The Forgotten War, The Forgotten Victory
Here in the upstate of South Carolina, and all across the nation, a select group of men and women remember well answering the call, (Selective Service, ie: Draft Notice), for military service. Going where? to a land most had never heard of and surely couldn’t speak the language. And because the United States had not been attacked by anyone, and because we were still feeling the effects of WWII, the big question was why? The short answer was the United Nations and because the US government and the American people did not think we should go to War in Korea, most resented it and ever since it has become known as the “Forgotten War”.
The Korean War began about 4:00 am on the morning of June 25,1950 when seven crack divisions, (135,000) of Russian trained and Russian equipped troops of the North Korean Peoples Army (NKPA) stormed the 38th parallel without warning to invade the Republic of South Korea and overtake the capital city of Seoul. When the word reached Washington, President Truman and the UN declared “this is war against the United Nations.” The United States was asked to take, along with 20 other Nations, to stop the North Korean attack. Korea was a War that America did not want to fight but it was a War we had to fight. The United States had accepted the role of leadership for the entire free world against Communism and the Soviet Union.
It was not just another Conflict nor was it a Police Action, it was a WAR. The bulk of the UN Forces to serve in Korea would be Americans, whose peak strength reached 348,000. Of the 5.7 million in uniform during the War, at least 1.5 million were rotated in and out of Korea. More than 37,000 American GI’s lost their lives, (KIA) another 100,000 were wounded, (WIA), 6,866 became prisoners of War, (POW), more than 8,00 remain unaccounted for today, (MIA) The Republic Koreas Army (ROK) reached a strength of 590,911 and suffered 272,975 casualties, wounded or killed in action. FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
The fighting qualities of the NKPA had been greatly underestimated by the US intelligence adding to the fact that the Communist Chinese had entered the War. They came at our soldiers and Marines out of the mountains by the thousands with that eerier sound of their bugles blaring. Some believed that the Chinese only came into the War to take prisoners and control some of the 12 different POW camps. They did that for sure and the POW’s would immediately begin to experience the most inhumane conditions and atrocities imaginable. On more than one occasion POW’s would be moved into an area only to find men that had been bound and executed. Often when prisoners were captured they were bound by their wrists and sometimes to each other, with discarded telephone wire or by their own nylon parachute cord. Often they had to witness NKPA troops moving south to the front lines with captured US Army trucks and artillery and troops carrying American rifles.
To say it was cold in Korea would be an understatement. In November of 1950 American troops found themselves in the coldest temperatures recorded in over 100 years. At one point it was reported that a thermometer registered a frozen 54 degrees below zero. In the beginning the American soldiers and Marines were only equipped with normal summer uniforms not meant to withstand the frigid and unforgiving winters in that part of the world.
Still fresh in their memories Korean War Veterans share stories of the Inchon Landing, Battle of Osan and Teajon, Battle of the Notch, Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, Operation Thunderbolt, Battle of Hill 440, Battle of the Punchbowl, Battle of Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, Battle for Old Baldy, Bunker Hill, Battle of Porkchop Hill, Battle of the Hook, T-Bone Hill and the atrocities of the POW camps run by the Chinese.
The United States won the War in Korea not with an unconditional surrender as in WWII, instead with an acceptable armistice agreement, fragile even today with continuing tensions from the north. We still have more than 40,000 troops in South Korea and still guarding the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Korean War Veterans have organized over 300 chapters across the country with four in South Carolina. The Foothills Chapter 301 in Greenville is the most active. All are chartered by the 16,000 member National KWVA. Membership includes veterans of all branches of military service. Any person who has served honorably in South Korea from 1945 to the present, or outside of Korea June 25, 1950 to Jan 1955. This includes the younger veterans who have been in Korea at any time since the War years. Those we need to sustain our membership.
The Foothills Chapter #301 in Greenville is raising funds for the long overdue WALL OF REMEMBRANCE to be added to the Korean Memorial in Washington, DC. Their goal is $200,000 to cover the cost of engraving the names of all who were Killed in Action or held as POW from the state of South Carolina. Donations may be made to the Foothills Chapter, earmarked “WOR” mailed to P.O. Box 6903 Greenville, SC 29606.
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Portions of this article came from personal interviews with three area Korean War Ex-POW”s. with Honor and respect for Frank Tooley, Greer, SC., Richard Raby, Greer, SC., William Funchese, Clemson, SC.