“Our
Country won’t go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won’t be any America
because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a
hardier race!”
Lieutenant General Lewis B. “Chesty”
Puller, USMC
The
peninsula of Korea had been an early target of Japanese aggression, being
forced to submit to status as a “protectorate” in 1905 and being formally
annexed in 1910. Koreans had fought vigorously to expel the hated invaders,
with the rebel forces including a mix of political ideologies. Communists were
heavily represented in the anti-Japanese insurgency and were led by a young man
named Kim Il-Sung. Like their western counterpart, Korean names consist of a
family name and a given name, however, the order is reversed.
When
the defeated Japanese pulled out of the Korean Peninsula, the country was
divided much as Germany had been sectioned off in Europe. The half of the
country north of the 38th parallel was administered by the Soviets
and their Chinese communist allies, while the task of rebuilding the southern
half and setting up a functioning government fell to the United States. An
eventual unified, stable, and independent Korea was the objective. Within a few
years, a series of disputed elections, incidents, and tensions caused each
section to form their own government, with the north being dominated by communist
Kim Il-Sung, and an American designed republic in the south led by Syngman Rhee.
As agreed, by 1949 both the US and the Soviets ended
their occupation of their respective zones and removed their military from the
now independent nations. It was hoped that the two sections would unite
peacefully, but a series of border clashes started immediately.
Less than five years after the Japanese occupation
ended, on June 25th, 1950, The North Korean People’s Army (KPA)
exploded across the 38th parallel with tanks, mechanized infantry,
and artillery support. They streamed south, completely overwhelming their lightly
armed southern foes. They quickly overran the southern capital of Seoul and
continued south in a string of victories against the southern armies. After the
end of WWII, the war weary US had rapidly demobilized their military forces,
leaving only a small group of occupying troops in Japan. Hearing of the
invasion, President Truman’s administration immediately petitioned the newly
formed United Nations to support the Republic of Korea (ROK), and a measure
condemning the aggression as well as encouraging member states to come to the
aide of the beleaguered nation passed.
As a founding member of the UN Security Council, the Soviets would
normally have wielded veto power and blocked any resolution against the
communists, but they were boycotting the UN over a disagreement related to
recognition of Taiwan.
A small element of US soldiers from the Army’s 24th
Infantry Division that had been in Japan were dispatched into the fight,
arriving at the air base of Osan just in time to meet advancing KPA forces.
Armed with only light weapons against heavy Soviet built battle tanks, they
bravely attacked. They were defeated, but their heroic stand slowed the KPA’s
march down the peninsula. 60 US soldiers were killed, 21 injured, and 82
captured by the KPA. (13) US forces slowly began to arrive and build up combat
power in the south, but the steady push by the KPA soon had them confined to a
small area on the far end of the peninsula around the city of Pusan. This
became known as the “Pusan Perimeter”, and US forces defended doggedly to avoid
being destroyed as more forces arrived and they planned a breakout.
Arriving forces included the 1st Marine
Division from Camp Pendleton as well as the army’s 7th Infantry
Division. 8,600 remaining ROK soldiers were added to form the X (Tenth) Corps.
X Corps was placed on amphibious ships and conducted an assault on the city of
Inchon, directly to the south of the 38th parallel on the west coast
of the peninsula. The attack was a success, Seoul was liberated, pressure on
the Pusan Perimeter was released, and now victorious US and ROK forces began to
push the KPA north, across the 38th parallel and deep into North
Korea. Kim Il-Sung made a frantic plea for help from his Chinese and Soviet
supporters for help, and after much debate, China deployed over 200,000 troops
to the border they shared with North Korea. The Marines had been ordered to the
far north of the country in a final effort to defeat the KPA and bring the war
to an end. The leader of the Marine division, Maj. General Smith, suspected Chinese
incursion over the border, but he had been overruled and directed north anyway.
As he suspected, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had secretly
infiltrated 12 divisions with an estimated 120,000 troops across the border in
the vicinity of the Marines and set a trap. The brutal Korean winter arrived,
the trap was sprung, and the Marines of 1st MarDiv together with
elements of US Army troops and British commandos were surrounded by an
overwhelming number of PLA troops and cut off from reinforcements.
With temperatures dropping to 30 degrees below zero, the single American
division was surrounded by a combined PLA and KPA force thought to be at least
four times as large, and likely much larger. The cold weather brought the kind
of agonizing friction we had learned about in TBS. Weapons malfunctioned,
vehicles wouldn't run, and the ground was so hard that fighting positions
couldn’t be dug. The situation was about as desperate any faced by Marines in
their history. Unintimidated, one of Smith’s regimental commanders, LtCol Lewis
B. (Chesty) Puller was reported to have remarked that, “There are not enough
chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment from going where
ever they want to go." They proceeded to “attack in an alternate
direction” and fought their way out in brutal hand to hand combat over a two
week period. Marines killed in combat were strapped to vehicles rather than be
left for the advancing PLA. The opposing PLA 9th Army was chewed to
pieces, with casualties estimated to be as high as 60,000. Combined Marine and
Army battle casualties were 10,495. (14)
The
conflict went back and forth until a cease fire was negotiated, and forces
pulled back to their respective sides of the 38th parallel. No
official peace treaty was ever signed, and the Koreas technically remain in a
state of war. A two-and-a-half-mile wide strip of land on either side of the
border serves as a buffer zone separating the countries. The Kim family
solidified their rule in hereditary communist dictatorship still in place today
with the rule of Kim Jong Un, the grandson of Kim Il-Sung.
Forty-Two
“I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew
I would not be believed.”
Marco Polo, of his
adventures in Asia
After
returning to Okinawa from the deployment, I found the division HQ to be a busy
place. Much of the planning staff had flown back and had been working while the
MEU made port calls and floated in the South China Sea. The planning was
related to an upcoming exercise in South Korea, known as Ulchi Focus Lens
(UFL). UFL was one of several large exercises designed to prepare for the
long-expected resumption of hostilities in Korea. This year’s event was going to include a
widespread computer network on the peninsula that would be used to transmit and
receive messages, reports, and map data. I was only a couple months away from
completing my twelve-month tour on the island, and my replacement, a Captain,
had been identified and would be arriving right as the exercise kicked off. The
G-6 staff worked steadily on our part of the operational order, designing the
architecture for the network, planning for communications frequencies, creating
equipment lists, telephone directories, and a myriad of details designed to
ensure the staff could function seamlessly once they arrived in country.
My
one-year tour was well over halfway complete at this point. A typical tour
length in the Corps is three years, but shorter, “unaccompanied” tours can be
for a single year. These are typically for officers deploying without families,
or for combat duty. While most of the lieutenants on the island were there for
a year, much of the older staff had brought their families and would live there
for three. I began to hear suggestions that I request an extension to my orders
and stay with the division at least one more year. Life in the FMF had been
exactly what I was looking for, but I knew that when August arrived I would be
ready to return to the US. I also had a diamond ring and a nascent plan for its
use. I floated the idea that Elizabeth visit me in Okinawa. My hope was she
would love the island and perhaps decide to return to teach in one of the
Department of Defense (DoD) schools. I could stay with the division and see her
when I wasn’t deployed. This plan was immediately and definitively shot down by
her parents, and she didn’t seem enthusiastic about it either. It was, in the
vernacular of the Corps, a “non-starter”. I learned that there was an officer
at HQMC that was responsible for duty assignments (known as a “monitor”), and I
began making calls to him to arrange a next assignment in North Carolina, or at
least on the East Coast.
We
were to operate from a ROK base near the town of Suwon, south of Seoul, where
the Headquarters for all Marine Forces in Korea was located. No one involved in
the planning was familiar with the ROK base facilities, and there were critical
questions about the infrastructure that would be present and the location.
Understanding the element of friction, General Byron wisely sought to minimize
surprises as much as possible. It was decided that a small team of three
Marines conduct a physical site survey to scope out the base and surrounding
area. While it wasn’t a dangerous trek behind enemy lines, it was still a rare
chance to operate independently and accomplish an important mission. I
enthusiastically volunteered for the trip. In speaking with the LtCol in charge
of my section, I reminded him that I knew how to operate a technology that was
brand new to the division at that time. At significant expense, new digital
camera had been purchased for this kind of mission. Since it was “computer
stuff” as the crusty old officers referred to anything digital, I had been the
one to unbox it and figured out how to take and download pictures. I explained intricate
details of how complicated the camera was to operate and told him about drivers
that would need to be loaded, software updates that would need to be performed,
and settings that had to be optimized or else it might not work. He agreed that
it would make sense for me to go, but there was a problem. My rotation date
back to the US was approaching. The anticipated return date for the exercise was
after I was supposed to check out, and I couldn’t leave an exercise while it
was still going on. Whoever conducted the site survey would not only take
pictures but would coordinate with the ROK Marines and staff at the base. It
wouldn’t do to have someone who wasn’t going on the exercise conduct all that
coordination. Whoever did the site survey would need to deploy for the main
event, and if I couldn’t do that, then they would have to find someone who
could. He was confident I could teach someone else how to operate the camera. I
was crestfallen. The LtCol thought a moment, and then offered a solution. “You
know, you could extend your tour and stay here with the division for another
year or so.” Another year in the fleet! The tour had flown by, and I had
enjoyed most of it except the near amputation of my finger, but extending for
another year wasn’t going to work. After weeks of back and forth, the monitor
at HQMC had begrudgingly offered up a job at the Marine Corps Logistics Base
(MCLB) in Albany, GA. It wasn’t Camp Lejeune, but it wasn’t in California
either. I asked if a shorter extension might work. After a quick discussion,
the issue was settled. I would extend for a month, so I could deploy for the
exercise, and he would recommend me for the site survey team. My extension was approved with no change to my
next assignment, and I made plans for the mission to Korea.
