Chosin survivor devotes life to emotional healing |
As a teen, Bob Rhodes (now Dr. Robert J. Rhodes, retired clinical psychologist) lived with his grandmother in Toronto, Canada, often ice skating and playing hockey from morning to dark in sub-zero temperatures.
"That's where I learned to handle the cold," Rhodes said. "It helped me later on."
"Later on" came in November and December of 1950, when Rhodes was a Marine Corps sergeant in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, where temperatures were 20 below zero during the day and 40 below at night.
The Chinese army, with an overwhelming force of 100,000 troops, unexpectedly entered the Korean War, surrounding United Nations forces of 30,000 or fewer—including Rhodes' 1st Marine Division. In the 17 days of bitter fighting that followed, the UN forces finally broke out of the encirclement, inflicting crippling losses on the Chinese and North Koreans but suffering heavy casualties themselves.
Looking back, Rhodes, 82, recalls that the cold was worse than the gunfire.
"The fighting was all around us, but occasionally there would be a brief break," he said. "The cold never let up. I had frostbite on my hands and feet, but I handled the cold better than most because I knew how to take care of it."
All the combatants suffered in the ice and snow. The wounded froze to death, bodies froze, weapons froze.
"The only way we could remove the dead was to carry them along the narrow mountain-side roads to trucks," Rhodes recalled. "The Chinese also tried to carry their dead back. The North Koreans just left theirs."
The survivors of the battle became known as "The Chosin Few."
Rhodes, who was born in Detroit, joined the Marines in 1946 after graduating from high school. He was 17. Why the Marines?
"I wanted to be on the ground, not on the water or up in the air," he said with a chuckle. "And I liked the Marine tradition."
After serving a relatively uneventful two-year tour of duty, he was discharged in 1948. He stayed in the Marine Corps Reserve and enrolled at the University of Detroit, later transferring to Wayne State University to take pre-med courses.
His education was interrupted in June 1950, after North Korea invaded South Korea and the United States was drawn into the conflict. He was recalled to active duty and sent to the Marine base at Camp Pendleton in California. In October he landed in Korea.
"We stopped first at Inchon, where earlier American troops had made a surprise landing that had the North Koreans retreating. We went on to Wonson Harbor, where we were greeted by a sign that said, 'Bob Hope Welcomes the 1st Marine Division to Korea,'" he recalled with a laugh.
There weren't many laughs after that.
The Marines pushed north, encountering opposition from North Korean troops along the way.
"We heard reports that Chinese army units might be in the area," Rhodes said. "But General MacArthur didn't want to hear about Chinese intervention, so there was no follow-up on the reports. We reached the Chosin Reservoir area in late October."
In November the Chinese army launched its surprise attack, inflicting heavy casualties on U.S. Army units on the east side of the reservoir.
"The reservoir was frozen over and littered with bodies from the intense fighting," Rhodes said. "The Chinese liked to attack before dawn. Men just disappeared during the combat. Some fell down the side of the mountain in the darkness."
Rhodes was in charge of a 10-man machine gun section that lost two men, with two others wounded. He was hit in the left shoulder by shrapnel during the battle.
"I was knocked down, but I didn't realize I'd been hit until later, when the wound became infected and I was sent to a MASH hospital for treatment," he said. "They couldn't remove all the shrapnel without doing plastic surgery. I didn't want to wait for that, so I returned to my unit with some of the shrapnel still there."
The fighting continued as the Chinese and North Koreans were pushed north toward to the 38th parallel. The Chinese left the Koreans behind to fight a rear-guard action.
Rhodes was back in the United States later in 1951, after 11 months of combat. He returned to Wayne State to continue his pre-med studies, but it wasn't the same.
"I had some difficulty getting back in civilian life," he said. "I was depressed and had trouble focusing on my studies. One night I left a 10:00 class and thought to myself, 'I'm tired of this. I want to put it all behind me and start working with people.'"
That's when Rhodes switched from pre-med to psychology, a move he never regretted. Rhodes subsequently studied, taught, and conducted research at several major universities, and in 1970 became director of the Division of Psychology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He went into private practice in the mid-1980s.
"I liked all facets of psychology—helping people, teaching students and psychology residents, and doing research," Rhodes said. He was forced to retire in 1996 after suffering two severe heart attacks.
Rhodes has kept busy with area Marine activities, including the 1st Marine Division and the Chosin Few veterans organizations, and as chairman of the Marine Corps Coordinating Council. He is a member of the Tell America group of retired Marines who talk to schools and civic groups about "The Forgotten War," as the Korean conflict often is known.
Rhodes and his wife, Peggy, whom he met at Wayne State and married in 1958, live in Prairie Village. They have a daughter, Betsy Repine, of Leawood, and two sons, Dr. Robert Rhodes, of Leawood, and Christopher Rhodes, of Phoenix.
