A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home
The forgotten heroes of Chosin—how Task Force Faith fought against impossible odds and a legacy of unfair shame.

Interservice rivalry is as old as the Republic, although nothing shines a light on that better than a single battle during the Korean War. A Task Force Called Faith is the untold story of the rivalry between the US Army and US Marines in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in 1950. For seven decades, the Marines have been hailed as valiant heroes and the Army grunts as cowards. In ATask Force Called Faith, Steve Vogel sets the record straight. What he’s learned is the culmination of twenty years of research and outrage, first as a reporter for The Washington Post and now as a leading military historian.
 
At Chosin, an Army force of 2,300 soldiers—a unit known as Task Force Faith—positioned on the east side of the reservoir to protect the Marines’ flank but was overwhelmed by a Chinese force eight times its size. Almost 90 percent of the Army soldiers were killed, captured, or wounded. Yet, for all the years since the battle, the survivors of Task Force Faith have endured a dramatically different fate than their military brethren as they have been subject to accusations of cowardice and incompetence. The survivors and their families have long sought to clear their names of those terrible charges and reclaim the honor they won at the frozen lake.
 
A Task Force Called Faith does just that.
1147177039
A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home
The forgotten heroes of Chosin—how Task Force Faith fought against impossible odds and a legacy of unfair shame.

Interservice rivalry is as old as the Republic, although nothing shines a light on that better than a single battle during the Korean War. A Task Force Called Faith is the untold story of the rivalry between the US Army and US Marines in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in 1950. For seven decades, the Marines have been hailed as valiant heroes and the Army grunts as cowards. In ATask Force Called Faith, Steve Vogel sets the record straight. What he’s learned is the culmination of twenty years of research and outrage, first as a reporter for The Washington Post and now as a leading military historian.
 
At Chosin, an Army force of 2,300 soldiers—a unit known as Task Force Faith—positioned on the east side of the reservoir to protect the Marines’ flank but was overwhelmed by a Chinese force eight times its size. Almost 90 percent of the Army soldiers were killed, captured, or wounded. Yet, for all the years since the battle, the survivors of Task Force Faith have endured a dramatically different fate than their military brethren as they have been subject to accusations of cowardice and incompetence. The survivors and their families have long sought to clear their names of those terrible charges and reclaim the honor they won at the frozen lake.
 
A Task Force Called Faith does just that.
39.95 Pre Order
A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home

A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home

by Stephen Vogel
A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home

A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir-and Honor Back Home

by Stephen Vogel

Hardcover

$39.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Available for Pre-Order. This item will be released on November 18, 2025

Related collections and offers


Overview

The forgotten heroes of Chosin—how Task Force Faith fought against impossible odds and a legacy of unfair shame.

Interservice rivalry is as old as the Republic, although nothing shines a light on that better than a single battle during the Korean War. A Task Force Called Faith is the untold story of the rivalry between the US Army and US Marines in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in 1950. For seven decades, the Marines have been hailed as valiant heroes and the Army grunts as cowards. In ATask Force Called Faith, Steve Vogel sets the record straight. What he’s learned is the culmination of twenty years of research and outrage, first as a reporter for The Washington Post and now as a leading military historian.
 
At Chosin, an Army force of 2,300 soldiers—a unit known as Task Force Faith—positioned on the east side of the reservoir to protect the Marines’ flank but was overwhelmed by a Chinese force eight times its size. Almost 90 percent of the Army soldiers were killed, captured, or wounded. Yet, for all the years since the battle, the survivors of Task Force Faith have endured a dramatically different fate than their military brethren as they have been subject to accusations of cowardice and incompetence. The survivors and their families have long sought to clear their names of those terrible charges and reclaim the honor they won at the frozen lake.
 
A Task Force Called Faith does just that.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781493092895
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 11/18/2025
Pages: 472
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Steve Vogel is a historian and former foreign and military correspondent for The Washington Post. His coverage of the US war in Afghanistan was part of a package of Washington Post stories selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. He reported on the US war with Iraq in 2003 as an embedded journalist with an Army airborne brigade. Based in Germany from 1989 through 1994 and reporting for the Washington Post and Army and Air Force Times, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War, as well as military operations in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans.

Vogel covered the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon and was the first journalist to get inside the building’s most damaged sections. He reported in depth on the victims of the attack and the building’s reconstruction which led to his writing the history of the Pentagon. He lives in Barnesville, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Task Force Faith

PART I: THE ROAD TO CHOSIN
Chapter 1: An End to the Peace
Chapter 2: Inchon
Chapter 3: A New Mission
Chapter 4: Into North Korea
Chapter 5: To Chosin

PART II: THE BATTLE OF CHOSIN RESERVOIR
Chapter 6: The First Night-Monday-Tuesday, November 27-28
Chapter 7: The First Day-Tuesday, November 28
Chapter 8: The Second Night-Tuesday-Wednesday, November 28-29
Chapter 9: The Second Day-Wednesday, November 29
Chapter 10: The Third Night-November 29-30, 1950
Chapter 11: The Third Day-Thursday, November 30
Chapter 12: The Fourth Night-Thursday-Friday, November 30-December 1

PART III: THE BREAKOUT
Chapter 13: Breakout Morning-Friday, December 1
Chapter 14: Breakout Afternoon-December 1
Chapter 15: Breakout Night-Friday-Saturday December 1-2

PART IV: THE AFTERMATH
Chapter 16: The Fifth Day-Saturday, December 2
Chapter 17: Out of Chosin
Chapter 18: The War's End, 1951-53
Chapter 19: After the War
Epilogue

Acknowledgments
Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index

 
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews