Joseph Clemons Jr.; Korean War hero
On the official records it was Hill 255. The mountainous Korean outpost, nicknamed Pork Chop Hill for its vague resemblance to the loin cut, had been the site of frequent skirmishes since the conflict began in 1950. The land itself, like many of the hills just beyond the Allies’ main line of resistance, had no inherent tactical value.
But in spring 1953, it became one of the bloodiest and most controversial combat operations of the Korean War and a defining moment in the life of Joseph G. Clemons Jr., a 25-year-old first lieutenant and U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduate who commanded King company in the 7th Infantry Division.
His actions, defending the crest of the hill with a small, beleaguered unit, would result in his immortalization in a best-selling book by eminent military historian S.L.A. Marshall and a Hollywood film in which he was portrayed by Gregory Peck. He died May 15 at 90, after a long and highly decorated military career in which he rose to the rank of colonel.
A Baltimore high school graduate, Clemons had enlisted in the Army at 17 to qualify for the G.I. Bill. He later won an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and obtained his degree in 1951. The next year, within days of his arrival in Korea, his defense of a position near Kumhwa that involved unrelenting bunker-to-bunker combat earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the military’s second-highest award for valor.
“Rarely in combat history has a force of the size committed on Pork Chop taken such losses . . . and nevertheless continued to hold their position,” Clemons’ Silver Star commendation stated.
In his book “The Coldest Winter,” author David Halberstam described Pork Chop Hill as “almost a symbol of the emptiness of the last stages of the war, so much to be invested for so little gain.”
Joseph Gordon Clemons Jr. was born in Cleveland on April 30, 1928, and grew up in Plant City, Florida, and Baltimore, where his father was a railroad freight conductor.