Rock Force: The American Paratroopers Who Took Back Corregidor and Exacted MacArthur's Revenge on Japan by Kevin Maurer

Author:Kevin Maurer [Maurer, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th Century, Asia, History, Japan, Military, Philippines, United States, World War II
ISBN: 9781524744786
Google: 6ObWDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B085ZBSSJ5
Publisher: Dutton
Published: 2020-12-01T03:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Gold Stars

Being that Bradford spent much of the battle in or near the aid station, he picked up stories from all over the battlefield, which he recorded in a journal that later turned into an unpublished manuscript that was passed around by veterans of the battle.

One story was of Pfc. Frank Keller’s jump and first two nights on Corregidor. Keller, a member of D Company, landed short in Crockett Ravine. He was supposed to land on B landing field—the golf course—but Keller left the plane too early and came up short, crashing into the brush and landing in the trees in the deep ravine.

Keller struggled to get loose, finally opening his reserve chute and using the static line to climb down. It was about a forty-foot drop and he burned his hands on the line as he slid to the ground.

C-47s thundered overhead and American and Japanese machine-gun fire cut through the aircraft noise as Keller picked his way through the brush toward Topside. The Japanese held Corregidor’s five ravines—Government, Crockett, Cheney, James, and Engineer. The ravines were not named on the maps issued to the paratroopers, though the maps did show fifty-foot contours. Until a ravine’s name could be established, they tended to be considered by the army slang term “Indian Country.”

Keller had fallen into Indian Country.

The paratroopers not injured by the tangle of trees and brush in the ravine were forced to fight their way back to Topside and American lines. Keller was following an overgrown trail when he ran across a group of paratroopers huddled near some trees. Pfc. Calvin Martin was sitting at the base of a tree with a broken ankle.

Keller fell in with the group as they were discussing what to do with Martin.

“Leave me,” Martin told First Lt. Charles Preston, his platoon leader. “This is one hell of a place to break a leg, Lieutenant, but I guess I’ve done it. I’ll hide out down here, but when there’s time will you send some men back to get me?”

Preston didn’t want to leave. A wounded man was a dead man if the Japanese caught him. But Preston also knew they couldn’t stay with him. He and the rest of the paratroopers had to rally with their company.

“Take these extra clips of ammo in case you need ’em,” Preston said. “We’ll send a platoon down by nightfall.”

The paratroopers were about to leave when Keller spoke up.

“I’m just a rifleman, Lieutenant,” he said. “They can spare me from my squad, so let me stay with Martin here. I can help him if things get tough.”

Preston looked relieved. He agreed to leave Keller and promised to send some men back for them as soon as possible. As Preston led the small group of paratroopers who drifted off course toward Topside, Keller helped Martin into a nearby bomb crater. The pair stayed low and waited in silence, for fear that even a whisper would give away their location.

Soon, the paratroopers heard Japanese coming up the ravine.

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