AFPAAA Members Remember... The Korean War. June 25, 1950 July 27, 1953

Transcription

1 AFPAAA Members Remember... The Korean War June 25, 1950 July 27, 1953

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3 June 17, 2000 Who made up the American military after World War II? There were lifers left over from World War II, grown thick around the waist from inactivity and lack of training. There were teenagers who were the lower ranks of the peacetime American military. There were reservists and guardsmen who picked-up a few bucks at monthly drills and summer encampment to supplement their G.I. Bill benefits while going through college. We had the atomic bomb. Nobody would mess with us. There wouldn t be another war. Korea was a sleepy outpost. Few American s knew we had military units there and few cared until June 25, A half century has gone by since the day the Korean War started. The United States has more forces deployed in Korea today than it had fifty years ago. They face a formidable foe in North Korea. A more formidable foe, complete with nuclear and missile capabilities, than the one that rolled over everything in its path until all that the forces of freedom held was a small wedge of land around the port of Pusan. Members of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association helped defend South Korea then and they do so today. This booklet carries memories of the Korean War from some of our members. It is presented to those attending our Seventh Annual Membership Meeting in tribute to them, and to all our other members and those in all the military services who served, and those who gave their lives for the cause of freedom in Korea so many years ago. John Terino Editor

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5 From The Pentagon When, without warning, the North Korean People s Army invaded South Korea on the morning of June 25, 1950, I was a civilian writer and editor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the brand new Department of Defense in Washington. My position was in the Armed Force Information & Education Division, which was staffed by military personnel from all four Services under an Army major general. It was my responsibility to get information out to that multi-service audience that would explain what had happened, and the reasons why it was vital for them to help the United States and its allies defeat the aggression. Fortunately, as the editor in chief of Armed Forces Talk a monthly discussion guide for Commanders Calls and Pocket Guides to Foreign Countries, I had a wealth of sources at hand I could turn to. One of the most useful was the State Department Bulletin, which was loaded with official information and up-to-date policy on all the countries of interest to our nation. I combined this data with unclassified Army geographical and anthropological studies of various countries to put together a fairly comprehensive, succinct history of Korea, North and South, and of our relationships up until that time. I included information about the culture of the people and geopolitical facts. President Truman had already given reasons I could use for his ordering our Armed Forces into the conflict. I wrote it, got it cleared by OSD and the State Department very quickly, and, almost immediately, June 25, 1950 The North Korean Army crosses the 38th parallel and invades South Korea. June 27, 1950 In New York City, the UN Security Council, with the absence of the Soviets, calls for a cease fire and asks members to take military action against North Korea s aggression. President Harry S. Truman announces USAF has been ordered to help South Korea repel the invasion.

6 June 27, 1950 Lieutenant William Hudson in an F-82 Twin Mustang, destroys a North Korean Yak-7 for the first aerial victory of the conflict. Two other Yaks were downed. Later in the day F-80s destroyed four IL-10s trying to bomb Seoul s Kimpo airfield; two were credited to Lieutenant Robert E. Wayne. June 28, 1950 North Korea captures South Korea s capital, Seoul. June 28, 1950 Flying from Japan in an RF-80A to observe North Korean Forces, Lieutenant Bryce D. Poe II completes the first jet combat reconnaissance mission. it was published in full in Stars & Stripes in Japan, covering several pages. It probably was about 4,500 words in length. Unfortunately, I don t have a copy of the special Armed Forces Talk or the Stars & Stripes. Major General W. K. Harrison, Chief of the Department of Defense Armed Forces Information and Education Division, in a letter dated June 30, 1950, which I received at my home in Alexandria, Va., wrote: In an emergency situation, working overtime, and under pressure, you produced in two days the manuscript of an Armed Forces Talk on the Korean situation which was extremely well written, factually accurate, and worthy of high commendation. I know this was the kind of crash job that almost every public affairs person has done more than once in his or her career but you remember it warmly after those rare occasions when someone says thanks, especially in a letter mailed to your home by special delivery on the very heels of the event. It s a curious fact that William K. Harrison is remembered in the history books in his role as Chief UN negotiator at the peace talks with North Korea representatives at Panmunjom, beginning on 22 May But the bitter war went on month after month, with thousands of dead and wounded increasing on both sides while the negotiators got nowhere. Finally, on July 27, 1953, a cease-fire was signed at Panmunjom by Lt. Gen. Nam Il and Lieutenant General William K. Harrison and the fighting ended 12 hours later. Frank W. Jennings

