During the Korean War, American troops in the Chosin Reservoir were outnumbered 8 to 1, supplies were running low, temperatures plummeted to minus 25 degrees, and food was almost impossible to warm up. They were also running low on mortar shells. In ordering mortar shell resupplies, they used a codename established for the munitions: Tootsie Rolls. Somebody took that literally, however, and airdropped the beleaguered troops crates of the candy, instead. The story is, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, enabling the American forces to be recharged and break out of the Chosin Reservoir, and fight their way to safety, and the men who survived the battle started calling themselves the “Chosin Few.” Is this story true, and if so, was the lucky misunderstanding a divine intervention?

Interestingly enough, this is only partly true but the part that is true is it was a divine intervention to provide relief with something edible and something encouraging to uplift the spirits of the beleaguered soldiers suffering this cruel winter, on top of being under siege in a war and in a foreign land as well. The story was embellished. The Tootsie Rolls did not save the day but were a bright spot that uplifted and encouraged the soldiers and was of material benefit in providing some caloric support under extreme temperature conditions but, war being war, they needed munitions as well and this was also supplied subsequently. So the breakout and escape to safety was accomplished by fighting their way and the Tootsie Roll candy was not the key to that but only an encouragement to the fighting men.