Colonel Keith meanwhile led Support Force 21 south from the road junction just before noon, two companies of Colonel Keleher's infantry moving through the high ground on both sides of Route 29 to protect the motor column and remaining foot troops on the road. Both Support Team A and Support Team B remained with Colonel Maixner to help defend the perimeter which was still under assault. Mortar and artillery fire and airstrikes arranged by Colonel Coughlin pounded the ridges ahead of the support force, but Keleher's men almost immediately ran into strong resistance and lost momentum after . Keleher committed the remainder of his battalion, but it was not enough to revitalize his attack. About the time Keleher's attack stalled, word reached Colonel Coughlin that the 18th Regiment, ROK 3rd Division, assembled about east of Hoengsong, would send a battalion north astride Route 29 at 14:00 to help open the road. General Almond had ordered this attack shortly after instructing the artillery support forces to withdraw. Support Team E (Company G, 187th RCT, and a platoon from the 72nd Tank Battalion), also assembled nearby, was to accompany the South Koreans. The assistant commander of the ROK 3rd Division was to head the force, but Almond assigned the Corps armored officer, Lt. Col. Jack F. Wilhm, to coordinate the organization and opening of the infantry-armor advance. Coughlin had no part in it at all. The South Korean battalion was late getting started, then advanced only north of Hoengsong onto the first hills above the Twinnan-mul. Support Team E moved only as far as the river's lower bank. Observing the short advance and halt, Coughlin's operations officer, Maj. Warren D. Hodges, sought out the ROK commander and argued for continuing the advance. The ROK officer refused, his orders, he insisted, were to take the hills he now occupied and hold them only until dark. His one concession was that he would remain in position until the forces withdrawing from the road junction passed through. Coughlin did not have the authority to order the ROK-U.S. force further up Route 29, but he had finally regained his 3rd Battalion to assist the withdrawal from the road junction. General Almond released the battalion from its blocking assignment at 14:30.
