1 I won't forget.

2 Where did you get your number of 130,000 dead?  That's lots more than I've ever heard before.  Also, I read a history of this war that said the Chinese lost in excess of a million, many of whom simply froze to death because Mao sent them to war in laughably inadequate clothing, such as padded cotton jackets. 

3

Had a neighbor in NOLA who was at the Chosin Reservoir. A skinny Mexican kid from El Paso back in his day. He hated the cold so badly his wife would beg him to turn on the AC.

4 The Korean War Memorial in DC (pictured above) always unnerves me. From far away its as if actual soldiers are patrolling the grass.

5 North Korea nullified the armistice back in March or thereabouts.

6 My uncle was up in Alaska guarding snow at the far end of the Aleutians during the Korean deal.  There was quite a fear at the time the commies would make an end run through there.

7 4 The Korean War Memorial in DC (pictured above) always unnerves me. From far away its as if actual soldiers are patrolling the grass.

Agree.  Like the Vietnam memorial, it's one of those that I hated until I actually saw it.  Glad to admit I was wrong both times.

8 Worked with a quiet unassuming older guy who also had my last name, one that is not unique, just not overly common.  After we determined that we could not find any relationship, I found out he had been in Korea and knew first hand what "Frozen Chosin" meant.  He never mentioned his Korean experiences to anyone else in that company, and I felt privileged that he had related some of them to me.

What an honor it is to speak with such men!

9 Hey, mind the "older" jabs! 

I deliberately made sure Junior Cat watched M*A*S*H during high school.  Gave him an .. appreciation .. for service.  (he also picked up Hawkeye's utter lack of respect for authority, which has made his college career... interesting)

Mew

10 We have a small historic cemetery here in my little hamlet.  In fact Cole Younger is buried there along with many who have served.  Every year they have these big flags that go all around it.  It's really quite a sight to see.  Always brings a lump to my throat.  I have old glory waving outside my door, a bloody mary in hand and right now.. for the moment.. life is good.

11

"It's called "the Forgotten War".

 

And shamefully...it is, by some.

 

I get pissed off when I hear it referred to as "The Korean Conflict". 

It was a War, in every sense of the word. 

 

Thousands of our warriors were killed there.

We should never forget.

12 Why DO they call the Korean conflict??  It WAS a war wasn't it?

13 My Dad was in the Korean War and our family was later stationed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Dad said he got lots colder in Korea -- it was the coldest place in his life.

14 I guess because there was never a declaration of war j45, though there wasn't in the Vietnam war either.

15 Posted by: acat at May 25, 2013 05:09 PM (4UkCP)

I believe that I have the perspective to use the term when it is appropriate and I do not do it lightly!  Just so you know, my use of "older" was not meant in any disrespectful sense!

16 IIRC, and I may be wrong, war was never declared.  It was a UN (read US) "police action".   I'm sure those who participated thought of it that way.

17 Funny thing, war: never have so many suffered so much so so few could be so happy.

18 I'm sure those who participated thought of it that way.

I'd ask my uncle, who was in the artillery, and my Dad, who was in a ship shelling NK trains, but I'd like to keep on breathing.

19 Posted by: hobbes at May 25, 2013 05:14 PM (dfwJa)

I think technically it was a UN Police Action (but I am not a military historian).  It set a bad precedent since it involved us with the UN and gave us the principle of unwinnable conflicts as we did not formally declare war.  It also let our politicians off the hook since they did not have to stand up and openly support or decry the action.

20 My Uncle, still living, was a medic in Korea. Came home and practiced medicine in Beaufort SC for a bazillion years. Just retired a few years ago and now lives close by. I need to go pay him a visit.

21 Posted by: Frank Burns

So how's Hot Lips?  Me, I never saw the attraction.  Jo An Pflug was more my speed.

22 I agree - the Korean War Memorial is very powerful.  But I'm a traditionalist.  There is nothing there that really commemorates what they accomplished.  Just the sculptures.  Which is fine, but it should be more than that.

23 The Korean War Memorial in DC (pictured above) always unnerves me. From far away its as if actual soldiers are patrolling the grass. Go there at night to see it. The effect is amplified. You really get a "sense" of that war when you see it at night. After a tour in Korea - and occasionally sloshing through rice paddies as the monument depicts - I can say the memorial just feels accurate.

