SAXONBURG — Andrew Kovacs joined the U.S. Marine Corps in August 1949 when he was 17.

Within a year, he was thrust into the center of the Korean War.

"By the time I turned 20, I had seven battle stars and three presidential unit citations under my belt, as well as 15 continuous months in a combat zone," Kovacs said.

Kovacs talked about his experiences, as well as his book based upon those experiences, "Chosin. Marine. Changjin." Tuesday at the Saxonburg Library.

He focused on a two-week period, during which U.S. Marines advanced on enemy positions near North Korea's Chosin Reservoir, where they were heavily outnumbered.

Kovacs, originally from Coraopolis and now living near Saxonburg, is a retired engineer. But in 1949, he was a teenager out to serve his country.

"Someone told me Parris Island (where Marine recruits are trained) was a place of sandy beaches and waving palm trees," Kovacs joked.

He turned 18 in boot camp in October 1949.

"One thing I'm proud of: I was in a platoon of 75 men, and only three PFC (private first-class) warrants were passed out. I got one of those," Kovacs said.

He was deployed with the 3rd Battalion 6th Marines to Korea in August 1950, and made an amphibious landing at Inchon, South Korea.

"I got up to Koto-ri about the 20th of November (1950). It was getting down to about zero then. In a few weeks it was minus 20 degrees, and a few weeks later it was minus 40 degrees," Kovacs said.

The plateau upon which the battle sites around Chosin Reservoir sit are about 5,000 feet above sea level.

"We were about 25,000 Marines strong, versus about 160,000 Chinese," Kovacs said.

He drove a 6-by-6 truck, transporting troops and materials, but was quickly called to combat as a rifleman following the 7.5 mile hike to a town near the Chosin Reservoir.

"We got up there the night of Nov. 27 and you could just feel something bad was about to happen," Kovacs said.

"That night, the Chinese attacked, about 80,000 of them, and we withstood their onslaught all the way through Dec. 1."

Quoting Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz's comment about the fighting men on Iwo Jima during World War II, Kovacs said "uncommon valor was a common virtue."

His unit continued south through the Toktong Pass and arrived in Hagaru-ri on Dec. 4.

"The wounded were everywhere," said Kovacs, who became choked up each time he broached the topic of wounded or dead soldiers.

"The weather was not the least of our enemies, either. At that time, the only thing I can remember eating was a can of frozen peaches. Thank God there was at least snow to replenish our liquids and maybe freeze our insides a bit to match the outside."

Marines constructed an airstrip near their position at Hagaru-ri and set up artillery to protect it.

"General Oliver P. Smith was our commanding officer, and he did a great job seeing to it that we weren't wiped out, which was Mao Zedong's goal there," Kovacs said.

"One of the assignments I had was to drive ammo from the various dumps to the .105s (artillery Howitzers), which were firing almost constantly to hold the Chinese back."

Kovacs' unit left the airstrip Dec. 6, but encountered a Chinese roadblock just over a mile into its hike.

Chinese forces began to advance on the surrounded Marines on the 7th of December.

"They cleverly came down a rivulet with their main force, with diversionary forces in the open fields around us," Kovacs said.

"On that day, I killed 128 men. I know that because when the fighting was over, I had only one bandoleer of ammunition left on my belt."

Koto-ri, to the north, was being held by Chesty Puller, one of the most revered and decorated Marines of all time.

Kovacs quoted him saying, "We had the enemy right where we wanted them. We were surrounded, so we could fire at them in any direction."

During and after the battle, exhaustion was everywhere, since many of the men had been immersed in combat for several weeks.

"We were all quite a sight. After three or four weeks of fighting, we had not had a chance to shave or even change our underwear," Kovacs said.

He survived his harrowing experiences and was discharged as a platoon sergeant in November 1952.

"A few words of wisdom in closing. Love God, family and country. As a warrior, do unto others before they do unto you," Kovacs said.

"And, never glorify the destruction of human beings."

When asked if the war was worth U.S. involvement, Kovacs answered, "Ask any South Korean if they would defect to North Korea. I doubt you'd get any positive answers."

Then: "It cost 54,000 American lives. But in warfare, 54,000 lives don't go very far."

The Korean War was fought between the Republic of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.The war was a result of the political division of Korea by agreement of the victorious Allies at the end of World War II.The Korean peninsula had been ruled by Japan before World War II, but following the 1945 surrender of Japan, the peninsula was divided by American administrators along the 38th parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part.The war began on June 25, 1950, when nearly 100,000 North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea and quickly overwhelmed the lightly-armed South Korea Army positions.An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.About 36,500 American soldiers lost their lives, and more than 92,000 were wounded, according to the Directorate for Information Operations and Reports in Washington, D.C.North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice on May 27, 2009.From various sources