Deep Dive

are the objects on their person at the time. You might not think you could patch up a wound with only a rifle, a knife, and some leaves you found on the ground, but when you're under enemy fire, you find a way. And the United States military had to find a way when they ran a foul of the Chinese army during the Korean War. The chan Jin Mountain Reservoir, known by American forces as the Chosen Reservoir, became a hotbed of action during the Chinese Second Defensive of nineteen fifty.

The war appeared to be over as U N forces advanced into North Korea in order to unite the two sides. A reunification wasn't going to happen if the People's Republic of China had anything to say about it. One hundred twenty thousand Chinese soldiers infiltrated North Korea in an effort to stop the U n's advancement. They reached the reservoir first, while a special group of United States soldiers known as

the ex Corps approached from the coast. I know they sound like characters out of a Marvel comic book, but trust me, they were real superheroes. Fifteen thousand men from the Marines and the U. S Army were ready to end the war once and for all and bring stability to the region. You might be wondering why only fifteen thousand if the Chinese had deployed eight times that amount into the area, And that's because the United States forces had no idea the Chinese army was waiting for them.

They snuck in and fortified their position, waiting for the Americans to arrive. The X Corps held their own for over two weeks against the Chinese military, but the harsh, terragn and brutal fighting had left them all but defeated. Stuck in freezing temperatures and outgunned. The X Corp the best of the best. We're running out out of AMMO, out of food, and out of time. They were surrounded.

The enemy was closing in on thousands of US soldiers, many of whom had nothing to defend themselves with except broken guns and equally broken spirits. Worst of all, the mortar shelves they used to beat back the Chinese forces had run dry, so they called in for an air drop. Tutsi rolls they called them. It sounds silly, but code names like that were necessary to prevent the other side from knowing what was coming in case someone happened to

be listening in. Unfortunately, who ever took the air drop order didn't understand the code name. The X Corps got their supplies, boxes and boxes of what they thought were mortar shells, ready to launch. What they received, however, was far less explosive. Their pleas for tutsie rolls had gotten them exactly what they'd asked for, tutsie rolls, little chocolate candies wrapped up in wax paper. This might have signaled the end for the U S forces, now without an

escape plan and their chances of survival dwindling. After all, you can't win a war with chocolate as your only supply unless you're the x core. The men were quickly revitalized by the sugar rush bestowed upon them from overhead, and they quickly realized that their little candies, although hardened by the reservoirs freezing winds, became soft and pliable when

warmed up in their mouths. They chewed them into a putty like substance, which they then spread over the holes in their weapons, letting the wind freeze them in place. With their bellies full and their guns back in action, the ex Corps were once again a formidable threat. They managed to fight back just enough to get out of enemy territory and make their way to the nearest coast where they could regroup. It sounds almost too strange to be true, the idea that a simple chocolate candy saved

the lives of so many American soldiers in Korea. But as it turns out, Tootsie rolls made as good a patching material as they did a candy. Now that I think about it, it's a good thing they didn't call in for an air drop of life. Savers Louis was born in Plymouth, England, to parents who dedicated their lives to helping others. His father was a surgeon in the Royal Navy, and his mother worked as a nurse in

Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. Lewis learned from a young age that the best use of anyone's gifts was to use them in service of others. The family moved to South Africa when Louis was ten, and that was where he found his true love the water. Louis hadn't had a real swimming lesson until late in high school, but it didn't take long for him to outpace the other students. A month after his first lesson, he swam four point three miles to Robin Island off the coast

of Cape Town. That's the same island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years, and that gave Lewis an idea about what he would attempt next. Well after he finished his education at least, Louis took a break from his dairy nautical trials and went to college, studying law at the University of Cape Town, before eventually returning to England to practice maritime law. It seemed no matter where he went, he always managed to stay close to the water.

Six years later, though, it was time to dive back in, so to speak, but he did not ease into things slowly. He swam across the English Channel in fourteen and a half hours and then moved on to colder, harsher challenges around the world. And maybe you've noticed, but Louis just couldn't sit still. He needed to push himself with each

swim farther, faster, longer. Louis set a number of records along the way, becoming the first swimmer to swim around the Cape Peninsula, the southernmost point of Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope, the northernmost point in Europe. He even swam the length of the sun Ya Fjord, the longest of Norway's fiords. At one seven miles. It took

him twenty one days to do it. Possibly his greatest feat came in achieving the Holy Grail of swimming by completing a long distance swim in all five of the world's oceans, four of which were accomplished over the course of only two years. Louis was an unstoppable force, and his achievements gained him a bit of notoriety, notoriety that he used to bring awareness to environmental issues all over

the world, namely climate change. In fact, many of his record swims since then we're done in an effort to bring awareness to the effects of climate change on our ocean, seas and glaciers, including one such feat in a glacial lake on Mount Everest. To swim in such a frigid environment, most people would have needed a special wetsuit or equipment to regulate their body temperature, but there was something different

about Louis, something almost superhuman. A professor from the University of Cape Town measured Louis's body temperature and found something astonishing. Louis could actually increase his core body temperature by two degrees just before a swim in cold waters, a phenomenon he called anticipatory thermogenesis. No one else on earth has been able to do it. All of this, compounded with his long distance swims in all seven seas, has cemented

Louis Pew as an icon of environmental change. His act of is m has sparked actual legislation in the UK as well. That all happened in two thousand six when Louis decided to swim the length of the Thames River. Yeah, all two fifteen miles of it. All to raise awareness of the growing drought across England as a result of global warming. Louis dove into the water and took off a human torpedo on a mission. But he had just

one stop to make first. He jumped out of the river and took a quick detour to ten Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair. The two had a brief chat before Louis took his leave back to the frigid Thames to complete his journey. It might have been this herculean trial that convinced the Prime Minister, after all, two fifteen miles is a long way to swim to prove a point. Or it might have been something he said to convince him to take action.

But one thing is certain. Not long after Louis's visit to ten Downing Street, Tony Blair introduced to Parliament what is now known as the Climate Change Act of two thousand eight. Louis Pew is still swimming for environmental causes today, one body of water at a time. His efforts are working too. Little by little. The awareness he's raising is helping clean up our oceans and rivers, so future generations might enjoy them. Sometimes if you want to make a change,

you just have to dive right in. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.