7 From A Medevac Aircrew On June 25th, 1950, I was assigned to the 1266 Air Transport Squadron at Hickam AFB. We had been flying C-97 Stratofreighters and until that date our regular run was between Honolulu and the mainland. But the invasion of South Korea soon changed that. We began flying troops to Japan and in short order wounded from Korea to the U.S. Our route to the war zone was from California to Hawaii then Wake and Tokyo. On the return we flew from Tokyo to Midway Island and then to Hawaii. We put in a lot of flying and most of us exceeded the 125-hour-a-month limit. Occasionally I flew with a C-54 crew and went in country with our cargo, but mostly it was in the C-97 getting there fastest with the mostest. One image I will always remember is the gooney birds on Midway who seemed to need a running start before they could get airborne. I can still hear the laughter of the ambulatory wounded who were able to watch the running take off of the gooneys, which occasionally resulted in the birds falling over before they got in the air. I also remember the control tower telling us we were next to take off after gooneys cleared the runway... and they really were there. I also recall the excitement when we first learned about the jet stream and the fantastic tailwinds when we flew north of the great circle route. We were able to bypass Midway and even Hawaii, going directly to Fairbanks or Elmendorf. All the crews, including those on C-54s, tried to fly that route. Korea may be the forgotten war, but I won t soon forget the boys we flew to the battle and the wounded we airlifted home. Irv Breslauer June 29, 1950 B-26 Invaders attack the Pyongyang airfield in the USAF s first bombing raid on North Korea. June 30, 1950 President Truman authorizes air strikes on targets in North Korea. June 30, 1950 First U. S. ground troops, under General Douglas MacArthur who is commander of the unified U.N. force, go into action at Osan. August 4, 1950 The North Korean Army pins UN forces to a small perimeter around the South Korean port of Pusan.

8 From A Recalled Guardsman September 4, 1950 Lieutenant Paul Van Boven and Corporal John Fuentz accomplish the first helicopter rescue of a pilot behind enemy lines when they pick up F-80 pilot Captain Robert E. Wayne. September 15, 1950 UN forces succeed in an amphibious assault at the port of Inchon behind enemy lines. October 7, 1950 UN forces cross the 38th parallel into North Korea. October 19, 1950 North Korean capital of Pyongyang captured. I was the night bureau manager for United Press in New Orleans after four years as aviation, travel and shipping editor, and an investigative reporter for The Item. I was also a member of the Louisiana Air National Guard 122nd Light Bomb Squadron. From June onward, word kept coming down that we would be called to active duty. It occurred on March 1, 1951, and the squadron was assigned to Langley AFB. Within a few months I received orders for the Far East. In August 1951, I became public relations officer for the Far East Air Material Command at Tachikawa Air Base outside Tokyo. I wrote a number of special articles for my old newspaper, The Item, and was officer-in-charge of the command s newspaper, the FEAMCOM Observer. On April 2, good old Bill McGinty a major even then known far and wide by countless Air Force public information people called me up to Far East Air Forces Headquarters in the Meiji Building in Tokyo. I soon became chief of the Press, Magazines, and Pictorial Branch with a staff of three officers and three enlisted men. We issued daily air combat communiques and uncounted sidebar feature stories, usually with photographs. While Fifth Air Force released material locally, we in FEAF distributed throughout the world and responded to continuous queries and requests from correspondents from around the globe. We told the story of the great achievements of our fighter, bomber,

9 and transport aircraft in various ways, using different media. We held special news conferences in Tokyo for our jet aces USAF F-86 Sabre jets shot down MIG- 15s at a 14:1 ratio and others who distinguished themselves in air combat against the Communists. I traveled extensively throughout Japan and Korea. It was my privilege to become acquainted with all the well-known foreign correspondents covering the conflict people like Cecil Brown of NBC, Peter Kalischer of CBS, Keyes Beech of the Chicago Daily News, John Randolph of AP, Earnest Hoberecht of UP, Marvin Stone and Howard Handleman of INS, and so many other. I flew in the back seat of an F-94 Starfire on a mission up to the Yalu River in North Korea near Manchuria searching for MIG-15s. But we sighted none that day perhaps luckily for me. We covered the truce which was reached at last on July 27, 1953, and there were lots of other exciting and historic activities which we wrote about such as prisonerof-war exchanges and the riots in Korea by enemy prisoners. I left Japan in January 1954 for assignment to the Air Force Office of Information in Los Angeles and returned to Japan four years later. But the memories of my initial stay in the Far East remain with me forever, especially the camaraderie with all of those wonderful Air Force Public Information people, both male and female, whom I came to know so well. Some of them are members of AFPAAA and seeing them again at our annual gatherings is always a pleasure, and I look forward to continuing to do so in the years to come. Ben Scarpero October 20, 1950 Seventy-one C-119s and 40 C-47s drop 2,860 men and more than 300 tons of equipment of the 187th Airborne Regiment on Sukchon in the first paratroop assault of the war. October 15, 1950 Truman and MacArthur meet at Wake Island. October 26, 1950 Advance UN units on the Yalu River, that divides North Korea from China, are attacked by Chinese Forces. November 8, 1950 Lieutenant Russell J. Brown in an F-80 Shooting Star downs a MIG-15 in history s first jet air combat.

10 From A Volunteer December 5, 1950 The Chinese and North Korean armies launch an offensive and recapture Pyongyang. December 17, 1950 On their first day in combat, F-86 Sabres get four MIG-15s in the first meeting of sweptwing jet aircraft. January 4, 1951 The Chinese and North Korean Armies continue to drive UN forces southward as they reoccupy Seoul. January 25, 1951 The U. S. Eighth Army launches an offensive to repel the attack. I had been a B-17 pilot in Europe in World War II, was shot down on my 17th mission on July 8, 1944, and was a POW until April 15, 1945, when with six others I escaped and met advancing British forces. After the war there were degrees in journalism and aviation science from the University of Illinois, work for the federal government in Washington, and a job with a media group in Dallas, Texas. In late 1950 I volunteered for active duty. I thought for sure I d be tapped for a tour in Korea, but it didn t happen that way. I was assigned to the new Air Research and Development Command s Air Force Missile Development Center at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. My duties there were operational pilot, Public Information Officer, and aide to the center commander. One of the center s projects was to develop radio and television controlled bombs that aircraft could release and guide without having the to fly over the target. That R&D effort got me to Korea. In the Spring of 1951 we sent two B-29s to Yokota Air Base, Japan, to fly missions in North Korea to test the guided bombs. I went along as a copilot and Public Information Officer. As the PIO, my job was to not let any information out about the then highly classified test. We flew daylight missions to try and hit the bridges across the Yalu River between North Korea and China. I made two of the flights. We had plenty of fighter escort and never ran into any MIGs. By September 1952 I d been reassigned from Holloman to Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee. That s where I was when Korea ended. Jack R. Olsen

11 From The Air I was a journalism graduate student at the University of Illinois when the letter recalling me to active duty arrived. My assignment was as the reserve M-Day Information Officer for Chanute AFB, but that didn t last long. It was noted that as a weekend reservist before the recall, I had flown available T-6s at Chanute. You might say my assignment to Korea as a forward air controller was inevitable. We were known as Mosquito pilots a name given to us by the North Koreans who knew they would be stung by the fighters shortly after we fired our smoke rockets. Initially missions were flow by an L-5 and one T-6. Their effectiveness led to the quick build-up of more T-6s. At first there were no smoke rockets. The T-6 pilot dipped down into the target area and pointed it out with one of his wingtips while a description was radioed to the fighters above. By the time I got to Korea, we were using rockets to mark the targets, but on one of my missions I got a taste of what wingtip marking was like. I was leading a flight of F-51 Mustangs against artillery positions in the mountains west of Anchor Hill. I had peeled off to fire a smoke rocket into the target when suddenly my rudder locked. I yelled to my infantry observer to get his feet off the pedals - he called back he didn t have his feet on the pedals. We were locked in a skidding turn. All I could do was pull the nose up and hold on to the little altitude we had while I stomped the rudder pedals until they snapped free. Now we were locked in a skid to the left, but I found I could control the rate of turn with aileron. February 21, 1951 UN forces launch Operation Killer to push the Chinese and North Korean forces north of the 38th parallel. March 18, 1951 UN forces retake Seoul and positions along the 38th parallel. For the next two years, they are mainly involved in defensive operations. April 11, 1951 After threats of massive retaliation against China that implied the use of nuclear weapons, General MacArthur is relieved of his command by President Truman and replaced by Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgeway.

