Private 1st Class Joseph Gatz remembers the unsettling feeling that the men of 1st Recon felt as they dug themselves into the defensive perimeter at Koto-ri. Rumors had circulated for weeks that they would be home for Christmas. Now they were aware that the Chinese had surrounded most of their Division just miles to their north and that they would likely face the new enemy within hours. It became common knowledge that the Chinese had called for the annihilation of the 1st Marine Division.