MEN AT WAR: Hungnam Hero

During the U.S. evacuation of the Hungnam beachhead last year, a key outer defense point was a ridge on the exposed eastern flank. For 30 hours an infantry platoon of the 3rd Division, commanded by ist Lieut. Harry E. Sutton, 30, of The Bronx, beat off enemy attacks, refused to retreat even when part of the U.S. line was overrun. Lieutenant Sutton won the Silver Star for leading a bayonet charge which dug out the enemy and restored the position. Greater honor, perhaps, than the Silver Star was the fact that his fellow soldiers and superior officers referred to the position, in accounts of the evacuation, as “Sutton’s Ridge.”

Last week a letter from a brother officer told of Hero Sutton’s death near Suwon on Feb. 3. A sniper shot him in the head when he was setting up a forward defense post.