Tag: Korean War

This week is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. In honor of this milestone I recommend that ROK Heads spend some time reading about some of the great military personnel that proved themselves as true Heroes of the Korean War.

1950:
Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith (USA), Commander 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, Taskforce Smith Battle

Major General William Dean (USA), Commander 24th Infantry Division, Battle of Taejon

Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. (USA), Squad Leader 2-19 Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, Battle of the Chongchon River

Captain Charles M. Bussey (USA), Commander 77th Engineer Combat Company, Firefight at Yechon

General Tahsin Yazici (Turkey), Commander 1st Turkish Brigade, Battle of Kunu-ri

Ensign Jesse L. Brown (USA), US Navy 32nd Fighter Squadron, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel William W. Harris (USA), Commander 65th Infantry Regiment, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel Russell Blaisdell (USA), Chaplain US Air Force, Operation Kiddy Car Airlift

1951:

Captain Lewis L. Millett (USA), Commander E Co. 27th Infantry Regiment, Battle of Bayonet Hill.

Colonel Paul Freeman (USA), Commander 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar (France), Commander French Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne (UK), Commander Gloucestershire Battalion, Battle of the Imjim

Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone (Canada), Commander Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Battle of the Kapyong

Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda (Philippines), Commander Philippines Expeditionary Force To Korea (PEFTOK), Battle of the Yultong

First Sergeant Benjamin Wilson (USA), First Sergeant Company I, 3d Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Hell Hill

Private First Class Anthony T. Kaho’ohanohano (USA), 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Chup’a-ri

1952:
Brigadier General Haydon Boatner (USA), Commander Geoje POW Camp

Colonel Young-oak Kim (USA), Commander 1-31 Infantry Regiment, First Asian-American Battalion Commander

1953:
Lieutenant Colonel George Koumanakos (Greece), Commander Greek Battalion, Battle of Outpost Harry

Post-Korean War:

Lieutenant General Subayya Kadenera Thimayya (India), Commander of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), Operation Big Switch

It is pretty surprising that the ROK government is not providing children drafted to fight in the ROK Army during the Korean War the same benefits of normal veterans:

Park Tae-seung, 92, vividly remembers the day he was conscripted into the South Korean military to fight against North Koreans. It was near the end of August 1950, only three months after the 1950-53 Korean War began. He was 17.

“Age didn’t really matter — if we were physically big enough, then the country deemed us sufficient to enter the war,” Park, who now lives in the quiet city of Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, told The Korea Herald on Wednesday.

“I saw so many of us — both allies and enemies — fighting in the war and getting killed. It still haunts me to this day how I had to leave behind my friends on the battlefield just to survive,” he added.

Park is one of the 29,603 soldiers aged 17 and under who were conscripted for the Korean War, according to data provided by the Institute for Military History under the Defense Ministry in 2011. Among them, 2,573 were killed in the war.

Korea Herald

Here is the rights these child soldier veterans are fighting for:

Under the current law, former child soldiers are recognized as war veterans but not as registered patriots. Registered patriots receive bigger rewards and better health benefits compared to those classified as war veterans. Bereaved families of registered patriots can also continue receiving similar benefits after his or her death. Families of war veterans cannot.

A bill to amend the Act on Honorable Treatment of War Veterans and Establishment of Related Associations, aiming to establish a compensation and support system for child soldiers, has been repeatedly drafted, yet scrapped at the National Assembly throughout the past decade. It has never been prioritized, according to attorney Ha Kyoung-hwan, who has worked closely with the survivors of the forgotten group since 2014.

You can read more at the link.

UNC members recently joined in honoring the #Commonwealth forces who stood firm at the #Battle_of_Kapyong in 1951. Their courage helped defend freedom on the Korean Peninsula and laid the foundation for lasting peace. #LestWeForget #KoreanWar pic.twitter.com/QqZjOzCID9

— United Nations Command 유엔군사령부/유엔사 (@UN_Command) April 29, 2025

This is cool that the 2ID commander was able to honor his great uncle that was killed during the Korean War:

U.S. and South Korean troops joined family members of 1st Lt. Thomas A. Lombardo this month to rededicate the athletic field at Camp Casey that honors the fallen Korean War hero. Lombardo, commander of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, was killed in action on Sept. 24, 1950, during a mission near Ch’ogye, shortly after the North Korean retreat that followed the Pusan Perimeter breakout.

