The next day when a newsman asked Gen Smith if this wasn't a retreat, he came up with the now famous expression -- "Retreat, Hell! We are attacking in a new direction."

We could go on at great length describing how the 1st Marine Division and its many attached units -- Navy, Army, Air Force, Royal Marines -- were able to execute an orderly withdrawal from the frozen Chosin in the face of heavy pressure from an estimated six to nine Chinese divisions. We could recount by the score the feats of heroism, sacrifice and devotion to duty of all the men of our armed services in those dark days of December 1950.

Tonight is neither the time nor the place to go into such detail. It is the time and place, however, to recognize that the performance of duty of our buddies, and the many personal sacrifices that were made then, to make it possible for all of us to be here tonight, sharing the fellowship of a great experience.

The program for this reunion states that I was the "architect" of our withdrawal from Chosin. Maybe so, but architects don't build anything. They only draw the plans. It takes workers and builders to get things done, and you are the guys who did it.

A lot of people question, and rightly so, how such an overwhelming number of Chinese failed to destroy on Marine Division, part of an Army Division and some attached units? There are lots of answers.