Hell!
Chapter One
Near Chongju, South Korea
0815 28 September 1950
Major Malcolm S. Pickering, USMCR, whose appearance and physical condition reflected that he had not had a change of
clothing-much less the opportunity to bathe with soap or shave-since he had been shot down fifty-eight days before sat
between two enormous boulders near the crest of a hill.
He thought-but was by no means sure-that he was about twenty miles north of Taejon and about thirty miles south of
Suwon. Where he hoped he was, was in a remote area of South Korea where there were few North Korean soldiers, lessening
the chance that he would be spotted until he could attract the attention of an American airplane, and have someone come
and pick him up.
Those hopes were of course, after fifty-eight days, fading. Immediately after he had been shot down, there had been a
flurry of search activity, but when they hadn't found him the activity had slowed down, and-logic forced him to
acknowledge-finally ceased.
He wasn't at all sure that anyone had seen any of the signs he left after the first one, the day after he'd been shot
down. What he had done ... read full excerpt from Retreat, Hell! ebook
