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It was not their fault that no one had told them that the real function of an army is to fight and that a soldier’s destiny, which few escape, is to suffer, and if need be, to die.

T.R. Fehrenbach, author of This Kind of War

Task Force Smith soldiers move North to meet their destiny

Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith was first notified of his 1-21 Infantry Battalion’s deployment to Korea on July 1, 1950 when he was called into the office of the 24th Infantry Division’s Commanding General’s office. The commander General Dean notified LTC Smith that his battalion was chosen to lead a delaying action in Korea against the advancing North Korean forces. They would be the speed bump that would slow down the North Koreans until more US forces could arrive to destroy them.

Commander of all US forces General Douglas MacArthur had referred to Task Force Smith as an “arrogant display of American strength.” This sentiment caused many of the soldiers in Task Force Smith to feel that this was just a temporary “Police Action” as the Korean War is sometimes referred to, and they would be back to their comfortable lives in Japan in no time. They believed that once the North Koreans saw the all mighty American Army in front of them, they would turn around and run back to North Korea. The North Koreans had other plans.

LTC Smith’s orders were to deploy the battalion as quickly as possible to Pusan and from there advance as far North as possible along the Taejon to Seoul road to set up a defensive line to delay the North Korean advance until General William Dean could get the rest of the 24ID deployed to Korea. The 24ID was spread throughout Japan on occupation duty and was not configured for rapid deployment. They needed time to get everyone mobilized and prepared for deployment. Task Force Smith’s mission was to give the Division that time.

1-21IN deployed on July 2nd from Camp Wood, Japan with two rifle companies, headquarters, and a two mortar platoons, and a 75mm recoilless rifle platoon. In total the small battalion totaled roughly 430 men. The unit flew by plane to a military airfield near Pusan. By July 3rd 1-21IN had arrived by train to Taejon where they began to move North to meet the advancing North Koreans. On America’s birthday, the 4th of July, 1950, 1-21IN met up in Pyongtaek with part of the 52nd Field Artillery battalion. Field Artillerymen only had six 105mm howitzers, totaled 108 men, and were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Miller Perry. Task Force Smith now totaled roughly 540 men and were on their way to stop two advancing North Korean Divisions totaling upwards of 20,000 men who had days prior routed the ROK Army. But this was a “police action”, and those 20,000 North Koreans are supposed to run in fear when they see the US soldiers in front of them. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Task Force Smith moved North from Pyongtaek and set up a defensive line on some key high ground along Highway 1 just North of modern day Osan. The Task Force dug in and prepared to fight the advancing North Koreans. These soldiers would soon learn that warfare is not a John Wayne movie and the enemy doesn’t always follow the script.

It has been 55 years since the Task Force Smith Battle against the communist North Korean forces on July 5, 1950 at the beginning days of the Korean War. The battalion of soldiers called Task Force Smith after their commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith was quickly deployed from occupation duty in Japan to Korea to delay the North Korean advance until more American units could arrive to fight the communist aggressors. History tends to record Task Force Smith as a an example of military blunder, but the fact of the matter is, that Task Force Smith really did fight the best they could with what they had and should not be looked down upon as being an example of poor soldiering. They were great soldiers and Americans that fought well in defense of freedom for America. To truly understand Task Force Smith it is important to examine the morale and psychology of the unit at the time.

The soldiers that composed Task Force Smith were from 1st Battalion, 21st Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. The 24ID was located in Japan and were conducting peacekeeping operations. The priority of the military at the time was on occupation and reconstruction duties in Japan and not collective unit training. Plus the soldiers were living a soft life that included personal shoe shine boys and flirting with numerous prostitutes. Even the lowest private felt like a king in 1950 Japan.

American Occupation Troops Raise Old Glory Over Yokosuka, Japan

Plus many of the soldiers in the Army at the time were not old enough to have fought in World War II. They were young teenagers during World War II and grew up believing the US and especially the military was invincible. However these young soldiers had no idea what real combat was like, but John Wayne had taught them on TV that combat was glorious and you can run around the battle field with out fear of bullets and when somebody does gets hit they just spin around and lie on the ground motionless. There was no movies like Saving Private Ryan that conveyed the real horrors of actual ground combat.

