Korean vets honored for bloodiest battle

COLUMBUS - Just a young man during one of the bloodiest battles in the history of modern warfare, Alfred Gerstenschlager was only concerned with doing his job and coming out alive. <br> <br> Fifty-two years after the Korean War fight at the frozen Chosin Reservoir, Gerstenschlager got some thanks and recognition for his service as a forward observer for the 92nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion. <br> <br> ``Finally,&#39;&#39; said Gerstenschlager, 71, of Columbus, when he learned recently that the 92nd has been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for Heroism. <br> <br> Gerstenschlager was among surviving members of the 92nd who received individual Presidential Unit Citation ribbons during a ceremony in Asheville, N.C. <br> <br> For years Gerstenschlager was reluctant to attend reunions of the Chosin Few, an organization of survivors of the Nov. 27-Dec. 11, 1950, battle that was fought at temperatures as low as 30 below zero. <br> <br> ``Our unit had never been officially recognized for its contributions at the Chosin,&#39;&#39; he said. ``Certainly, the 1st Marine Division and the Army&#39;s 7th Infantry Division took most of the casualties. And we were a support unit. I just don&#39;t know if their members considered the contributions of the 92nd that important since it had never earned the Presidential Unit Citation.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The battle at the Chosin Reservoir pitted 15,000 allied ground troops against 120,000 Chinese infantrymen in a North Korean valley. The Marines and Army soldiers killed 25,000 while suffering 3,000 killed and 6,000 wounded. <br> <br> The artillery work of the 92nd made possible the allied troops&#39; escape. <br> <br> ``I called in the artillery,&#39;&#39; Gerstenschlager said. ``The weather was terrible. ... I wasn&#39;t wounded, but so many of the other guys were.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Bravo Battery, to which Gerstenschlager was assigned, fired rounds at the enemy for 72 straight hours. <br> <br> ``No greater honor can be bestowed on an American unit in combat and certainly you earned that distinction,&#39;&#39; said reunion speaker Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt of Fort Bragg, N.C. <br> <br> Gerstenschlager enlisted in the Army at age 17 in 1948 and retired from active duty as a master sergeant in 1969. Now he&#39;s a school bus driver for the Muscogee County School District.