MARINE CORPS LEAGUE
DOG COMPANY DETACHMENT 564
Savannah, Georgia
Remembering Savannah’s Korean War heroes
Seventy years ago on July 27, 1950, Dog Company, 10th Infantry Battalion, United States Marine Corps Reserve, was ordered to report for federal service. On Aug. 28, 182 men left Savannah to serve this country during the Korean War. The youngest was 16; the oldest was 33. Of those 182 men, 48 had served in the Marines before and 12 more in one of the other services, most of them during World War II.
Over a hundred would serve overseas, some getting to Korea in time to join the 15,000 Marines who would be abandoned in the frozen hell of North Korea where the temperature ranged from 10 degrees below zero in the daytime to 40 below at night, not including the wind chill.
USMC Photo A 5372
The 15,000 Marines and a handful of other American soldiers would be surrounded by 150,000 of China’s best troops. We walked with giants and saw ordinary men do extraordinary things. It was a great time to be young, American and a Marine.
The Marines would suffer 4,418 battle casualties and there were 7,313 non-battle casualties, most of those were frostbite. Many of the frostbite cases and the wounded never left the lines or returned after being treated. Truck drivers became riflemen and wounded riflemen became truck drivers. Cooks manned mortars, and there were no clerks. The Marines inflicted 37,500 casualties on the enemy. The number who died or suffered from the cold is unknown, but three of their divisions were never heard from again after the Chosin Campaign.
Photo by Sgt Frank C. Kerr; National Archives photos (USMC) 127-N-A5358
In 2020, the name of the Savannah Marine Corps Detachment 564 was forever and permanently changed to Dog Company Detachment 564 in honor of those Savannah Dog Company Marines who fought in the Korean War and chartered The Savannah MCL.
