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Speicial Newsletter - September 17, 2001Korean War Project
P.O. Box 180190
Dallas, TX 75218-0190
214-320-0342
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September 17, 2001 - Heartbreak Ridge - 50 Years
*Remember Heartbreak Ridge
*Remember New York
*Remember The Pentagon
*Remember Pennsylvania
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Hal Barker
Dallas, Texas - 50 years ago, beginning on September 13,
1951, the 30-day Battle of Heartbreak Ridge raged on a series
of ridge lines in North Korea, Many young men died on those
ridge lines. Survivors clearly remember the pain.
On September 11, 2001, a second Heartbreak Ridge emerged
in lower Manhattan as rescuers climbed the mountains of
debris in a desperate battle to find survivors.
During the winter of 1989, I was able to stand on Hill 931,
the main peak of Heartbreak Ridge deep inside the DMZ
between North and South Korea.
I took pause then to remember those who never returned. I
take pause now to remember those lost in the Pentagon, in
Pennsylvania, and in New York.
After the pilgrimage to Hill 931, I left for Hawaii and
my own birthplace overlooking Pearl Harbor,
The following is the story of one of those brave young
Americans who died 50 years ago today. It is a lesson in
bravery and remembrance...and of the American Spirit.
https://www.koreanwar.org/html/chapter_one.html
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Stick Together - Heartbreak Ridge - September 17, 1951
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From Return To Heartbreak Ridge.
Honolulu, February 1989. I caught a Korean Air Lines flight
to Hawaii the next day. I had one more pilgrimage to make.
I hadn't been back to my birthplace at Aiea Naval Hospital
overlooking Pearl Harbor since I was a baby.
At the same time I was born in November 1947, a young
Hawaiian was finishing his schooling at Waianae, on the
southwest coast of Oahu.
Herbert K. Pililaau was a gentle boy known to everyone in
his small home town. He was born October 10, 1928, into a
family of nine brothers and five sisters. His father,
William -Jack- Pililaau, was a famous Hawaiian cowboy.
On September 17, 1951, only days before his 23rd birthday,
while serving with Company C of the 23rd Infantry Regiment,
Pililaau was killed in action at Heartbreak Ridge.
Bob Krauss, a columnist with the Honolulu Advertiser, wrote
a story about my attempt to find the Pililaau family, and
calls flooded the switchboard of my hotel. Captain Joe Holt
of the Honolulu Airport Fire Department made the first call
at 5:30 A.M., and volunteered to guide me to the family.
We sat on a porch in Waianae, a soft wind blowing through
the trees and bushes, the exotic smells of flowers
everywhere. Coconut trees framed the driveway. The sky
was a classic blue with fluffy white clouds, and the
mountains in the distance made for a very peaceful morning.
Agnes Pililaau Kim is known in the family as sister Number 5.
She told me her telephone had been ringing off the hook,
people were saying some "haole" was looking for the
Pililaau family. She said, "I felt good in my heart when
I got the call you were coming. It was a good feeling to
bring him back again. I felt what we say in Hawaiian,
-makala-, awake. I felt alive."
William Pililaau, Jr., Number 1 son, now 70, sat beside me.
William is a Mormon, as are most of the family. He quietly
remembered,
-Herbert was a loner. He listened to classical music, didn't
mingle. My other brothers and I were rowdy. Herbert was
independent, he didn't get into trouble.-
Sister Number 10, Mercy Pililaau Garcia, recounted a dream her
mother had just before Herbert was killed. -He came to her
in a dream, saying that he would die. He came to her calmly.
He was her favorite son.-
Mercy said all his teachers loved him, he was a sweet boy.
-He couldn't kill a fly, he was a soft kid.-
When the family received news of the Congressional Medal of
Honor, they actually could not believe it was the same boy
they knew, it was so unlike him. President Truman presented
the posthumous award to Mr. and Mrs. Pililaau in Washington, D.C.
The citation reads:
-Herbert K. Pililaau, as a member of Company C,
distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and
outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty
in action against the enemy. The enemy sent wave after
wave of fanatical troops against his platoon which held
a key terrain feature on Heartbreak Ridge. Valiantly
defending his position, his unit repulsed each attack
until ammunition became almost exhausted, and it was
ordered to withdraw to a new position. Voluntarily
remaining behind to cover the withdrawal, he fired his
automatic weapon into the ranks of the assailants,
threw all his grenades, and with ammunition exhausted,
closed with the foe in hand to hand combat, courageously
fighting with his trench knife and bare fists until
finally overcome and mortally wounded. When the position
was subsequently retaken, more than forty enemy dead
were counted in the area which he so valiantly defended.-
Agnes and Mercy took me to a park in Waianae named in
honor of their brother. We walked across the street to
the school-yard where Herbert once played. They talked
of him as if he were walking there with us.
As I walked there on Oahu, I was thinking of that
mountain in Korea where a gentle young man died covering
his friends' withdrawal. I asked the sisters what the
name Pililaau meant in Hawaiian.
They said it means -stick together.-
-end-
The full Return To Heartbreak Ridge is available at:
https://www.koreanwar.org/html/chapter_one.html
We Remember,
Hal and Ted Barkerhbarker@kwp.org
tbarker@kwp.org
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