This page contains several excerpts from the H-3-5 newsletters, newsletters that have been faithfully and ably edited and published by "Rats" Ratliff since circa 1996. ["Rats" died 14 May 2001. An entry on the Korean War Page in the H-3-5 section indicates that Dick Pelley and his daughter, Linda Blais, have taken over the publication of the H-3-5 Newsletter.
Try H-3-5Marinenewsletter@comcast.net.]

My immediate source for the material has been the Gunny-G website. (See http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/vignettes3.html and subsequent pages.) Most, if not all, of the H-3-5 entries appear to have been submitted to the Gunny-G site by "Rats," almost certainly indicating that he regarded them as being in the public domain.

In many cases I have not been able to ascertain the original format, especially the paragraph breaks. Also, a few of them seemed to have errors or omissions, perhaps due to someone's having at one stage or another digitized the files with an OCR program. I have done my best to re-format them and to (mimimally) edit them, inserting "[sic]" only when I had no other alternative. If you detect any gross errors or omissions, please send me corrections.

The collection is not yet complete. I have others from Gunny-G's site to add here, and I will do so as time permits.

• December 1996
  • Invasion Breakfast at Wolmi-do and Disappointments Rod McDonald tells how his FO team had (mistakenly) thought they were going ashore with H-3-5 in the first wave.
  • Chosin Col. H. P. Williamson, USMC Ret., gives a rather thorough account of the fight from Yudam-ni to the sea.
• September 1997
  • Fire Fight at Yudam-ni Prompted by Col. Williamson's account in the December 1996 newsletter, Russ Carlson gives an account of a firefight on the night of November 28 - 29, 1950.
  • When the Cold Lasts Forever Dave Mayfield, staff writer for an unidentified newspaper, gives an account of Richard Raymond Hoefs' bout with frost-bite on the fight from Yudam-ni to Hagaru-ri and the lasting effects of the frost-bite.
• January 1998
  • A Corpsman Bill Cozad tells of a corpsman, Fugate, with whom he served in 1952; how Fugate cared for him when he was wounded; and how they met again in 1994.
• March 1998
  • Letter From . . . Charles Rapp writes a letter to Jim "Rats" Ratliff in which he talks with "Rats" about the day in August 1950 when he (Rapp) was wounded.
• January 1999
  • About The Chosin Reservoir! Pete Hildre begins his narration at his arrival at Hagaru-ri from Yudam-ni. He then goes on to detail his experiences from there all the way back to the Bean Patch in Masan.
  • The Han River to Hill 296 In this his third contribution to the H-3-5 newsletter, Rod McDonald tells his experiences at Hill 296, outside Seoul, in September 1950.
  • A Story from H-3-5, July 1953 Ed Murray tells of a patrol that dozed off near Outpost Ester.
• July 1999
  • A Letter from 'Doc' Flau Don 'Doc' Flau writes to Jim "Rats" Ratliff, and among other things, tells him of being in contact with Thomas T. Thomas and of visiting Lt. Karl Mahakian.
  • Left in Charge Jack Harnsberger handles the situation when S/Sgt Cozad leaves for R & R.
  • A Marine's Dream Ted Besser provides some fiction.
  • Parris Island — School Days George Maling relates a story from Boot Camp.
• January 2000
  • October Newsletter Story and Memories Ralph Jenkins responds to an article from the October 1999 newsletter and tells of his own close call on that same patrol.
  • New Year's 1952 Don 'Doc' Flau reminisces about New Year's 1952, about the cold, about the turkey of Christmas 1951, and about liquor from the British PX.
  • We Met In An Unusual Way Norm Hawkins tells of a practical joke he played in October 1951 on Bryan Haynes and of how Haynes got even.
  • Lost and Found "Chick" Gowins and "Tinker" Hill write of locating each other and of locating the family of Don Sanders, who is now deceased.
  • Outpost Esther Dick Pelley tells about experiences at Outpost Esther and tells the story of how he was wounded there, July 24, 1953