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Korean War Project Newsletter – Nov 11, 2007 Volume 10 - 5
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Table of Contents:
1. Editorial
2. This Mailing List
3. Bookstore | Films
4. Looking For
5. Big Switch, 74th Engineer Heavy Equipment Co
6. KMAG Reunion 2007-2008
7. Membership
8. KWP Project Report – Maps, Charts, Casualties
9. VA pushes to assist veterans
10. Al Chang, Combat Photographer - RIP
11. DMZ Vets Annual Reunion – Nov 11
th 2007
12. ASA Korea Reunion
13. Malaria in the Korean War
14. USS Firedrake Web Site
15. Air Force Vet Remembers 92 Bomb Group
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1. Editorial
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Those of us from military backgrounds fully understand the significance of "Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day" of November.
The day has been set aside for remembrance
of the sacrifices made by all those who have answered the call to duty.
Let us all stand shoulder to shoulder to honor all who have served.
We especially have on our minds the thousands of our current day service
members who are undertaking a serious challenge in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A great many of these current day servicemen and women have come home with serious injuries. Let us not forget them during their most difficult time
as they transition from military medical facilities into our civilian population.
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2. This Mailing List (going to 43,000 + persons)
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We began this newsletter mailing in December of 1998. The first issue went to just over 2000 persons.
This list is a private list for our visitors and members. A
person may join or leave the list at will. It is compiled from our Guest Book and comprises public service messages of general interest to veterans and families.
To join or leave the list: email to: Ted Barker tbarker@kwp.org
Place: Subscribe or Unsubscribe in the subject line.
Consider forwarding the Newsletter to your friends by email or print. Word of mouth is how we grow.
Thanks for being part of the Korean War Project family!
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3. Bookstore
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========a.==========
Korea, Back When
A Retrospective by a Former GI in a War-torn Land
by Anthony J. DeBlasi
"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened ---"
From the author
"Despite the small size, this intense little book tells who we were and what sent
us off to war. It sketches the role of a radio company, reports a chilling moment during prisoner exchanges takes a trip to the DMZ, samples first-hand accounts of GI's before the cease-fire, and speaks of the Korean people and
their culture during those war-torn years
Illustrated with photos.
Order from the author:
Anthony DeBlasi
455 Shady Nook Rd
West Newfield, ME 04095
PH: 207.793.8808
Email:
ISBN: 978-1-59824-462-5
========b.==========
17th Infantry Documentary – Stuart Namm, producer
'Men of Courage, the 17th Infantry Regiment in a Forgotten War.'
For the past 3 years Mr. Namm has burned the midnight oil to complete his labor of love about the
17th Buffalo's.
The first screening was at the September 16th annual reunion of the 17th Infantry Regiment Association in Colorado Springs, CO.
From Stuart:
"It features interviews of
17th Infantry Korean War veterans who they have been interviewing on video for the past ten months. The interviews will be continuing through the summer of 2007, with several interviews scheduled at the reunion, and on
their automobile trip from North Carolina to the Colorado reunion. The screening will cover the period from the end of WWII, when the unit was stationed in Japan, through the Inchon invasion, the Iwon amphibious landing, the March
to the Yalu, the evacuation at Hungnam, and Operation Killer under General Ridgeway in 1951.
The 17th Infantry Regiment was the only United States Army unit to reach the Yalu River in late November 1950, prior to the full
entrance of the Chinese into the war.
Much of the documentary which is still in progress may be viewed at the production website: www.legaleagleproductions.com
Korean War veterans of the 17th Infantry wishing to be interviewed should contact
Stuart Namm through the website, or by e-mail at:
or by telephone at 9102701405 or 9105203406."
Judge Stuart Namm (Ret)
1st Lt, Inf, Ranger (Ret)
17th Inf, Korea, 1956-57
Copies can be obtained by sending a check in the amount of $33.95 payable to
Stuart or Nancy Namm, 101 Marshview Road, Hampstead, NC 28443, which includes $4.00 for shipping. $5.00 of each order is to be contributed to the William Quinn Scholarship Fund of the 17th Infantry Association.
