And so Mel Chandler got the spirit of Garryowen. He set out to keep Troop H the best troop in the best regiment. One of his innovations was to see to it that every man -- cook and clerk as well as rifleman -- qualified with every weapon in the troop. Even the mess sergeant, Bill Brown, a dapper, cocky transfer from an airborne division, went out on the range.

The troop received a new leader, Lieutenant Robert M. Carroll, fresh out of ROTC and bucking for Regular Army status. Carroll was sharp and military, but he was up against tough competition for that RA berth, and he wanted to play it cool. So Mel Chandler set out to sell him on the spirit of Garryowen, just as he himself had been sold a short time before.

When the Korean war began, on June 25, 1950, the anniversary of the day Custer had gone down fighting at the Little Big Horn and the day the regiment had assaulted the beachhead of Leyte during World War 2,, the 7th Cavalry was not in the best fighting condition. Its entire complement of non-commissioned officers on the platoon level had departed as cadre for another unit, and its vehicles were still those used in the drive across Luzon in World War 2,.

Just a month after the Korean War broke out, the 7th Cavalry was moving into the lines, ready for combat. From then on the Fighting Seventh was in the thick of the bitterest fighting in Korea.

One night on the Naktong River, Mel Chandler called on that fabled esprit de corps. The regiment was dug in on the east side of the river and the North Koreans were steadily building up a concentration of crack troops on the other side. The troopers knew an attack was coming, but they didn't know when, and they didn't know where. At 6 o ' clock on the morning of August 12, they were in doubt no longer. Then it came, against Troop H.