24 My uncle by marriage, who I have mentioned before, was among the 92,000 wounded in Korea. He got a battlefield commission to go with his Purple Heart, so his platoon leader was probably among the 33,000 killed.

25 Not that it surprises me coming from David Halberstam, but what were the political jabs? Considering buying the book but I have almost no tolerance for that kind of garbage anymore-- ever since, I suppose, sportswriters lost any ability to avoid interjecting their (almost universally liberal) politics into sports writing.

26 In the middle he goes off against Bush.. but really, the combat memories from his interviews are worth ignoring that.

27 My first father in law, USMA 47, his dad USMA 22, was thought to be dead, frozen on a hill. His father at the time a Lt Gen just asked for them to bring his body home.

He lived.  When he got home he slept for three days.  There were so worried about him they sent a dr to check on him.  

He woke up and was fine.

Scary shit.

28 11 "It's called "the Forgotten War". For those military history buffs in the Horde, I very much recommend T.R. Fehrenbach's This Kind of War Halberstam's book is OK, but I thought Fehrenbach's was better. Since Fehrenbach published in 1963, there is no PC bullshit in it, and it seems to have much more immediacy to it. The fiftieth anniversary edition of the book was just released.

29

[noticing silence prevailing after a lengthy Chicom bombardment . . . ]

Hawkeye:  "Do you hear that?"

BJ:  What?  I don't hear anything."

Hawkeye:  "The shelling's stopped!"

BJ:  "Cool.  Let's go tag-team Hot Lips, and make her finish by giving us both a Blumpkin. Frank will be pissed!"

30 Korea was fuckin' brutal and it's always seemed odd to me that so few people are even aware of it.  And, damn, Billy Bob, that is some story.

31 and to think, only a few years earlier we demanded unconditional surrender on both sides of the world. A lot can go wrong in just a few years. At least W Bush understood that much.

32 father in law was there. Says the monument in Washington really captures the moment during patrol

33 While those losses of those Americans are tragically high, I'm somewhat comforted that their kill ratio was pretty damn high.

34 Thanks, Dave, for your commitment to our military. -Baylor, class of 1982

35

27 My first father in law, USMA 47, his dad USMA 22, was thought to be dead, frozen on a hill. His father at the time a Lt Gen just asked for them to bring his body home.

 

He lived. When he got home he slept for three days. There were so worried about him they sent a dr to check on him.

 

He woke up and was fine.

 

Scary shit.

 

Posted by: Billy Bob, pseudo intellectual at May 25, 2013 05:31 PM (Cydud) 

 

-----------

 

They sent him home...frozen?

Surely not.

Maybe I read this wrong.

 

God bless him, glad he survived it.

 

36 Peaches he never talked about it.  His dad did, he never did.

37

Halberstam is a typical fucking liberal asshole who wouldn't know the truth if it weighed 250 pounds, wore a dress made out of a set of hideous yellow curtains, smelled of rancid sweat, and pinned his idiot head to the floor with her bloody fucking beef drapes while answering to either the name Worf or Michelle!!!!!!!

 

I am sure this book is good, though. 

38 Ace said 'communist'. That triggers the once-weekly listing of this excerpt from Mickey Spillane's book "One Lonely Night":
 "I killed more people tonight than I have fingers on my hand. I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it. I pumped slugs in the nastiest bunch of bastards you ever saw and here I am calmer than IÂ’ve ever been, and happy too. They were Communists, Lee. They were red sons-of-bitches who should have died long agoÂ…"

39 @35

Obviously not.  The word to HQ was he was dead and frozen.  He obviously was not dead. Communications during war suck.

40

It wouldn't hurt to remember that if we hadn't fought this war, South Korea today would be a miserable slave state, as dark viewed from space as North Korea is now.

It wasn't a wasted effort.

41 My dad didn't fight in Korea but he did fight in WWII.. never talked about it.  He was just a very young man, 18 when he fought at Guadelcanal.  He drank himself to death.

42  James Brady recently wrote a book about returning to Korea, where he was a Marine Lt during the war. I've been there, and it's just too cold for the air to really  be humid, but it is and that cold just goes bone deep.  I cannot imagine fighting in it.

43

Read an article that said Mao sent the troops into Korea without adequate clothing, medical aid and support on purpose.  He did that because he felt they were potentially disloyal to the communists in China, and you cannot be disloyal if you are dead. 

 

Where..  cannot find it?