========c.==========
THE BORINQUENEERS, a documentary film.
For several years our pen pal Noemi Figueroa Soulet has struggled to create and produce her cherished documentary about the Puerto Ricans who made up the
bulk of the 65th Infantry Regiment in the Korean War.
She has success at last. Multiple airings of a 1 hour version of the documentary have aired all over the USA. Today, Puerto Rico PBS airs the Spanish language version.
From Noemi:
" A one-hour version was broadcast on PBS in major cities including New York City; Trenton, NJ; Boston, MA; Hartford, CT; Los Angeles, San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Orlando, Miami, Tampa & W.
Palm Beach, FL; San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, TX; Cincinnati, OH; Durham, NH; Pittsburgh, PA; Detroit, MI; Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis, IN; Albuquerque, NM and many other cities.
The Armed Forces Network also aired it on October
7th and 14th to more than 850,000 troops overseas and on Navy ships. They will continue to air it periodically for the next five years
"Local screenings of the long version of the film have taken place all over the
country, beginning with a very successful world premiere at the Newark Museum in New Jersey on July 13th. More than 350 guests attended the screening which was sponsored by Verizon, PSE&G, Prudential Financial, AARP New
Jersey, Rums of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, NJN, and the Newark Museum Latino Cinema Committee as a fundraiser for the New Jersey Hispanic Research and Information Center (NJHRIC) at the Newark Public
Library. Other screenings have taken place in the Bronx, NY, Paterson, NJ, Hartford, CT, Worcester, MA, Chicago, IL, San Antonio and Dallas, TX and Washington, DC.
Upcoming screenings will be taking place in New
York, Orlando, FL; Killeen/Fort Hood and Houston, TX.
For more details visit: www.borinqueneersmc.com
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4. Looking For
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=======a.=======
D.B. Silver, former Captain USMC writes:
Can anyone help me find or locate the names of 3 critically wounded Marines, from a forward medical company to the hospital ship USS RAVEN, by a HMR161 Sikorsky HRS2 Marine
transport Helicopter Pilot. 1st Marine Division Transport Squadron 161, on the night of 24 July, 1953, by a Captain Silver.
Thanks, their lives were saved that night of heavy clouds and rain over mountain terrain.
Email: dbsilver@netzero.net
========b.============
Gary Greiner, former Marine Corporal writes:
I am trying to locate two Marines with whom I served during the Korean War. I have not been successful up to now.
The men are Sgt. Walter Goodwin from the
Camden , N.J. area and Cpl. Jerry Vroman from Jersey City, N.J.
Please contact me at:
g12131@yahoo.com
========c.============
440th Signal Battalion.
Writer looking for anyone who has ever been in the 440th. This will be an oral history/history of the
battalion and there is still space for a few more stories, memories and information.
Contact for more details. Jim Hendricks
(440th 1953-54.
Email: ), lesmagi@jps.net
========d.============
From: "joseph chorzelewski" cccjoe@comcast.net
Subject: 1st missile battalion 42nd artillery- chun chon korea 1958 to1959
i would like to know if anyone from my company is listed in your list thank you
cccjoe@comcast.net
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5. Big Switch, 74th Engineer Heavy Equipment Co
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From George E. Sawyer, LTC C.E. USA (Ret.)
Operation
"Big Switch". The 74th Engineer Heavy Equipment Company was first to arrive near Freedom Gate Bridge as both sides fired off the remaining ammunition at all gun sites . A moment to remember; the last rounds fired at
the end of a war.
Our mission was to move out into what had been "no man's land" as both sides pulled back. Our duty was to bulldoze, grade, fill and borrow earth to lay out areas for the prisoner of war exchange
compounds, the Indian Army Brigade Compound and Neutral Nations Repatriation Compound.
There was no assurance that the treaty would be signed. Operation Little Switch had failed. The orders we were given, should the treaty
fail and war begin, were to abandon all engineer equipment and to use our inflatable air mattresses to swim the Imjin River.
I attended officer's call at the 6th Marine Regiment and Colonel Davis assured me the Marines
would give covering fire and try to get everyone back on the South side of the river. He walked the river edge with me; showing the fields of fire and automatic weapon positions.
