December 27, 1950
With The U.S. Second Infantry Division in Korea – “From now on I drink nothing but Scotch,” said Second Lt. Henry P. Leighton, Jr. whose wife, Helen, lives on Dyer Street, El Paso. “This is what drinking water did to me,” he said as he pushed four of his fingers through four neat bullet holes in the leg of his pants.
Lieutenant Leighton, platoon leader with the Second Combat Engineers, led a company of men out of a Chinese trap above Sunchon, North Korea.
“We had to force march all night through the mountains trying to get back to our lines. At dawn we came to a frozen river and I decided to get a drink,” the lieutenant said.
“I no sooner chopped a hole in the ice and scooped up some water when an enemy machinegun opened up on me. One bullet knocked off my helmet, four went through my pants leg and two went through my mitten. I had my hand closed inside my mitten, otherwise I would have lost some fingers.”
“I got off the ice without getting a scratch. So now they’ve nicknamed me “Lucky Leighton” around the battalion and I guess I deserve the title. But from now on I use water only for washing.”
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