 

 

44 Find a copy of Max Hasting's The Korean War. One aspect I'll never forget was a bone headed bureaucratic stuff up which saw WWII vets with low combat scores redrafted into the fight. Can you guess which sort of veteran had a low score? I'll give you a clue. One poor soul ended up spending seven years between 1941 and '53 in either Japanese or Nork PoW camps.

45 @40

That and we would not have Samsung phones, my Equus, or Psy's stupid songs.

I love my Equus, 429 HP of pure bad ass.

46

Heh! If McArthur had crossed the Yalu, NK wouldn't be a miserable slave state, as darkviewed fromspace.

 

Just sayin...

47 Sean, I am halfway through "This Kind of War" and right now I'm rating Halberstam's recount of battle as better narrative.

48 OK, this is an admission that I'm old. My first battery commander when I was a 2nd Lt had been a BAR man with 7th Marines at the Chosin.. Later got a commission. There were a lot of Korea vets still in the Corps then. Us kids learned a lot from them and held them in awe.

49 McArthur would have dropped the bomb and this shit would have been over. Pussy Truman fired him. 

50

I will always think that guy Psy is a ungrateful dickhead.

 

Even though he 'apologized'...he said what he said, and I think he still thinks that way.

51 Also highly recommend The Last Stand of Fox Company.

52 He drank himself to death.

Posted by: jewells45 at May 25, 2013 05:46 PM (u25eL)

You say that like it's a bad thing.  He enjoyed every drink.  We all travel different roads, give him a break.

53 31 and to think, only a few years earlier we demanded unconditional surrender on both sides of the world. A lot can go wrong in just a few years. At least W Bush understood that much.
Posted by: mallfly, MFA
===========

McArthur did too. Whatever his faults, he was probably correct to demand blowing the bridges across the Yalu. Here is a synopsis:
--------
"The government in Communist China threatened to intervene in the Korean War if UN troops pushed beyond the 38th Parallel. President Harry Truman ordered MacArthur to push to the Yalu River. Truman failed to give the order MacArthur wanted which was to destroy the bridges that crossed the Yalu River. The destruction of these bridges would have made it very difficult for the Chinese to have crossed the river in substantial numbers. As it was, the bridges were not destroyed and the Chinese were able to pour into the Korean peninsula vast amounts of men and supplies. When MacArthur protested about the failure to give the order the destroy the bridges, he was relieved of his command and replaced by General Matthew Ridgeway. MacArthur returned to America as a hero. At the time of his dismissal, the "Chicago Tribune" stated that Truman was not fit to tie MacArthur's shoes but any hopes of a career in politics after his military one came to nothing and from 1952 until his death in 1964, aged 84, Douglas MacArthur lived out his retirement in Manhatten
----------------

"The things I value, do not change." -- Gen MacArthur

54 Oh no Billy Bob.. I know that.  I loved my dad.  He was an amazing man.  It's just sad that he saw and did things that would haunt him the rest of his life.  I still miss him like crazy and he passed in '88.  I wish he could have known his grandkids.. they would have adored him.

55 My father was too young for Korea and too old for Vietnam but he did time in Thule.

56 Posted by: jewells45 at May 25, 2013 05:46 PM (u25eL)

I'm sorry . . . {{{{{}}}}}

57 The other coldest/forgotten was was the Italian campaign in WWII, but Korea was one we had to win. If we'd wussed out, the way Choomie wants now, I think the world would have been a very different place much sooner. Those guys gave most here a chance to have a good life.

58

The scary part is that Trumna and his defence secretary Johnson, gutted the armed forces (because, Hey WE have the bomb, and obviously the godless communists never will).  

 

We sent a bunch of untrained and under-armed soldiers into the war in 1950.  The survivors learned fast, and thankfully the military relearned all the lessons from WWII quickly. 

 

I am afraid that this administration is making the same mistakes all over again.  And the people that will pay the price on the battlefield are not the ones in Washington D.C.  But the media will sing hosannas to the "bravery" and "courage" of the political class after they bumble us into the next war. 

 

59 My dad was on a refrigerated cargo ship taking them beans and bullets. The USS Polaris.

60

It wouldn't hurt to remember that if we hadn't fought this war, South Korea today would be a miserable slave state, as darkviewed fromspace as North Korea is now.
It wasn't a wasted effort.

 

Nope. Millions of people have never known the taste of bondage because we were able to pull a stalemate from the jaws of disaster. Since we didn't start the war and were ultimately able to hold onto what we ("we" being the free world)   had before the Norks attacked, I have always counted it as a victory, just not as complete as others.

