April 1951 Time Line ~ X Corps MP Company
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1 April CPL Kowprowski departed the Company on emergency leave. CPL La Fontaine was dropped from the roster due to being hospitalized for 30 days.

2 April The Company received one new officer, 2LT Arnold C. Phelps who transferred from the Criminal Investigation Division [CID]. 2LT Phelps was assigned as 3rd Platoon Leader.

4 April The Company received one new man, PFC Dewy Courter, and lost a man, CPL Conalis. CPL Conalis was transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division to work with a Greek Battalion because he was fluent in reading, writing, and speaking Greek.

5 April The Company moved once again, this time from Chechon to Hongchon, South Korea. The move started early in the morning and due to a lack of organic vehicles, they had to shuttle personnel and equipment.

0100 hours [1:00 AM] The Company completed its move to Hongchon. The new commitments were quite heavy, eight traffic posts in town, two patrols, and a pass and defile between Hongchon and Hoengsong. The pass and defile required staffing by one officer and thirty-nine enlisted men, while four enlisted men were assigned to two traffic post’s twenty miles north of Hoengsong.

Traffic was very heavy on the Main Supply Route [MSR] and quite congested at the pass and defile. Most of the problems were caused by low boys and tracked vehicles. All in all the Company did a good job.

8 April SGT Tolison departed the Company, asking to be reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division.

10 April The last of the Company Privates [PVT], Houtchens, Krout, Von Bock, and Walker were all promoted to Private First Class [PFC].

13 April The six members of the cut off check point at Hagiru'ri (27 November to 3 December 1950), CPL James C. Foster, CPL William J. St.Pierre, CPL Robert Harley, PFC James O. Ederhart, PFC Donald P. Chaput, and PFC Harold R. Farnsworth, received the Bronze Star Medal for Valor.

15 April The Company assigned an additional thirteen MP’s to assist the detachment at Hoengsong with SGT Golden, in charge. They were assigned to provide road patrols, two traffic control post’s on the Barrel Bridge, Hongchon River. The MP’s were billeted with an engineer unit at Hoensong.

19 April CPL Buckner, accompanied by MAJ Barker from X Corps Provost Marshal Office, departed for Tokyo, Japan with a prisoner needing a psychiatric examination.

20 April The Company recorded its first AWOL, CPL Patterson, who left the Company area and went to the front to join the 23rd Infantry Regiment (2nd Infantry Division).
2nd

22 April The Communist Forces started a Spring Offensive. The X Corps began a retrograde movement of its heavy equipment and some of its staff sections to Hoengsong, Saemal, Wonju and Chechon. Consequently the increases in the traffic volume necessitated the assignment of additional MP’s from the Company to the MSR, including Hongsong which now had a detachment of eighteen men. A 24 hour survey of vehicles at the Hoengsong traffic post showed from 1,000 to 1,500 vehicles moving north on the MSR, and about the same number moving south.

CPL Patterson returned to the Company area.

26 April The Company was again assigned to move. A detachment of five men, the orderly room tent, supply tent, plus a load of odds and ends were transported to Chechon.

In the following days, all of the Company commitments on the MSR and at Honchon were relieved with the exception of the patrols working the roadway to town.

Also during the month the Company conducted weekly raiding foray's into the town to search all the Korean houses for contraband, ie. Post Exchange Rations, clothing, weapons, ammunition and other equipment. Also during that time prostitutes were picked up and as a result a total of $995.00 in U.S. Military Payment Certificates [MPC], along with a large quantity of Penicillin. The case was turned over to the Criminal Investigation Division [CID].

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