Henry F Mincey

Comments: I'm looking for anyone who may know anything about my grandfather who was in camp 5 his name was Henry Franklin Mincey or Harry he passed away some time ago and my mother knows very little about him i would appreciate any information on him or his time in the camp

Keywords: Harry

Capt. Louis Paul Gorrell in response to Douglas Grant's email

Comments: I have emailed a response to Capt. Louis Paul Gorrell's nephew, Douglas Grant, in response to an inquiry he had made regarding information on the one survivor of the plane that Capt. Gorrell was piloting that got spotted in the searchlights, after it had gone up at 11 pm, and according to the information that the Army/Air Force Division has supplied to us, the Russians were the ones who shot down the plane, but, of course, they were allies of North Korea. For two years, the Army called Capt. Gorrell's case an MIA, but, then, two years later, changed that to KIA, another casualty in a war that is thankfully now called as it should have been, the Korean War.

Keywords:

Gene Carlton Prince

Comments:

Keywords: i'm looking for any info on my uncle gene prince from tenn...he was taken pow on dec 1 1950 near choisen and taken to camp 5..if anyone knew him or what actually happened to him please get in touch with me...

thank you paula rivera

Capt. Anton Brom Jr. information

Comments: Capt. Anton Brom Jr., #A0701420, was the only confirmed survivor of my uncle's B-29 when it was shot down over North Korea June 10, 1952. My uncle was Capt. Louis Paul Gorrell from West Virginia.

It is my understanding the Capt. Brom died in 1975. I am looking for anybody who might be able to put me in touch with his survivors so I might learn more about my uncle.

Keywords: 19th Bomb Group, 28th Bomb Sq., Korea

B-29 Tail number 44-62183, Hot to Go

Looking for information on my father Vernon Clark

Comments: I am looking for anyone who may have known my father during the korean war. He was captured in 1951 and spent time in both camp 3 and camp 5. If anyone out there knew him or anything about him please contact me.

Keywords: Vernon Warren Clark (Stubby) Co K 138th Infantry 2nd Division

CplJohnJames

Comments: I have 2 pictures before he left and 1 after his return. That is all anyone in the family has.

I have a scanned letter and envelope from one of his pals, as well as a picture of Ivan and Walter from Ivan's "welcome home" parade, dated Dec 29 1953 at 5pm from Seabrook, NH. My uncle received that letter from Ivan Q Eatin aka "Quincy" on Collins Street in Seabrook, NH - "Quincy" got married Dec 12th, 1953. They both also new a guy named "Pollock"; his address in the letter - Walter Balinsky, Boomsbury RD#3, Penna. My uncle's address was John W James, Jr; 2109 Lincoln Ave; Baltimore, MD 19. Quincy said in the letter that he had several of the addresses from "the boys". Quincy said that many of "the boys" sent him cards when they returned to the states.

I want to know my uncle and what he was subjected to and how he became his returned state.

My uncle was captured 26Nov50 in the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on. I have told that he went to Pukchin- Tarigol (Death Valley) on a "death march", at some point, was marched again to Camp 5, spent time there and at some time later ended up at Camp 3.

My mother told me that when Uncle Jack came home, that he talked about being captured while in a fox hole. He said that his weapon was a bazooka.

He appeared to have been tortured - he could barely walk and his mental state was extremely different. My family suspected that he was exposed to torture interrogations. Broken bones and maybe "truth serum" or the like. Things were so bad for him that upon his return he had to soon thereafter be admitted to the VA psych hospital in Perry Point, MD where he died 19Feb59.

He was a small man in stature. His height was about 5' 6" or 5' 7". He had blue eyes, medium brown hair with a wave. He was a very caring person; if he could help someone, he would.

I asked my mother about what he looked like when he returned. When he came back, his eyes looked like they had cysts about size of jawbreakers over top the outside corners. He sang "crazy songs". His face when he returned was very rutty; before he left, his facial skin was smooth. When he returned, he insisted that he had to wear a rope around his pants. His teeth had become brown and very worn.

Keywords: Cpl. John "Jack" James, Jr

8th Army/ 25th Infantry Division/ 35th Infantry/ Unit L Co

Battle of the Ch'ongch'on (captured 26Nov50)

1st "death marched" to Pukchin- Tarigol (Death Valley)/ 2nd marched to Camp 5/ 3rd marched to Camp 3

John

Comments: I have 2 pictures before he left and 1 after his return. That is all anyone has.