In
addition to the non-stop planning, we also conducted field exercises on the
island. During those, we would practice setting up the computers, connecting
them together with a master computer known as a server to form a local area
network (LAN). Microwave or hard-wired telecommunications lines would connect
LANs from different sites to form a Wide Area Network (WAN). All data
transmissions were encrypted by special devices to ensure the data flowing
across the WAN couldn’t be intercepted. True to what I had heard at TBS, the
Marine Corps was on the cutting edge. The technology could provide a critical
advantage during an operation, allowing messages, maps, and reconnaissance
photos to be instantly transmitted throughout the theater and beyond. We spent
hundreds of hours testing and tuning equipment settings and documenting how the
various components should be setup, so they worked as designed. Even with
documentation, there was always friction, resulting in our troubleshooting
skills being well developed.
When
I wasn’t on duty, I continued my work with the local Scout troop, taking over
as the Scoutmaster when the previous one left for another duty station. I took
the boys camping, coached them on advancements, and held study sessions where
we worked on fundamental skills. When I first visited their troop, meetings
were chaotic, with little organization or seeming purpose. The boys were rude,
and I was saddened by the way the older boys treated the younger ones. It was
far different from the troops I was used to. Over the year, the troop came into
order. Meetings had distinct opening and closing ceremonies. Scout signs and
salutes were given appropriately, and each meeting became structured, including
time for specific activities and games. Older boys took on responsibility for
teaching basic skills to the younger ones, and badges were promptly presented
once earned. After my long absence for the deployment to Thailand, I was
pleased to return and find things were still progressing in the right
direction. Scouting is a boy led adventure, but competent adults must provide
guidance and structure for the program to be effective.
Orders were cut for the site survey trip to Korea, and the duty driver ferried my small team to the base at Kadena. Since there were just a few of us, we were to wait at the airport for the next transport flying to the base of Osan, where the 24th Infantry Division had made their heroic stand. We waited for hours until our bird arrived. It was an Air Force KC-135 “Stratotanker”, which is a four-engine military jet that had been specially designed to conduct mid-air refueling of fighters and bombers. The plane had first flown in 1956 but remains the primary refueling aircraft for US forces. Aerial refueling gave the US a significant advantage for long range bombing or attack missions, as it greatly extends the range of operations and time on station over a target area. Once cleared to board, we climbed up the portable stairs into the fuselage of the craft and sat down in the familiar nylon covered metal framed seats on each side of the cavernous interior. There were only a handful of passengers, so we had plenty of room to stretch out. By this time, it was late afternoon, and the sun was low in the sky. The plane took off, and we watched as Okinawa disappeared into the water.
About half way to the peninsula, as it was just getting dark, we were joined by several other Air Force jets, who pulled into formation behind the Stratotanker. They were going to conduct a planned mid-air refueling over the East China Sea. A crew member came back and briefed us on the operation and said if we wanted to watch we could join him in the rear of the plane. I followed him back, where he had what looked like his own cockpit facing down and out the rear of the plane, with controls, levers, and instrument panels below a window. He lay down on his stomach on a bench, so he could see out the window and extended a telescoping boom hose behind the tanker. The first jet approached the end of the hose, and he skillfully guided the trailing hose to a connecting point on the jet to be refueled. A few minutes later, the process of fuel transfer was complete. The first jet disconnected, and the second moved into position and repeated the sequence. This played out a couple more times before the operation wrapped up. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed in Osan. The next day, a duty driver took us north to the ROK base at Suwon, about twenty miles south of Seoul. We met with the ROK Marines, discussed the operation and facilities, then inspected the area we would be operating from. No surprises. I used the new digital camera to take dozens of pictures, and we explored the area and made coordination with other US Marine units who were in the country. A few days later, with the mission complete, we were back at Osan for the return flight to Kadena. This time we caught a less exciting cargo plane.
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