The story
   After the 65th Infantry Regiment was engaged in the battle for Outpost Kelly (17-24 September 1952), it was pulled off the front line and ordered into an intensive retraining program by the 3rd Division Commander. The regiment had suffered over 500 casualties. Due to the regiment's failure to hold and recapture Outpost Kelly, the Puerto Rican Regimental Commander, Colonel (COL) Juan Cesar Cordero, was quietly relieved of command on 10 October and replaced by a Continental Commander, Colonel Chester B. De Gavre.
    A meeting was held at the regimental command post that evening to welcome the new Regimental Commander. In attendance were the Battalion Commanders and Regimental staff. There was a discussion on what to do to improve things after the regiment's poor performance during the battle for Outpost Kelly. Many officers used this opportunity to complain about their perceptions of the Puerto Rican soldiers "lack of discipline" and "will to fight", and severely criticized the previous Puerto Rican Regimental Commander. The Commander of the 2nd Battalion, Carlos Betances, a Regular Army Lieutenant Colonel and the senior Puerto Rican officer remaining in the regiment, was disgusted by the dishonorable "back-stabbing" behavior of many of the regiment's officers.
    It seemed everything was wrong. Officers were blaming all the regiment's problems on the Puerto Rican soldiers themselves and the previous Puerto Rican Regimental Commander. He thought he was seeing " a portrait of the dirtiest disloyalty I had ever seen in my life". One of the Continental officers of the Regimental Staff  thought of an old saying, "it is a poor carpenter who blames his tools".
    One suggestion advanced by the Continental Regimental Executive Officer, LTC Clayton C. Craig, was for all the Puerto Rican soldiers to shave their mustaches off until they could "prove they were real men". When the second Battalion Commander heard of this order, he spoke personally with COL De Garve, disagreeing with the idea. He pointed out that an order for the soldiers to shave off their mustaches would be very destructive to the morale of the Puerto Rican soldiers. He explained that in a Continental unit, the order would be received more or less well. In a Puerto Rican unit, where 90% of the men wear mustaches as a cultural trait, it would be humiliating and interpreted by the soldiers as a challenge to their manhood and as discrimination, since Continental soldiers in the other regiments were allowed to wear mustaches. Col De Gavre refused to change his mind.
    The 2nd Battalion Commander had an ominous feeling. Had he made a bad first impression with the new commander? Now it appeared the Regimental Exec had the new commander's  favor. That same Regimental Executive Officer had also refused to allow Puerto Rican officers the use of the regimental shower facility.
    The three battalion Chaplains visited with COL De Gavre to explain the important cultural and religious implication to the Puerto Rican soldier of their mustaches. To the soldiers their mustaches represented masculinity and maturity. This advice was ignored.
    When the order, that everyone must shave off their mustaches, was finally issued to the regiment, a spirit of rebellion spread throughout the unit. Many soldiers absolutely refused to follow the order. Soldiers were given one week to comply or face the charges of a court-martial.
Many waited until the last minute, then complied to avoid prosecution.
    It appears that the Non-Commissioned Officers, were affected the most by the mustache order. An eyewitness saw the Enlisted Men openly laughing at the NCO's once they had shaved. So not only the pride, but also the prestige of the few NCO's was effected.
    Shortly afterward, other orders were issued which added to the destruction of the morale of the regiment. Soldiers noted that the rations had changed. The soldiers normally ate rice and beans with their hot meal that was sent to the front each day. The ration was changed to potatoes and hot dogs. The order was also given that the word "Borinqueneers" was to be removed from the regimental jeeps. "Borinqueneers"  is the name the Regiment selected for itself to identify the unit and derived from the native Indian name for Puerto Rico, "Borinquen". The troops immediately began to speculate that the new Regimental Commander obviously disliked Puerto Ricans and was trying to punish them.
    The regiment was still in an intense training program when it was ordered back into the line to replace the Republic of Korea (ROK) 51st Infantry Regiment of the ROK 9th Infantry Division. The ROK's had been heavily engaged in combat with the Chinese and were in danger of collapsing. On the night of 24/25 October the regiment moved into a position on the east side of the Chorwan valley with its right flank resting in the area just south of hill 391.

G Company