I have a scanned letter and envelope from one of his pals, as well as a picture of Ivan and Walter from Ivan's "welcome home" parade, dated Dec 29 1953 at 5pm from Seabrook, NH. He received a letter from Ivan Q Eatin aka "Quincy" on Collins Street in Seabrook, NH - Quincy got married Dec 12th, 1953. They both also new a guy named "Pollock"; his address in the letter - Walter Balinsky, Boomsbury RD#3, Penna. My uncle's address was John W James, Jr; 2109 Lincoln Ave; Baltimore, MD 19. Quincy seems to have several of the addresses from "the boys". Many sent him cards when they returned to the states.

I want to know my uncle and what he was subjected to and how he became his returned state.

My uncle was captured 26Nov50 in the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on. I have told that he went to Pukchin- Tarigol on a "death march", at some point, was marched again to Camp 5, spent time there and at some time later ended up at Camp 3.

My mother told me that when Uncle Jack came home, that he talked about being captured while in a fox hole. He said that his weapon was a bazooka.

He appeared to have been tortured - he could barely walk and his mental state was extremely different. My family suspected that he was exposed to torture interrogations. Broken bones and maybe "truth serum" or the like.

He was a small man in stature. His height was about 5' 6" or 5' 7". He had blue eyes, medium brown hair with a wave. He was a very caring person; if he could help someone, he would.

I asked my mother about what he looked like when he returned. When he came back, his eyes looked like they had cysts about size of jawbreakers over top the outside corners. He sang "crazy songs". His face when he returned was very rutty; before he left, his facial skin was smooth. When he returned, he insisted that he had to wear a rope around his pants. His teeth became brown and very worn.

Keywords: My uncle, John "Jack" James, Jr was captured Nov 26, 1950 at the battle of the Ch'ongch'on

He was in 8th Army/ 25th Inf Div/ 35th Infantry Regiment/ Company L

(1) Pukchin-Tarigol (holding camp) (2) Camp 5 (Pyoktong) (3) Camp 3 (Changsong)

Help

Comments: I am looking for anyone who might have been in a pow camp with my husband Laverne Lawrence, Batavia NY. He was a paratrooper and made at least three jumps . On one jump, he told me that only two other men and himself survived. Everyone else was shot. On his last jump, they were delibertly made to jump behind enemy lines and were captured as soon as they landed. His jaw was broken by his captors and if it were'nt for his fellow comrades who fed him and made him eat, he would have starved to death. He passed away this past December 22, 2008 trying to get his medals restored to him because someone stole them from out of his house. The government has no record of his service in Korea because all his records were destroyed in the fire in Missouri. He spent 8 months in Walter Reed Army Hospital and wasnt expected to recover. He lived to be 77 years old. I think it is pitiful that someone could give so much to their country and get this kind of treatment in return. Does anyone remember being in a POW camp with him. I only know that he was a paratrooper and that he was captured. Thank you for any informations that would help get his medals and ribbons restored to him. He very rarely talked about his experience and died in the process of getting all this rectified.

Keywords:

POW 2nd Inf Div

Comments: MY Uncle, with the 2nd Inf Div was captured Nov 26 1950. He died in POW camp Feb 1951.

I have found some photos from that camp online here. Is there anyone out there that might be able to identify service members in these pictures?

There is one pic I think he is in and would like to confirm.

Keywords: 2nd Infantry Division, POW, Korea, Nov 26 1950

Searching For Truths

Comments: I AM SEACHING FOR INFORMATION REGARDING MY FATHER SARGEANT JACQUES W BEAUPRE. MY SON IS HIS NAME SAKE AND I AM WRITING A FAMILY MEMOIR INCLUDING HIS WAR EXPERIENCES AS TOLD TO ME BY FAMILY MEMBERS. IN DOING SO I FOUND "I" NEEDED TO FIND OUT MORE IN ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND KNOW HIM BETTER. TO ME, MY FATHER WAS A HIGHLY FAITHFUL, EXTREMELY PATRIOTIC MAN WHO LOVED MUSIC AND WOULD SING AT THE DROP OF A HAT. IN FAMILY FOLK LORE, IT WAS SAID HE ONCE STOOD IN DEFIANCE AND STARTED TO SING OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM DURING ROLE CALL AT CAMP 5. ARE THESE TRUTHS OR ROMANTISIZED STORIES. CAN ANYONE HELP? I APPRECIATE THE EFFORTS. THANX

Keywords: Camp 5 Jacques W Beaupre A BTRY 38 FA BN DIV 2

Did any one know SGT. James P McGuire

Comments:

Keywords: James P Mcguire

Cpl Robert

Comments: I'm looking for anyone who served with or knew my great uncle Cpl Robert "mac" McDermond from Newville PA he served in the 8th cavalry regiment, K CO, 1st cavalry division, captured neer Unsan on Nov 2 1950, died aug 31 1951. if you have any info it would be greatly apreatiated.

Keywords:

Did anyone know Sgt. Arthur Kinder

Comments: Looking for people who may have been held with my uncle. He was a Seargent who was captured and later died while held as a POW.

Keywords: Sick Camp 5, Kinder, KIA, Henry Knix

Camp 5 new article

Comments: Veterans recall horror of Camp 5 Men spent years as N. Korea captives Tuesday, November 11, 2008 By Justin Mason (Contact) Gazette Reporter

Photographer: Peter Barber

Korean War veteran Dick Whalen of Rotterdam Junction is seen with his uniform last week.

ROTTERDAM, NY  Dick Whalen still carries in his wallet a tattered black-and-white snapshot of the small peninsula village along the Yalu River valley.

Today, the 80-year-old Rotterdam town historian and Korean War veteran blends a bit of humor with his recollections of Pyoktong. His picture shows the rolling North Korean mountains leading down to a picturesque village that was bisected to form Camp 5.

Theres the prison camp, he said removing the small photo from a collection of cards tucked in the wallets back pocket. If it was in Lake George, it would be a hit.

But the area was one of the most notorious wartime prisoner camps, where Whalen remained for all but five months of the conflict. Then a cook in the Armys 1st Cavalry Division, he was captured by the Chinese inside the Unsan territory of North Korea and arrived at Camp 5 at a time when prisoners were dying at a rate of nearly a dozen per day.

Whalen himself came close to becoming a casualty of the bitter North Korean winter and the diseases that festered in the camp. When he was finally released, the military hastily airlifted

him back to the United States where he spent more than a year undergoing treatments for advanced tuberculosis.

Despite his brush with death, Whalen regards his days at the camp as an experience that may have saved his life. Many other soldiers werent nearly as fortunate on the front lines or in their march to the camp.

I was lucky, he said. I got captured by this group [of Chinese soldiers] and treated well.

Harry Brown was among those less fortunate. The 77-year-old Rotterdam resident was also captured by the Chinese in Unsan, 25 days after Whalen.

Prior to his capture, Browns unit came under heavy fire from the droves of Chinese soldiers pouring into the country from the north. He was among a group of about two dozen survivors from his unit captured and brutally marched more than 30 miles across the frozen mountainous region to Camp 5 three months later.

At the camp, he used his knowledge of books to entertain the clusters of starved and sickly soldiers huddled in cramped mud-thatch huts amid sub-zero temperatures. On the ground, a sickly Whalen was among the ones listening.

It wasnt until a chance encounter decades after the war that the two veterans realized they had unknowingly shared a slice of the same hellish experience. Whalen had noticed a Rotterdam address on a list of Korean War prisoners list so when he spotted Brown wearing a POW insignia while shopping at a hardware store on Altamont Avenue, the two veterans struck up a conversation.

He named a couple of names and I knew them very closely, Brown said. I had no idea anyone in New York state was a prisoner of war there and then he was here right in my backyard.

ROUTES TO WAR

The two veterans took different paths leading up to their capture. Whalen joined the military in September 1946 hoping to cash in on the educational benefits offered through the G.I. Bill, while Brown enlisted the following year, drawn by the notion of serving in the Army.

At the time, the military was trying to replace the World War II occupation force in Japan with fresh recruits. Whalen was given four weeks of basic training, 30 days of leave and then sent across the Pacific to Tokyo, where he served as a military policeman. Then hostilities broke out on the Korean peninsula in June 1950.

After some initial setbacks, Whalens division was part of a combat line that pushed the North Koreans back and occupied their capital of Pyongyang by October.

We stayed a while thinking the war was over and wed be back in Tokyo within a month, he said. To our surprise, the Chinese had entered the war.

Whalen was moving with the divisions 8th Cavalry component into Unsan when they were surrounded by an overwhelming Chinese army at nightfall. Those who advanced suffered heavy losses, while most of those who retreated were captured.

Whalen fled into the moonlit night with a South Korean soldier, but was spotted by the Chinese at dawn. To his surprise, the South Korean shot at the surrounding soldiers and was killed on the spot.

For the next month, he marched throughout the night with his captors. Remarkably, he said, the soldiers treated him with civility, even allowing him to eat with them along the way.

At Camp 5, his fortunes werent as good. Though the camp wasnt heavily guarded, it was wracked with starvation and disease, which killed roughly 1,500 of the nearly 4,500 captives held there.

The death rate was quite substantial, he said.

When Brown arrived at the camp in January 1951, the conditions had become deplorable. Soldiers were crammed shoulder to shoulder in the huts, which served as breeding grounds for lice.