The soldiers of 1-21IN, 24ID were not a lone and unique example of untrained soldiers at the time, as the unit is sometimes referred too. The unit was in fact a microcosm of the entire post-war military in 1950. The army was filled with untrained but highly patriotic youths brought up to believe America and it’s military were the best in the world without appreciation for the realities of the hard work and training it takes to stay the best. All the John Wayne movies in the world do not make up for tough, realistic training. Unfortunately for them, they would soon learn this reality in the far away hills of Korea. A place many of them had never heard of and would soon give their lives for.

According to the Donga Pyongyang is becoming a fashion capitol:

The most prominent difference to be witnessed on the streets of Pyongyang in July of 2005 was the colorful and diverse clothes North Koreans passed by in.

Men, too, changed from their usual sordid greenish inminbok (people’s clothes) looks to clean-cut looks with bright shirts without ties and black or navy pairs of suit pants.

I think this is probably the reason for the appearance of fashion in Pyongyang:

Perhaps North Korean authorities handed out nice clothes to their residents, mindful of the group of South Korean visitors.

For some reason I find it hard to believe the Nork women look anything like the over-dressed women in Myeongdong if it wasn’t staged to be that way.

Click Here to learn more about the 4th of July.

Apparently crime has been on the rise in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. More Americans are becoming the victims of crimes and assaults in a normally very safe city:

More Americans are becoming victims of violent crime in one of Tokyo’s most popular nightlife areas, according to the U.S. Embassy.

Incidents in the downtown Roppongi district over the past year have ranged from assaults, robberies, druggings and shootings. The most serious cases generally weren’t random, but enough indiscriminate crime has prompted the embassy, U.S. Forces Japan and Japanese law enforcement to caution visitors about the area’s legendary collection of bars and clubs.

According to the article the majority of the crime appears to be foreigner on foreigner with a few assaults, murder, a lot of pickpocketing, and also a lot of drugging of females drinks to conduct sexual assaults. Many foreigners or in Japanese gaijin, work in this club district or peddle drugs. For those who have never been there many Africans work in the club district dressed up like pimps trying to get people to come inside their clubs. I know it is blatantly stereotyping black people, but this is Japan and they don’t care about political correctness there. There are also many other nationalities that frequent the area due to the areas popularity.

It has been three years since I last went to Roppongi but I never had any problems there besides the pushy African door men who some of them litterally try to grab you and drag you inside. Roppongi is kind of like Itaewon on steroids. More people, more lights, more vibrant, more noise, just more of everything in general. It does sound like reading the stories in the article that things may have changed a little and it is better to take extra caution if going there. If you are worried about going to Roppongi there is still always Shinjuku and a host of other places to go party at.

The Army has decided to place Highway 3 running in front of Camp Casey off limits. This is the road where the accident that killed an elderly South Korean woman last month occurred. The highway was put off limits due to concerns about cars parked on the side of the road and the amount of civilians in the area.

The new route to Camp Casey’s Gate 2 adds about 15-20 minutes on the already hour long drive for Army vehicles between Dongducheon and Uijongbu. What I find interesting is that the longer route still has the same problems as the more direct route. I drove on this route just last week. There are still cars parked on the side of the road, pedestrians in the streets, heavy traffic, and I saw an old lady pushing a cart with cardboard in the right hand lane that we had to get over to the left lane to avoid.

Which brings me to my point that no matter what route you choose you will have the same problems. When an accident occurs on this route then what is going to be the new route then? Were running out of roads to put off limits. The conditions on these roads would improve if sidewalks were installed and civilians and bicyclists were forced to use them. To often I see an area that does in fact have a wide sidewalk yet the Korean national is still riding his bike or pushing a cart in the right hand lane of the highway.

In the area where the elderly woman was killed there were sidewalks inn the area plus crosswalks with walk lights, but she chose to not to go to a crosswalk and to jaywalk through heavy traffic. She had probably jaywalked across the street for years and nobody ever ticketed her for it. Maybe a few tickets would of convinced her to use the crosswalks thus adverting the accident. These are the conditions that contribute to causing accidents and changing roads won’t change that.