12 April 12, 1951 Two MIG-15s are downed by a B- 29 Superfortress gunner the first time a jet has been shot down by a bomber. May 20, 1951 Captain James Jabara becomes the world s first jet ace when he shoots down MIGs five and six. July 6, 1951 The first in-flight refueling in combat occurs when a KB-29 refuels four RF-80s during a flight over North Korea. With the rudders unreliable, I didn t dare put the nose down and fire another rocket at the target. The only thing to do, other than abort the mission, was to resort to wingtip pointing. I did just that while my observer gave the F-51s a deliberate and painfully accurate description of the target. The Mustangs hit the target and we slowly jerked our way back to friendly lines, which were only a mile away. It felt like it took us ten long years to get there before we landed safely. As it happens in war, the children suffer the most. After a mission, I would circle an elementary school and gun my engine. The kids would come out into the yard and I d drop candy to them. When I returned to the states, I recognized another student as a reservist I knew before I was recalled. He asked me where I had been. Oh, I got a letter ordering me to active duty. I went to Korea, and I m back, I replied. The guy - a future lawyer - laughed. I got one of those letters. Never answered it. Jack Jordan July 10, 1951 Peace negotiations begin at Kaesong, North Korea.

13 From The Ground I took the first PR crews into Korea for the Air Force. On one of my over-and-backs had Edward R. Murrow and a stack of 27 white jerricans of blood plasma going into Taegu, Korea. We had barely landed when were taken to the controller s tent. He was chewing out a pilot for NOT taking out a target given him. The pilot said: But it s a woman with a baby... Screw that, said the controller. Take it out. In a few minutes the pilot landed, was white and shaken, came in for debriefing and kept repeating I can t believe what I just did... The controller responded To hell with that... a few more flybys like yours and we ll all be in inner tubes in the Sea of Japan. Using old men and women, and women with babes in arms to shield the North Koreans who were right behind them was the North Korean strategy. No refugee column was free of infiltrators. It was like that over and over, and we barely were able to keep a foothold in that little acreage they call the Pusan perimeter. Bob Considine asked General Rosie O Donnell what it was like using B-29s for tactical air support missions and he put it well, saying It s like trying to put a lady s hatpin in an elephant s ass. Barney Oldfield June 23-24, 1952 Air Force, Navy, and Marine planes fly more than 1,200 sorties the largest air attack since WW II to virtually destroy North Korea s electric power production. October 1952 Negotiations break down because of disagreements about the release procedures for POWs. October 23, 1952 Three B-29s, escorted by 89 fighters, are shot down when 150 MIG-15s attack; six MIGs are downed in the battle. April 16-18, 1953 Battle of Pork Chop Hill. April 27, 1953 Negotiations resume.

14 From A Childhood Memory July 27, 1953 Compromise on POW issues results in signing of cease-fire at Panmunjom that ends the war. 33,629 Americans are killed in action, including 1,200 Air Force; 20,617 more die from noncombat causes of which 5,884 are Air Force. Totals: 54,246 dead; 103,284 wounded. Medals of Honor Four members of the USAF Majors George A. Davis, Jr., Charles J. Loring, Jr., and Louis J. Sebille; and Captain John S. Walmsley, Jr. are awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. It was a month before my tenth birthday. We were driving home from dinner at my grandmother s in Far Rockaway a suburb of New York City across from Kennedy Airport. My father had let me turn on the radio in our 1940 Chevrolet. The announcement of the invasion of South Korea came from the speaker on the front of the dashboard. I was elated. It would be World War II all over again. The United States was the good guy, we would win. Already in love with airplanes and the Air Force, I couldn t wait until the fighters and bombers went into action, until our pilots became aces in dogfights. I combed the newspapers for news of Air Force, Navy, and Marine air operations so I could report on them at school during current events. My reports were popular with the boys who asked questions about specific aircraft that I could answer definitively from my reading of articles and study of Flying, Air Progress, and other magazines. Having grown up with John Wayne, Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Clark Gable and many others battling and ultimately defeating the Japs and Germans; with an uncle who had fought his way through Italy and Europe; reading all those comic books with Captain America, Blackhawk, and all the other cartoon heroes thwarting the Axis, I had no doubt about the outcome victory and glory for America and its fighting men and women. Many years later I realized how naive I was, how brutal war is. Yet, my view of Korea when I was ten was not bad. My beliefs then in patriotism, in good triumphing over evil, and being fascinated with the Air Force contributed to my choosing an Air Force career. And, I still have those beliefs today. John Terino