The lice would be sapping our blood right out of our bodies, he said.

The Chinese offered a paltry diet of millet and sorghum to their captives, many of whom slowly wasted away. Those who didnt fall to the brutal winter cold found themselves contending with pneumonia and dysentery.

The conditions were enough to prompt Brown to attempt two escapes from the camp, only to be captured both times. He said desperation among the captured troops was enough that many found themselves in moral dilemmas.

To say I know youre going to die soon, Charlie, so can I have your boots when you go? This is something I could never shake, he said. These were desperate times.

Both Brown and Whalen were released from the camp in August 1953 after a cease-fire was established at the 38th parallel. They returned to the United States, where Whalen went back to his hometown and became an insurance agent and Brown became an electronic engineer in the Rotterdam area.

Neither man will ever forget his experiences during a conflict some call the forgotten war. Most of all, theyll never forget their memories of Camp 5.

You never get that out of your system, Brown said.

Keywords:

corporal charles albert dean

Comments: Does anyone who served in the 38th Inf Reg. 2nd Inf Div. happen to know my grandfater Corporal Charles Albert Dean from Centre Pennsylania who died as a prisoner of war in Korea on 7/24/51? If so could you please contact my email so that I can find more information on him. Thank you, Plocinski@aol.com

Keywords:

James R Robertson, Co. L, 23rd Regt, 2nd Division

Comments: Looking for anyone who knew or was a POW with my father, James Robert Robertson. He was captured Nov 30, 1950 and died while in captivity.

Keywords: Pyoktong, Camp#5

Camp #5 POW INFO

Comments: My mother Sue Myers, is the sister of Fred Thomas Chatfield, who was captured Dec. 1, 1950. He marched through Death Valley to Camp #5. If anybody Knew him, please contact us. Thank You, Rebecca Morris

Keywords: Camp #5, and Death Valley. POW Fred Thomas Chatfield, from Kentucky.

R M Stanley Skelton 41st Independant

Comments: Please can you help us ,our brother RM 8648 Stanley Skelton went MIA 20/11/1950 We were informed he had died as a pow in 1953 . We did not get his death certificate until 2001. it only stated that he died in Korea and the cause of death ,Korean POW. We did not recieve any personal effects and we do not know where he is buried . What little we know is due to the kindness of Fred Hayhurst Were you in camp ten , did you know Stan . We dont know where camp 10 was or if he was buried there Thank you for reading this . The Skelton Family

Keywords: Chosin Few Camp 10

HERBERT GILMON SAYRE

Comments: I KNOW IT's BEEN OVER 50 YRS BUT I KEEP HOPING SOME X POW THAT WAS IN THE 2ND INFANTRY DIV.B CO. THAT WAS CAPTURED ON DEC.1 1950 AT KUNU-RI MAY REMBER HERBERT HE WAS TOOK TO DEATH VALLEY & IN JAN TO # 5 WHERE HE DIED FEB.10 1951 I BELEIVE HE WAS WOUNDED: IF YOU KNOWED HIM PLEASE E MAIL ME. THANK YOU ALL GOD BLESS! TRILBY MINTON

Keywords:

Pyoktong Camp 5

Comments: Kenneth Lee Green was taken prisoner on approximately November 25, 1950 during the battle of Ch'ongch'on River. He and others were marched to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley collection site and then sent to Pyoktong, POW permanent Camp 5 on the south bank of the Yalu River. Kenneth was wounded and died from his wounds in mid January 1951. His remains were never returned to his family. I am searching for anybody that served with, or remembers Kenneth Lee Green during this time.

Keywords: Kenneth Lee Green, SFC, G Company, 2nd Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Div. POW, Pyoktong Camp 5, Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, Yalu River, Remains not returned to family, buried in Korea.

Pictures

Comments:

Keywords: I have two pictures taken of returning POWs from camp 5 or camp 6 in sept. of 1953 one of officers, one of enlisted men. Taken at Inchon Korea from hospital ship Repose. Would be glad to share especially if someone could recognize their relative.

Willard Adams, Radiom, USS Repose AH16

Information on Robert H. Hart

Comments: Nephew of Robert H. Hart, looking for information that anyone may have on the above mentioned. Died while captured,at Chongchon River. I'm guessing that this was during march to Camp 5? Date of loss was reported as 11/26/1950. Thanks.

Keywords: 38th Infantry Regiment,HQ HQ Co,2nd Infantry Div, Army

Calvin Mack

Comments: My dad survived 3 years at camp 5. I am trying to obtain as much information as possible regarding the conditions at camp 5. Hope someone can help.

Keywords:

delbert lloyd white

Comments:

Keywords: