Park Jong-wang (R), director of veterans policy at South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, poses with Thomas J. Hudner (C) at the latter’s home in Massachusetts on Dec. 14, 2015 (local time), after conferring South Korea’s Taegeuk medal of honor, the top military decoration. Hudner, who fought in the Korean War (1950-53) as a pilot, went to North Korea in 2013 to look for the remains of Jesse Brown, his wingman. (Photo provided by South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs) (Yonhap)
Here is an interesting story about how a Korean train was used in an attempt to rescue US soldiers besieged in the city of Daejon during the Korean War. Two of the Korean railroad workers from this rescue attempt were honored recently by the US military:
Two train workers who risked their lives in an ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. troops during the Korean War received honors Tuesday from the Pentagon in Daejeon, South Korea.
Hwang Nam-ho and Hyun Jae-young were posthumously awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for helping to guide a train carrying about 30 troops through enemy territory on July 19, 1950, in a bid to reach forces cut off by a North Korean advance.
Trapped personnel included Maj. Gen. William Dean, commander of the 24th Infantry Division and an eventual Medal of Honor recipient.
Hwang and Hyun were among the few survivors of the rescue mission, which nevertheless made it to Daejeon on the bullet-riddled train, according to KORAIL, the Korea Railroad Corp.
The train’s lead conductor, Kim Jae Hyun, died from multiple wounds and received the same award from the Pentagon in 2012.
On Tuesday, Hwang’s and Hyun’s relatives accepted the awards on their behalf in front of Patriotic Railroad Square, where statues of the three men stand. U.S. military officials and railroad company representatives were on hand to honor the wartime workers. [Stars & Stripes]
While the public expected Dwight Eisenhower would make a trip to the peninsula, as he promised to do so during his campaign, they didn’t know when it would happen. On December 2, 1952, Eisenhower arrived in Korea and spent three days surveying troops there. To keep details of the visit hidden, the administration gave off the impression he was still in the country by making a number of cabinet appointments from the president’s home. [Business Insider]
I am not surprised how little US non-profit and corporate support the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is receiving. It is called “The Forgotten War” for a reason. However, it is great to see how much South Korean corporations have stepped up to help the National Park Service maintain the memorial. With that all said shouldn’t this be something the government should be funding in the first place and not rely on private donations?:
The Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall is often considered one of the most striking of the war memorials, with the seven-foot-tall stainless steel statues of soldiers anticipating combat, and its dark gray granite wall etched with images of those who supported the troops.
While more than 36,000 Americans died in the combat mission in the Korean War, historians often call it the “forgotten war.” And now, with the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation struggling to set up a maintenance fund for the memorial, and to build a Wall of Remembrance, those looking for the necessary financing are feeling forgotten all over again — the only backing is coming from overseas.
“Our greatest support comes from corporate Korea,” said William E. Weber, the chairman of the foundation and a retired colonel in the United States Army who served in the Korean War. “American corporations — forget it.” He said no American corporate entities had committed to supporting the foundation’s efforts to meet its $5 million fund-raising goal. [New York Times]
If you haven’t been to the UN Cemetery in Busan it is definitely worth checking out as it is the only cemetery with UN servicemembers buried together:
Hundreds of Korean War veterans around the world offered a moment of silence on Wednesday, turning to face the direction of Busan where the fallen U.N. soldiers killed during the war are buried.
In the South Korean port city, 40 veterans from 11 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Turkey attended the ceremony that began at 11 a.m. in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery (UNMCK).
The Turn Toward Busan ceremony, arranged by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, was simultaneously observed in Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines. The ceremony was held in some 40 cities of the 21 nations that fought together to safeguard freedom decades ago.
The cemetery is the only place in the world where fallen U.N. servicemen are buried. According to the ministry, 40,670 servicemen of the 21 U.N. allied nations were killed during the conflict, with 104,280 wounded and 4,116 missing. A total of 23,000 U.N. servicemen were laid to rest at UNMCK. [Korea Times]
A US Soldier killed during the Korean War has had his remains identified and buried with full military honors in California:
Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, 20, of Bellflower, went missing in the Korean War. His remains have recently been returned to his family.
Nearly 65 years after his death, Laverne Minnick’s older brother is finally coming home to rest.
The remains of Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, a 20-year-old Bellflower man missing since the Korean War, were identified last month, and returned earlier this week to Minnick, 82, his last surviving family member.
“I am so happy. He’s going to be home, where he belongs, with his family,” said Minnick, a Huntington Beach resident.
Witt will be buried with full military honors at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier on Friday.
TASK FORCE FAITH
In late November 1950, Witt was assigned to 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, known as Task Force Faith, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a press statement.
They were attacked by thousands of Chinese forces at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Dec. 1, 1950, remnants of the 31st Regimental Combat Team tried moving to a position south of the reservoir, but the next day, Witt was reported missing in action, the statement said.
In 1953, during the prisoner of war exchanges known as Operation Little Switch and Operation Big Switch, repatriated U.S. soldiers told officials that Witt had been captured during the battle and died from malnutrition. He death is estimated at Jan. 31, 1951.
208 BOXES OF UNIDENTIFIED BONES
His remains, however, were not among those returned by Communist forces in 1954, the statement said.
Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned to the United States 208 boxes of unidentified human bones, no full skeletons, primarily fragments. U.S. officials later realized the boxes contained remains from 600 Korean War veterans, the statement said.
North Korean documents included in the repatriation said that some of the bones were recovered from the area where Witt was believed to have died.
REMAINS IDENTIFIED
In July 2000, a joint U.S./North Korean team excavated a burial site near Hwaong-Ri Village, and recovered additional human remains.
The only remains of Witt that were found in the boxes and the excavation site were his two femurs. [Press Telegram]
If there is one thing the Kim regime is persistent in pursuing is a peace treaty with the US to end the Korean War. The reason they are persistent is that a formal peace treaty would then call into question the continued existence of the US-ROK alliance. The North Koreans have tried for decades to drive a wedge between the ROK and the US and a peace treaty is one way they try and do this:
North Korea has called on the United States to sign a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, without commenting on the summit talks between President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted the North’s Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement that Pyongyang and Washington could remove the source of war and put an end to the nuclear arms race by building trust.
The ministry reportedly said that one way to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula is for the North to bolster its defense capability based on nuclear weapons, while another way is for Washington to abandon its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and accept the North’s call for a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreement.
The statement came 20 hours after the South Korea-U.S. summit, in which Park and Obama called for the North’s denuclearization. [KBS World Radio]
