Soldiers and Marines at Chosin Reservoir: Criteria for Assignment to Combat Command.

The article evaluates the performance of the U.S. Army and Marine units in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea between November 27 and December 3, 1950. All the commanders of the U.S. Marine Division and its regiments were experienced in combat and saw action in World War II. However most of the commanders of the U.S. Army divisions and regiments had no such experience. The experienced senior Marine commanders took care of their men and their equipments in Chosin. The Army with inexperienced commanders lost all its equipment and almost half of its men. Army selected officers who were inexperienced in combat to command its units while Marine Corps assigned commands to officers who had previous combat experience.