Funding Woes Halt Korean War Epic

Bill Lindelof - Sacramento Bee

Cameras were ready to roll.

Two hundred extras had been selected. Korean War-era weapons and two restored "M*A*S*H"-style helicopters were at the ready.

Then, financing backed out -- for a second time. So a documentary by a California State University, Sacramento, professor and his film-director brother about a band of Greek and American soldiers fighting thousands of Communist Chinese is stalled mid-film.

"It all came to a crashing halt," said Michael Epperson, who teaches philosophy at Sacramento State.

Still, he and Christos Epperson are not giving up on "Outpost Harry."

"Our whole purpose is to preserve these veterans' stories," Christos Epperson said. "It is a race against time."

The brothers have filmed interviews with 35 American and 11 Greek veterans. Two of the former soldiers have since died. Most of the veterans are in their mid- to late 70s.

Christos plans an October screening in New York City of what's been shot so far in hopes of raising $350,000.

Michael Epperson, 40, joined the Sacramento State faculty three years ago. Christos Epperson, 36, owns a film and television production company, doing work for the History and Discovery channels.

Together, the brothers have one film to their credit, "The 11th Day," a World War II documentary. Their mother is Liz Dokimos, a former CSUS professor of speech pathology and audiology; their father is Gordon Epperson, a retired English professor who taught at Sacramento City College.

If the money can be raised, it will be used next April to shoot battle scenes in the creek beds and scrub oak of Red Bluff, which the Eppersons say resembles northern Korea.

The Eppersons want to tell a little-known story of the Korean War that took place on a hill called Outpost Harry, 60 miles south of Seoul.

According to the Eppersons' research, more than 88,000 rounds of Chinese artillery were shot into Outpost Harry.

For eight days starting on June 1, 1953, the outpost was defended each night by a single American or Greek company of slightly more than 100 infantrymen. The Chinese breached the outpost's defenses multiple times.

Still, each of the five companies ordered to hold Outpost Harry did just that.

Nighttime assaults at times became hand-to-hand combat.

Each evening, Chinese soldiers would pierce the barbed-wire defense with human-wave attacks.

"We could see them out there near the wire, falling right on top of each other," said Pvt. William McLennan, 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment.

After seven days of defense by Americans, the strategic outpost was turned over to the Greek soldiers of Peter Company, Sparta Battalion.

In a last burst on June 17, a regiment of almost 3,000 Chinese soldiers stormed the hill. What followed, according to U.S. military records quoted by the brothers, was furious hand-to-hand combat by Company P of the Greek Battalion.

The Chinese retreated only to return to the Greek trenches, followed by close-in fighting. It would be the final defeat for the Chinese forces at Outpost Harry.

All but a dozen of the outpost's soldiers were dead or wounded. Still, Outpost Harry held.

In eight days, the Chinese suffered 4,200 casualties. As a result, five rifle companies together -- four American and one Greek -- would receive the Distinguished Unit Citation for their outstanding performance.

"They held the hill against astronomical odds," said Christos Epperson. "Nobody can tell that story better than the veterans. That is why we have such a drive to get this story told."

Initial funding of $200,000 for the Outpost Harry project came from Mike Pagomenos, whose father George, an Outpost Harry survivor, recently published his Korean War journal in Greek.

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