I well understood as I was a graduate
of light and heavy platoon sergeants course at Fort Benning, Georgia. (Benning's Bad Boys). Colonel Davis, at O call reminded his staff that, the Engineers fought in the trenches with the 6th Marines in WWI. He then used that
precedent to make me an Honorary Marine.
We did not have to swim the river and all came back safely. Some were hurt in a borrow pit cave-in and some were wounded by booby traps and unexploded shells
The Chief of Staff
of the South Korean Army, General Pak Sun Yup awarded the 4th Engineer Heavy Equipment Company a letter of commendation. (on display at the Army Engineer Museum at Fort Lenard Wood,Mo.
George E. Sawyer Lt Col C.E. (ret)
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6 KMAG Reunion 2007-2008
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Hi Hal
Just wanted to let you know that
we held our first KMAG reunion in Omaha, Nebraska in late May 2007 and plan to have another in Bloomington, Minnesota tentatively planned for :
June 27, 28 and 29, 2008.
I am asking for anyone that is interested to email me at jjdomagala@aol.com
as soon as possible so we complete our planning. About 40 people attended at Omaha, including two Korean Generals. We are in the planning stages now for program, visits to Korean Memorials and the Mall Of America.
Editor Note: Joe served with the KMAG 3rd ROK 1952-53.
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8. KWP Project Report – Maps, Charts, Casualties
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1.) Google Map Project: www.koreanwar.org/google1/
The first stage is completed. Users will need to be able to utilize the internet program, Google Earth. Many older computers will not support installation, so be sure to check
out the requirements at: https://www.google.com/earth
The program is a free download from Google.
Maps currently displayed are very high quality Army Map Service 1:250,000 compiled from maps used during the war.
We have also included all the maps from the Army History
Series, Ebb and Flow, Policy and Decision.
Hal has created many hundred "Push Pin" locators for this trial version. These will eventually be sorted into timelines or theater of operations.
Many more maps are forthcoming.
2.) Charting the war:
From the main introduction page to the Korean War Project is the active link, titled: New – Unit Loss by Date Charting.
How it works:
a.) Click the
orange bars for any particular day. The next page will display casualties for that day.
b.) Click the "Go" button for details on an individual. On the following page will be our living tribute to this person.
c.) On
this page family and friends may leave a Remembrance as well as fill in missing or incorrect information such as hometown.
d.) You may also navigate to the unit page on Looking For.
3.) Unit Rosters and Unit Timeline:
The information sent in by our website visitors has allowed us to continue to make corrections for units displayed on the site.
We also us the lists to fix lingering errors in the original casualty files obtained
from National Archives and Department of Defense.
4.) Agent Orange Project:
The camps and areas where AO and AB were sprayed are part of the Google Earth Map Project. Hal has plotted most of the camps. We now need to
create overlay zones to more completely allow each of you to print or email to VA Counselors.
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From Hal:
"In the process of updating we are asking our visitors to help fill in the blanks for our
fallen where no unit, birthdates, hometown, or circumstances of death exist."
"Please visit the KIA/MIA data files to help and to see the updated work which is still in progress. "
Link: www.koreanwar.org/html/korean_war_databases.html
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9. VA pushes to assist veterans
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The VA has been under the microscope for most of the past three years. Both the VA
and the Pentagon admit failures in preparation for the surge of injured current service personnel entering the entire system.
Today, the Dallas Morning News featured an in-depth article on just how difficult the process for
our returning men and women has become.
Those who are VA patients from previous wars can see firsthand the stress on the VA healthcare system; they have a front row seat.
VA Push:
There has been a recent push
by the VA to contact former POW"s to come forward for evaluation and to seek healthcare.
If you know a veteran who was a POW or anyone who might possibly have PTSD, urge him/her to call the VA. This is for those who may not
have ever sought service connected assistance in prior years.
PTSD clinics have been mandated to get a better handle on the needs of those new patients as well as older patients.
Many volunteer organizations like the
KWP have been approached by VA counselors as a way to speed the process within the VA to obtain information to verify disputed claims.
