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"The Reds walked up & down the line of prisoners, shooting. I was hit in the leg. I reached down to my leg and got some blood and smeared it on my head and I laid down under a dead man. I didn't move a muscle. When they came back along the line I got shot in the arm but I didn't yell."
Then, as U.S. troops advanced up the slope of Hill 303, the North Koreans retreated. "When they were gone," Roy continued, "I got up and took off. I could hear the BARs and see the G.I.s coming. I ran toward them. I didn't have no helmet on and no shoes and I guess they thought I was a Red, because they started shooting at me. I saw this BAR cutting across the grass, and I flopped down. It hit me in this hand . . ." Roy Manring feebly lifted his right hand and continued: "I yelled: 'Don't shoot! I'm a G.I.!"'
At last recognizing him as one of their own, the Americans gave Roy Manring first aid and got him to the rear.
"I'm Almost Positive." In the action that followed, U.S. troops captured North Korean soldiers suspected of having taken part in the massacre. The colonel asked Roy and two other survivorsCorporal Roy L. Day of El Paso, and Corporal James M. Rudd of Salyersville, Ky. if they could identify any of the prisoners. Manring pointed out one North Korean soldier as one of the enlisted men who had killed his buddies. Then Manring turned to another enemy prisoner: "I can't see that one's face," he said.
"Turn your head," snarled a U.S. corporal. Manring said tensely: "I'm almost positive this one is the guy who gave the firing order."
The prisoner sat impassively. Meanwhile, on Hill 303, U.S. medics were still busy removing the bodies of those who had not been as lucky as Roy Manring, Jimmy Rudd and Roy Day. Of the 31 men who surrendered in Roy's platoon, 26 had been killed and four wounded. Another estimated 10 to 15 U.S. soldiers, who had been captured by the Reds before Roy's platoon surrendered, had also been murdered. From Tokyo a few days later General MacArthur issued a stern warning to North Korean Premier Kim II Sung, which was broadcast by radio and dropped by leaflets over enemy lines. "These crimes are not only against the victims themselves but against humanity as well," said MacArthur. "I shall hold you and your commanders criminally accountable under the rules and precedents of war."
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