This from Mark’s blog wouldn’t be so funny if it wasn’t so true.

10. Hey, I think I saw your name on global.
9.  Yeah, I’m thinking about teaching English here when I get out.
8.  Don’t worry, my latest HIV test came out negative.
7.  Didn’t we go to CAS3 together?
6.  So what is your branch?
5.  Baby, let’s split this joint and roll in my Daewoo!
4.  So, baby, who’s your commander?
3.  Yeah, I just did AIP (Another International Player/Playette).
2.  Don’t worry about curfew, I live off post.
1.  I’m here on TDY (Temporarily Divorced for a Year)!

The Katolic Shinja has an interesting report that during Bush’s G8 speech he mentioned Korea as an example for Africa:

I just caught a bit of President Bush’s G8 speech. Lauding trade, not aid, as the solution to Africa’s woes, he noted that just 30 years ago, South Korea was as poor as many Sub-Saharan African nations, but that after pursuing an export-driven economy, South Korea is now as rich as many European countries.

To an extent poorer countries can model themselves after Korea, but Korea did have a few advantages to help their economy become what it is today. First and foremost is that Korea has a homogeneous society that does not have the tribal/ethnic/religous turmoil you see in many poor African countries. Korea does have some internal rivalries such as between Gyeongsam and Cholla provinces but nothing that would even come close to the open warfare that is prevalent in many African countries.

Another advantage Korea had was that US troops stationed in Korea provided a nice economic boost initially by providing jobs and a market for Korean goods. Plus the US troops provided a security guarantee to international investors looking at investing in Korea and taking advantage of its cheap labor. Do you think that anyone would have invested in Korea initially if US troops were not stationed here? If US troops were stationed in an African country I bet international investors would be more willing to invest in that African country knowing that the US military is providing a security guarantee of their investment. Do you think anyone would be willing to invest currently in Iraq if US troops were to pull out tomorrow?

Also Korea was given open access to the US market for their exports and received many contracts from the US government during the Vietnam War that really jumped started the Korean Economy in the late 60’s. Would African countries be given the same access to the US market to sell their goods? Plus Korea has two other huge exports markets right next door, Japan and China to sell their goods to.

It was in America’s interest to have Korea succeed during the Cold War. So Korea was given preferential treatment by the US. This added with Korea’s homogeneous society, cheap labor, a extremely hard working work ethic, plus leadership, despite his faults, from then dictator Park Chung Hee set the conditions that allowed Korea to become the nation they are today.

African countries will find it extremely difficult to match Korea’s success by trying to use the same formula Korea used to build their economy. Lessons can definitely be learned from Korea’s economic success but it is not the 100% solution to solving poverty in Africa.

I think ending the AIDS epidemic should be of the up most priority in Africa before economic development. No country will ever have a strong economy if their youth are dieing off and leaving the next generation as orphans. Would Korea have ever created their economic development if 15% of their population was dieing from AIDS 50 years ago? That along with internal tribal/religious/ethnic turmoil are the problems that many African countries are facing.

I have to give thanks to Far East Cynic for pointing out this sign:

This sign is from a bar in Shanghai, China. With the alleged crackdown on prostitution in Korea maybe signs like this can keep the prostitutes out of the clubs here too.

The Japanese have agreed to a request from North Korea through South Korea to return a stone monument taken from Korea in 1905.

South Korea has asked Japan to give back a stone monument taken from the Korean Peninsula a century ago, an official said Wednesday.

The 2-meter- (6.5-foot- ) high stone monument was built in 1707 in what is now North Korea’s northeastern Kilju county to commemorate a Korean victory in a battle against Japan.

This reminds me of the time I went to the National Museum in Tokyo and the museum had artifacts from Korea that were designated as “gifts” from the Korean kingdom but I looked at the date of the Korean “gifts” and they were from 1592-1598 time period which so happened to be the same time line as the Hideoyoshi invasion of the peninsula where many artistic works were plundered from Korea.

It makes me wonder if this statue is also designated as another such Korean “gift”?