These counselors look for unit records like morning reports and muster rolls to verify
information that might otherwise take over a year to retrieve through the system in place. They also seek out veterans who might have firsthand knowledge.
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10. Al Chang, Combat Photographer - RIP
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Mark Carlton, a former Combat Photographer and friend of Mr. Chang reports:
Dear Ted and Hal: Just a brief note to send an
attachment about the death of Al Chang who became quite famous as a combat still photographer of 3 wars including Korea. I was a combat motion picture cameraman and was privileged to cover a couple of front line assignments with
him early in the Korean War. He had a special talent for depicting all the agony and emotion of fellow soldiers on a sheet of 4"x5" photographic film. I will let the attached story about Al tell the story that will be of
interest to your readers, I hope others who knew Al Chang will contact me.
honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Oct/03/ln/hawaii710030393.html
Al Chang, a Combat Still Photographer of the Korean War was one of the colleagues known by
Paul Hampton and Mark Carlton while in Korea. Hampton and Carlton served as Combat Motion Picture Cameramen, on the front-lines, during the Korean War and have been searching for other colleagues who were Combat Motion Picture
Cameramen and Combat Still Photographers during the Korean War. Chang, Hampton and Carlton were members of the 71st Signal Battalion, GHQ, Tokyo
Please contact Mark Carlton at the Email address, marca1@earthlink.net and Paul
Hampton at the Email address, pghampton24@yahoo.com
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11. DMZ Vets Annual Reunion – Nov 11th 2007
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Today many veterans who served along the DMZ during the late
sixties are gathered in Alameda, Ca. for a continuation of the first gathering in Washington, DC last November.
The hotel hosting the reunion is The Inn at Jack London Square in Oakland.
Kudos to the organizers!
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12. ASA Korea Reunion
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We missed getting a timely notice out about the recent reunion of the ASA Reunion Association.
This posting is to make sure all interested persons can get in touch with the association.
ASA Korea will hold our 2007 reunion, October 4-7 at the Marriott Lincolnshire, IL Seems we have 73 signed up to date. Host this year
is Ed Collins; Deerfield, IL
ASA Korea now has 560 active members and still growing. However, we regret the loss of our two Founding Fathers, Dalton Harper, on Dec. 31, 2005; and, Andy Kavalecks, on Jan 21, 2007.
Thank you,
Rev. Charles "Preacher" Knappenberger, Chaplain, ASA Korea
Email: preacherk@aol.com
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13. Malaria in the Korean War ===============================================
We continue to receive valuable web
links on health issues. Thanks to Fred Lanting for sending the following link.
history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/KOREA/recad2/ch6-2.htm
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14. USS Firedrake Web Site
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I am Dick Tracy the reunion coordinator for the USS Firedrake AE-14 and we have this year's 2007 Vancouver, WA reunion posted on your site. We now have a Firedrake
web site at www.ussfiredrake.org
Thanks
Dick Tracy
dtracy@ptd.net
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15. Air Force Vet Remembers 92 Bomb Group ===============================================
I completed my 30 months
occupation duty in Japan and returned to the USA (April 1950) supposedly guarantied one year stateside duty. I was assigned to the 92 Bomb Group (30 B-29s).
July 4th 1950 we received orders to go to Yokota AFB
Japan. We made our first raid on Wonsan, N. Korea 8 July 1950.
Prior to the breakout from the Pusan perimeter and the Inchon landing all three of our squadrons were around the clock bombing the enemy troops with 500 lb
bombs with proximity fuses set to go off at 25ft. above ground.
After the Inchon landing it seemed the ROK army periodically failed to hold their line and would collapse. We tried to fill the gap by dropping many times
more frag. bombs than there were bomb racks by putting clusters on each bomb shackle.
Eventually I was rotated back to the USA but returned again this time to the 98th Bomb Group at Yakoda AFB, Japan.
On this tour all
of our bombing was done at night by radar as the Mig fighters out matched the guns of the B-29s.
This I remember,
Thomas F. Phelan USAF Ret.
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Thanks to all who have made this newsletter and the website possible!
Donors: www.koreanwar.org/html/membership.html
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Hal and Ted Barker
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