Originally published by the Rancho Santa Fe Review Jan 1, 2009.
Bob Baker was 21 years old, a corporal in the U.S. Army stationed in Korea, and he didn’t expect to see another sunrise. “As I lay on my bunk trying to get some rest, I realized that this just might be the last day of my life. Our upcoming mission was so dangerous that I felt I probably would not survive the patrol. At that point I realized how much I wanted to get back home after this war. I made my peace with God then. I prayed and asked him to spare me if He could. I made a pact with Him. If He spared me that night, then I would return home, get married, have six children (whom I would raise as good Catholics), go to college, and be successful in the business world,” Baker later wrote.
Baker did survive that night patrol in June 1953, and he largely fulfilled his promises: He has been married to his wife, Sherrill, for 54 years, and the couple has five children and six grandchildren. Baker followed his father into the automobile business and is president of Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., which owns six auto dealerships in San Diego County. Now, Baker, 77, plans to spend up to $1 million of his money, through his charitable foundation, to tell the story of Outpost Harry, a hill in North Korea 60 miles north of the South Korean capital of Seoul. U.S. and allied forces stationed at Outpost Harry held off a furious eight-day assault by enemy troops just weeks before the Korean War ended in July 1953.
Baker, a Rancho Santa Fe resident, hired fellow Ranch resident Glenn Palmedo-Smith, a filmmaker, to create a documentary about the battle for Outpost Harry, which took place from June 10-18, 1953, an event both men said has been largely forgotten by history. While Baker and Palmedo-Smith could not provide precise figures, they said several thousand U.S. and United Nations troops fought off thousands of Chinese and North Korean soldiers to hold the strategic hill, which protected a valley leading directly to Seoul. They said the U.N. side suffered hundreds of casualties, and an even larger number perished on the Chinese-North Korean side. More than 80,000 rounds of artillery were fired by the enemy each night during the battle, and waves of Chinese soldiers attacked on the ground, some reaching the U.S. trenches and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, they said. Baker was a paratrooper assigned to an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon with the Army’s 15th Regiment, Third Infantry Division. His platoon’s job was to make forays, or patrols, to assess enemy troop strength and positions. They also brought back prisoners of war captured in battle and engaged in frequent skirmishes themselves, Baker said.
Baker was awarded a Bronze Star for his role in one such skirmish, and said he was recommended for a second, which he never received. In the years since the war, Baker said he didn’t think a lot about the traumatic events he endured. That changed in recent years when his grandchildren asked him about the war, and he found out about a group of Outpost Harry survivors who meet each year at different locations around the country. After meeting with the ex-soldiers and hearing their stories, Baker said, he decided a documentary was needed. “These guys who were on Outpost Harry have been basically praying their story could be told,” Baker said. “I’m probably the most successful of the survivors of Outpost Harry,” and the only one who could afford to commission such a documentary, Baker said. “We hope this documentary will show the pain of the soldiers who had to keep it inside after going to battle and killing people.”
Baker contacted Palmedo-Smith after hearing about another film he made called “The Hungry Women,” which is based on the story of Ian Spiro, a Rancho Santa Fe resident who police say killed his family and then committed suicide. After the 1992 deaths, rumors swirled that Spiro was a spy with Middle East connections, and Palmedo Smith said he was never satisfied by the conclusions of police investigators. Another documentary, about an African-American artist named Ellis Ruley, whom Palmedo Smith believes may have been the victim of foul play, called “Just South of Eden,” is being edited. So far, Palmedo-Smith said, he has taped some 300 hours of inter-views with Outpost Harry survivors around the United States, including two generals and former Army nurses. The documentary will also include battle reenactments and animated sequences. The film’s working title is “Hold at All Costs: the Battle of Outpost Harry, the Story of Forgotten Warriors of a Forgotten Battle of a Forgotten War.” Palmedo-Smith said he wants to include interviews with North and South Korean and Chinese soldiers who fought in the battle for Outpost Harry. Earlier this month, he spent 10 days in South Korea and China trying to establish contacts in the two countries, and with the government of North Korea. Among his ideas for the documentary, said Palmedo-Smith, is a reunion of ex-soldiers from all sides of the conflict at the site of the Outpost Harry battle, which reportedly remains an untouched no-man’s land. Film crews would document the placement of a plaque commemorating all who had died there. While he admits such a reunion is a long shot, especially if it involved North Korean and Chinese war veterans, Palmedo- Smith said, he will keep working on the plan as the rest of the project moves forward. “It will be the first time the combatants will be able to hug, shake hands… or maybe start fighting again,” he said. “Who knows what magic might happen? There will definitely be tears.” Baker and Palmedo-Smith have approached PBS television to offer the documentary for national airing. Baker said he doesn’t expect to make any money from the project, and the only concession Palmedo-Smith is seeking would be a commitment by the network to run more than 1,000 public service announcements promoting the documentary before its first scheduled broadcast. The two hope to complete the project in time for the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War in June 2010. Baker’s fellow Outpost Harry survivors are thrilled about the documentary project, said Jerry Cunningham, the founder and current reunion chairman of the Outpost Harry Survivors Association.
The group has about 250 members across the country, said Cunningham, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina and suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg during the battle. “Everybody is saying ‘hallelujah,” said Cunningham of the video project. “To us it’s a big feather in our hats.”
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