Lt. Paul Shorr
Steve’s father
Battle of Old Baldy Pork Chop Hill

Lt. Paul Shorr – Bronze Star

• V Valor  General Order 408-52 Old Baldy – Pork Chop Hill
  Meritorious Service 1953 General Order 236-53 * Citation * Recommendation Page 1 * Page 2
• Excerpts of Manuscript where Col Don Carmichael  mentions Lt Paul Shorr

Chat GBT  researched the actual Army doctrine behind those job titles, and the citation becomes much more meaningful once you translate the Army terminology.

The key sentence in your father’s citation is:

He served as Liaison Officer and then as Assistant Regimental S-3, performing the duties of each position in an outstanding fashion…and displayed keen foresight in planning tactical and training operations.

Those were two different jobs, both at the headquarters of the 38th Infantry Regiment. They were not clerical jobs. They put your father in the middle of the regiment’s command-and-control system.

What a Liaison Officer actually did

The Army’s infantry field manual described a liaison officer as an officer sent to another unit to promote “cooperation and coordination by personal contact” and stated that the liaison officer represented his commander at the headquarters to which he was sent. (All Americans)

In other words, your father was essentially the 38th Infantry Regiment commander’s personal representative to another headquarters.

The Army’s 1950 doctrine emphasized how important this was, saying experienced liaison officers were one of the best ways to ensure that information flowed among higher headquarters, subordinate units, and neighboring units. (CIE Hub)

In practical terms, Paul’s liaison job probably involved things such as:

• Going to another command post and staying abreast of what that unit was doing.
• Explaining the 38th Infantry commander’s plans, intentions, needs, and current situation.
• Bringing information back to regimental headquarters about changes in plans, troop positions and battlefield conditions.
• Making sure neighboring units’ movements and the 38th Infantry’s movements didn’t conflict.
• Coordinating activities with higher headquarters and with supporting or adjacent units.
• Getting urgent information from one headquarters to another when telephone or radio messages alone weren’t sufficient.
• Recognizing problems before they became problems and getting the appropriate commanders and staffs talking to each other.

So “liaison officer” did not mean something like a modern public-relations liaison. On a Korean War battlefield, it was an operational job. He had to understand the commander’s plan well enough to speak for him.

And there is one thing I can’t determine from this citation alone: it doesn’t say which headquarters your father was assigned to as liaison officer. It might have been division headquarters, another regiment, a supporting organization, or another allied unit. I would not put a specific unit in the biography unless we find that elsewhere in his records.

Then he became Assistant Regimental S-3

This is probably the part of the citation that explains the phrase “keen foresight in planning tactical and training operations.”

S-3 was the regiment’s Plans, Operations and Training section.

An Army field manual describing the regimental staff says very plainly that the S-3 was primarily concerned with the training and tactical operations of the regiment.

And the manual gives a remarkably detailed job description. Among the S-3 section’s responsibilities were:

• developing the regiment’s training plans;
• planning troop movements;
• determining how troops would be distributed in assembly areas and in combat;
• coordinating reconnaissance and security;
• continuously studying the tactical situation;
• preparing tactical plans;
• preparing field orders;
• preparing operational maps and overlays;
• coordinating liaison with higher, adjacent and subordinate units;
• maintaining the headquarters situation map;
• preparing tactical reports; and
• helping plan communications needed for upcoming operations.

That is almost a word-for-word explanation of what your father’s award means.

So what was Paul actually doing all day?

Put into modern civilian language, your father became an assistant operations planner for the entire infantry regiment.

He would have been helping the regimental S-3 and commander answer questions such as:

Where are our battalions right now? What is the enemy doing? What are the units on our left and right doing? What is our next mission? Which battalion should move where? Where will the reserve be? What routes will they use? What reconnaissance needs to be done first? What does supporting artillery or another unit need to know? What orders do the battalion commanders need? What does the regiment have to prepare for tomorrow or next week?

