This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War

by T.R. Fehrenbach

Busbey’s two men received ten-year sentences—in itself unfair, since equally guilty men got off—but the matter did not rest there. For the father of one of these men was a man of some political influence in an Eastern state. Learning that some got off, while his son did not, this gentleman understandably raised hell. The papers picked up the case, from Newark to Dallas. An INS man came down to 32nd Infantry from Tokyo, looking for a story. He interviewed the men of B Company, still licking wounds from the night attack. Every man he talked to told him, “Those men didn’t get half what they deserved.” B Company had learned its lesson. The INS man went back to Tokyo and phoned his chief. But he didn’t have the kind of story his chief wanted. Many editorials were taking the tack that ten years for sleeping on sentry go was rather rough, even barbaric. One year later, the son of the Eastern man was granted a new trial. The Civil Court of Military Appeals had discovered a flaw in the original proceedings. The president of that court had asked the law officer, present at all general courts-martial, “What is the maximum sentence that can be given?” while neither the accused or counsel was present, a violation. The new trial was held in Fort Meade, Maryland. The witnesses were now the other enlisted men who had been in the hole with the accused. Jack Sadler, at this time in Baltimore, was not called, then or later. The verdict, understandably, and to everyone except Captain Busbey’s...