On the 4th of July, Colonel Potter decided to let several members of the 4077 take the day off for an old fashioned celebration. They went to the beach at Inchon. Inchon was west of Ouijongbu, and most of the fighting was in Kum Song, to the northeast. It was a nice summer day and the beach trip seemed just the thing to break the tension. On the way back to the MASH unit, the bus stopped to pick up some refugees. About a half a mile later; it stopped again, this time to pick up some wounded GIs. "We gotta get this bus into the bushes," one of the GIs said. "There's an enemy patrol coming down the road. Everyone get quiet. Nobody make a sound until they've passed us." The bus was hidden. Inside, everyone grew nervous. Each person sat on the edge of his seat, quietly breathing the tense air; terrified that each breath might be his last. Suddenly, a refugee baby began to wail. "Shhhh," Hawkeye hissed. The child's mother was in despair. She could not quiet the baby. If its sounds attracted the North Koreans, everyone could be killed. Soundlessly, the woman smothered her child.
