Early Military Career and Korea
Forrest entered the United States Military Academy in 1945 during the closing days of World War II. As a West Point cadet, he played B-Squad football and fought on the A-1 boxing team. His roommates were Samuel S. Coursen, Joe Toomey, Murray Williams, Collier Ross, and Jim Scholtz. In his Third Class year, at the "Hop" dance party, Jack met Patricia Smith of Long Beach, New York, whom he married in July 1949 after graduation. Forrest proceeded to Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Benning, Georgia where he attended the Infantry Basic Course before being sent to the Korean War.
Forrest led a platoon of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division through the darkest days in Korea. After fighting in the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter, his command was the first to enter North Korea and the North Korean capital Pyongyang. He earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, two Purple Hearts, and two Silver Stars. Two of his West Point roommates, Lt. Samuel S. Coursen, a fellow 5th Cavalry Regiment company commander and Medal of Honor recipient, and Lt. Joe Toomey, were killed in action in Korea.
From Forrest's Silver Star citations: "Courageously gathering his six remaining men, he briefed them on his plan of surprise action to rout the enemy group... he led them yelling and shouting into the enemy's midst. This ruse... completely baffled and surprised the enemy into believing their main position had fallen..." Although wounded in the leg during the early part of the action, Lieutenant Forrest refused to be evacuated and moved from position to position, in the face of heavy enemy fire, to encourage and reorganize his men. He directed a defense of his position and led a successful counterattack.
Read more about this topic: John F. Forrest
Famous quotes containing the words early, military and/or career:
“Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)