Among the family members attending the ceremony on April 8 at Lombardo Field were the lieutenant’s daughter, Joanne Showman; son, Thomas Lombardo III; and grandnephew, Maj. Gen. Charles Lombardo, the current commander of the 2nd Infantry Division. The general, a St. Louis native like his great uncle, described the lieutenant as a leader committed to serving on the front lines. “He could’ve stayed up in a division staff — he fought so hard to get down,” he said in remarks provided Wednesday by division spokesman Sgt. Alexander Knight. “He wanted to be with soldiers, lead from the front, and didn’t want to be in the staff.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

These five personnel had their combat decorations they received for heroism during the Korean War upgraded to Medals of Honor this past week:

Juanita Mendez gave President Joe Biden a kiss as she sat on stage Friday to accept the nation’s highest military honor for combat valor on behalf of her brother, Pfc. Charles Johnson. It drew a laugh from the crowd gathered in the East Room at the White House.

Biden didn’t seem to mind the moment but moved forward with presenting the Medal of Honor to five Korean War soldiers. “These are genuine to their core heroes. Heroes of different ranks, different positions and even different generations,” he said during the ceremony. “But heroes who all went above and beyond the call of duty, heroes who all deserve our nation’s highest and oldest military recognition.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more about each of the veteran’s combat heroics during the Korean War at the link.

This is interesting, I did not realize that the U.N. Cemetery in Busan has never buried remains of an unknown remains from the Korean War:

Military veterans and troops from more than 20 countries gathered here Monday to pay their respects as an unknown Korean War service member was laid to rest at the U.N. Cemetery in Korea. Roughly 1,000 people attended the service on International Memorial Day for U.N. Korea War Veterans, observed each year on Nov. 11. It was hosted by the U.N. Command and South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, or MPVA, at the only cemetery overseen by the command.

The burial ground, roughly 200 miles southeast of Seoul, holds the remains of 2,329 veterans from 14 member states who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War. They include 40 service members from the United States; 892 from the United Kingdom; 38 from South Korea; 462 from Turkey; and 281 from Australia. Monday’s service honoring war veterans included the cemetery’s first interment of an unidentified U.N. Command service member. The remains were initially recovered from Yeoncheon county in 2010 by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery Identification. (…….)

DNA testing and dental records determined the 17- to-25-year-old service member was of Caucasian descent and likely to have been from Britain, according to the MPVA. Unable to confirm the identity or nationality with certainty, the South Korean government allowed the service member to be buried in a new plot dedicated to unidentified remains.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Philippines sent an entire battalion that saw heavy combat during the Korean War:

President Yoon Suk Yeol began his state visit to the Philippines on Sunday by honoring fallen soldiers who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War and meeting with Korean nationals in the nation. 

Yoon visited the Korean War Memorial Pylon at the Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila with first lady Kim Keon Hee on the first day of his two-day trip focused on strengthening economic and security ties. 

“South Korea and the Philippines have maintained close, friendly relations, and the Philippines was the first country in Asia and the fifth in the world to establish diplomatic ties with us back in 1949,” Yoon said in a meeting with Korean nationals in Manila.

The Philippines dispatched around 7,400 troops to the Korean War to help defend South Korea, with 112 soldiers killed and 299 wounded.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link. You can also read more about the Philippines’ PEFTOK battalion that served during the Korean War at the below link:

Heroes of the Korean War: Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda

This would be a really interesting mission to be part of. Hopefully they are able to find this wreck:

Teams from the U.S. and South Korea tasked with recovering wartime remains launched a joint underwater search in South Korea this week for a bomber and its crew that crashed during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Twenty-two divers and underwater archaeologists from the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the South Korean Agency for Killed in Action Recovery Identification, or MAKRI, started searching Tuesday for a U.S. B-26 Invader off Haeundae Beach in Busan, according to a Ministry of National Defense news release. Investigators are using sonar equipment and magnetic detectors to comb through 4.6 square-miles of water until the search ends Sept. 27, the ministry said Tuesday.

South Korea’s navy and coast guard will provide weather information and logistical support throughout the investigation. Three crew members of the B-26 assigned to the 5th Air Force are believed to have died when their aircraft crashed into the sea after taking off from the K-9 Busan East Air Base in January 1953, according to the ministry. 

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2024-09-04/korean-war-dpaa-b-26-missing-busan-15065538.html
Source – Stars and Stripes