The Army Medic Who Received the Medal of Honor for Taking Out a Chinese Squad with His Bare Hands

David Bruce Bleak grew up in a small Idaho farming community, but hoped to one day see the world. As a rancher and farmhand who didn't graduate from high school, he hoped enlisting in the U.S. Army would be his ticket to achieving that dream. He would only see two countries during his time in service: South Korea and Japan. His time in South Korea forever changed his life -- and his time in Japan helped him recover from it.

Bleak arrived in South Korea in the middle of the Korean War, at a time when the fighting had devolved into a virtual stalemate. United Nations and communist troops fought pitched battles over enemy-held hills and trenches. Bleak was a combat medic, tending to his wounded comrades and defending them from enemy fire, even if that meant going on the offensive and killing attackers with his bare hands.

The Korean War began in June 1950 when North Korean tanks suddenly rolled across the 38th Parallel, taking South Korea and its allies by surprise. Though the communist North Koreans achieved lightning-fast success at the start, they failed to push United States-backed forces into the sea. By September of that year, the U.S. broke out of its defensive stance around Busan and pushed the invaders back across their original border, nearly destroying them at the Yalu River that marked North Korea's border with China. In October, the Chinese sent some 260,000 troops to intervene for the North, pushing the American and UN forces back south.

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South Korea's capital of Seoul would switch hands four times before the front lines stabilized around the 38th Parallel, just 35 miles away. By the first anniversary of the war, it had become a war of attrition, as casualties on both sides mounted and very little movement happened at the front.

Bleak was 20 years old when he arrived on the United Nations side of the line in January 1952. By June, he and the rest of the 223rd Infantry Regiment, 40th Infantry Division of the California National Guard were assigned to the mountainous areas around Minari-gol. That's where volunteered to go on a 20-man reconnaissance patrol on June 14, 1952.

The mission was to capture a hill dubbed Hill 499, one Americans forces believed was of strategic value to Chinese soldiers. As they moved up the hillside, they came under heavy machine-gun fire, wounding some of the soldiers. Bleak moved to tend to them as the patrol split into two groups, one to continue up the hill and the other to flank the machine guns. Bleak moved with the first group up the hill when another machine gun opened fire on them. This time, it hit one of the already-wounded Americans and Sgt. Bleak watched him fall.

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This time, instead of going right for the soldier who was shot, he rushed the Chinese-held trench firing upon enemy soldiers along the way. Jumping into the position, Bleak -- who stood 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds -- fell on one of the enemy soldiers, breaking his neck. Spotting another, Bleak grabbed the man by his neck and crushed his windpipe. When a third Chinese soldier came to the scene, the medic stabbed him with his combat knife. He then jumped out and went back to treat the wounded Americans.

As he began first aid, he saw a Chinese grenade bounce off the helmet of one of his battle buddies. Bleak tackled his buddy and used his large frame to protect the soldier from blast. Amazingly, no one was hurt. With the wounded stable, Bleak moved to continue the patrol, but that effort was cut short when another Chinese machine gun popped up and took down three more of his troops. He sprang into action to treat them and was shot in the leg for his effort. Still, he did his job, and two of them were able to move to the rear. Bleak picked up the third one to get him to safety.

As he carried his man back to friendly lines, two enemy soldiers stopped him with rifles drawn. Bleak slowly put his charge on the ground and then suddenly sprang on his would-be captors, smashing their heads together with so much force that it cracked both of their skulls. He then picked up the wounded and headed back to base. In the end, all 20 men returned alive because Bleak knew when to take matters into his own hands.

Bleak spent just a few weeks in the hospital for his leg wound. For his heroism in the face of the enemy, he received the Medal of Honor from President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a White House ceremony on Oct. 27, 1953. He would see another country during his time in the Army, as he spent the rest of his enlistment in Japan.

Bleak retired from the Army not long after the Korean War ended and returned to Idaho. He died of complications from a hip fracture on March 23, 2006.

Related: This Vietnam War Legend Is the Only Soldier Nominated 3 Times for the Medal of Honor

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