Sons of Benjamin (Related)
Vernon Mitchell of Vista, California, was born in 1925 and served in World War II, as a teenager. As a rifleman and sniper, he was such an outstanding shot that he later became a sniper in Korea during the Chosin Reservoir breakout, when the Allied Forces were outnumbered and outgunned.
A famous story about then Sergeant Mitchell involved the young Marine and his shooting partner, who were sent to rescue a pinned-down U.S. Army outfit that was trying to advance past the MLR. The young Sergeant Mitchell and his partner arrived in a Willys jeep covered with snow, only to find the Army lieutenant hunkered down behind a stone wall under intense fire from a North Korean machine-gun emplacement. It seemed to Sergeant Mitchell that there were sufficient Army troops on hand to take out the machine-gun team, but as the gun ripped the flinty top of the stone wall into chips, the fearful troopers only curled lower into their holes and bunkers.
Sergeant Mitchell and his partner took their rifles out of the jeep and unzipped padded leather cases holding their match grade M1-D sniper rifles. Mitchell yelled to the Army platoon leader that he would just take a minute to get on target and this (edit) would be over.
Sergeant Mitchell strapped into his sling in a tight-legged sitting position that has become the Gunny’s trademark. The Army lieutenant jumped to his feet and yelled that the Korean machine gun was positioned at least six hundred yards away, up the hill overlooking the Army bunkers.
The officer blurted, “Hey, you can’t hit them from here.” The rifle slammed into Sergeant Mitchell’s shoulder. Sergeant Mitchell’s partner watched a North Korean soldier get to his feet and point in their direction.
Mitchell squeezed the hair trigger on his Garand and the cold, icy air split with a resounding “Kapoow!”
The shot had broken, and the 173 grain match bullet sliced up the hill and through the chest of the standing Korean, who fell into the blood and gore spewing from his giant chest wound. The remaining Koreans looked at each other in awe and let logic run its course. All three machine gunners abandoned their weapon and ran straight up the hill, framed in the vast blanket of snow and ice. Sergeant Mitchell sighted in on the lead Korean and held a yard over his head, figuring for the bullet drop at seven hundred yards. As he squeezed the trigger again, Mitchell burned the crosshairs into the back of the running, terrified soldier. The Garand discharged, and the Korean pitched forward as if poleaxed, then lay motionless in the crimson-splattered snow bank.
The Marines got to their feet, and Sergeant Mitchell watched as the two remaining Koreans topped the hill at a dead run. He looked at the Army officer and commented, “I guess we’ll be on our way, Lieutenant. Those boys won’t bother you for a while yet! Call us if they do.”
Sergeant Mitchell and his spotter placed their rifles carefully back into the snow-covered jeep and, with a final wave to the astonished Army lieutenant, drove bouncing along the trail’s ruts, headed back to 1st Division Headquarters.
Excerpted from 13 Cent Killers by John Culbertson Copyright © 2003
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