The S-3 section maintained the situation map showing the constantly changing tactical picture and produced the maps, overlays and orders needed to turn the commander’s decisions into something the battalions could actually execute.

That makes the words “keen foresight” particularly significant. They were complimenting him for being good at anticipating what the regiment would need next, rather than simply reacting after something happened.

And “training operations” didn’t mean basic training

That phrase can be misleading today.

He wasn’t teaching new recruits how to march. The S-3 staff was responsible for the combat readiness and tactical training of the regiment. Army doctrine assigned the S-3 responsibility for formulating regimental training plans, allocating training facilities and equipment, organizing regimental schools, incorporating replacements, maintaining training records, and supervising the training program.

In Korea, troops still had to train while the war was going on—particularly when units rotated away from immediate frontline positions. They had to integrate replacements, practice patrols and attacks, improve defenses, work with supporting weapons, and correct deficiencies discovered in actual combat.

So your father’s job encompassed both fighting the current battle and preparing the regiment for the next one.

What I think the award is really saying

Reading the citation together with the Army’s own job descriptions, I would translate it into ordinary English something like this:

First Lt. Paul S. Shorr was trusted to represent the 38th Infantry Regiment commander in coordinating operations with other military headquarters. He was then selected to work in the regiment’s operations and training section, where he helped plan and coordinate the movements, combat operations and training of the regiment. He was particularly good at anticipating problems and future requirements, turning the commander’s intentions into workable tactical plans, and coordinating the many units necessary to carry those plans out.

That’s a much fuller meaning than simply saying he was an “Assistant S-3.”

And there’s another point I think is worth emphasizing on your dad’s biography: this particular citation is praising his ability as a planner and staff officer, not merely his bravery in combat. The 38th Infantry’s official Army lineage confirms that the regiment was engaged in the Third Korean Winter and Korea, Summer 1953 campaigns during precisely the period covered by his citation—December 14, 1952 through June 29, 1953. (U.S. Army Center of Military History)

So he was doing this planning and coordination while the regiment was an active combat organization in Korea, not sitting at a stateside training base.

For your father’s 38th Infantry Regiment in Korea, think roughly 3,000 soldiers, give or take. The exact number would fluctuate because of casualties, replacements, men detached for other duties, and Korean soldiers assigned to U.S. units. Army histories show Korean War regiments functioning as substantial formations built around several infantry battalions. (U.S. Army Center of Military History)

A typical infantry regiment of that era was organized roughly like this:

• 3 infantry battalions, each with perhaps 700–900+ men
• Regimental headquarters and headquarters company
• Heavy mortar and other supporting elements
• Medical, communications, intelligence, operations, supply and administrative personnel

So when your father became Assistant Regimental S-3, he wasn’t helping plan training and tactical operations for 100 or 200 men. He was working at headquarters on plans affecting an organization of around 3,000 soldiers.

And his regiment was only one part of the 2nd Infantry Division, which contained several regiments plus artillery, engineers, medical, communications and other supporting units. (2ID)

That actually makes the language in his award more impressive:

“keen foresight in planning tactical and training operations”

means he was helping plan and coordinate operations potentially involving thousands of soldiers.

So for the biography, I’d be comfortable explaining his job as:

“As Assistant Regimental S-3, Lt. Shorr helped plan and coordinate tactical operations and training for an infantry regiment of roughly 3,000 soldiers.”

That gives a reader a much better sense of the scale of what he was responsible for.

Map Old Baldy – Pork Chop Hill Area

Koje-Do POW Camp

Col. Don Carmichael
His Website (Archive.org)
Friend of Lt Paul Shorr

Video Interview

Excerpts of Manuscript where Don mentions Paul

YouTube  Videos

• Big Picture: The 2nd Infantry Division in Korea
• Pork Chop Hill – Gregory Peck 
• HD Stock Footage Korean War 2nd Infantry Battle for Old Baldy Reel 1
• HD Historic Stock Footage Korean War BATTLE FOR OLD BALDY