61 It's okay Peaches.. I came to understand it and I loved him all the more.  I just wish we could have spent more time together.  My mom divorced him when I was nine and remarried.  He sorta followed her or me around the country whenever we moved.  My first husband hated him (fucking asshole) but my hubby loved him to death.  Very well read, very smart.  Would give anything for him to be here right now.  Miss my stepdaddy too.  He passed in 1999.  Wonderful man.  I was blessed with two great dads.

62 If not already noted, David Halberstam's book is "The Coldest Winter." James Brady's autobiography is "The Coldest War," and in some ways, a more superior book. Besides Halberstam's faults, one thing missing in his book is any real mention of naval and air activities during the war... especially the recently revealed news that Soviet pilots were flying against American pilots in MiG alley.

63 Jewells, I am sure that despite everything he experienced, it was worth it to see his girl each morning.   :-)

64 Oh yeah I was the apple of his eye.  Broke his heart when my mom divorced him.  I was their only child.

65 What we have in Korea is a victory, pure and simple, one every veteran of that conflict can be proud of, and one it its own way as decisive as that achieved in WWII. Because: South Korea is free, prosperous, and democratic, and is a First World nation of increasing sophistication. It is, more than any other nation, a template for what can be. The lives of tens of millions over the last sixty years are proof. And North Korea is a poor backward famine-plagued tyranny, conclusive proof of what top-down dreams for the organization of men brings, and acts as a clear warning to those who would favor such methods because they desire "social justice". It is, more than any other nation, a template for what can be. The lives of tens of millions over the last sixty years are proof. It was the efforts of lonely, cold, at times ill-equipped American, Korean, and NATO men that we can credit for these two state of affairs. The Korean War was a victory, period, because in the South, the good guys won, and the results show it, and in the North, the bad guys won, and the results show it, and the differences could not be starker. Naturaly, China fought for the North, and still supports them. I understand how they think they are now ready for world leadership.... As to other news, I am disapponted to hear that 60 votes might not exist in the Senate for "comprehensive immigration reform". Who would have thought that acceding to demands by illegals for citizenship and money in exchange for the privilege of us getting to legalize their illegal presence here and their also graciously granting to us permission to marginally close the border would not be seen as a good deal? Certainly not me.

66 Does anyone know if Douglas MacArthur and his family, I believe during his childhood but perhaps later, lived in Orange County, California?

I've heard that for a long time, but never been able to find anything about it.

67

Posted by: wheatie at May 25, 2013 05:50 PM (L35yH)

 

Agreed, on both counts.

68 My father was at the outer edge of MacArthurs's staff ( it was a wide edge ) for most his time in Korea.  Ran into Al Haig several times.  Al was an ass-kissing captain ( the worst kind ) situated closer to the general.


the joke was that MacArthur and his ego were so huge, they had their own gravitational field

Very cold there, it was. 

69 MacArthur lived in the Presidential Suite at the Waldof, or so I'm told ---NYC

70 re 67 and 70: a buzz through the wikipedia article turned up nothing about Orange County. on the other hand "Douglas and Jean MacArthur spent their last years together in the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers, a part of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel." (Douglas? How about a little respect for a great man, buster.)

71

Not that it surprises me coming from David Halberstam, but what were the political jabs? Considering buying the book but I have almost no tolerance for that kind of garbage anymore-- ever since, I suppose, sportswriters lost any ability to avoid interjecting their (almost universally liberal) politics into sports writing.

Posted by: BK at May 25, 2013 05:28 PM (6KiQ+)

 

Me either. I just started reading Lowenstein's book about the financial crisis, and in the first paragraph he gratuitously teed off on ... Reagan (!), of all people. Yeah, the financial crisis was ultimately Reagan's fault. Sure.

 

I put the book down, and later returned it to the library, never having read the second paragraph. Fuck Lowenstein and all of his bilious liberal asshole type.

 

In my old age, I have zero tolerance for that sort of gratuitous, conclusory swipe at a conservative. If someone's got a reasoned criticism of a conservative, and it's relevant to the topic at hand, OK, but "Reagan (or Bush, or Palin, or whoever) was a poopyhead" type of snark (or use of "teabagger") and I quit reading right then and there.

72 qdpsteve, I know Pershing lost his wife and three daughters in a fire at the Presidio, before WWI. His son survived.

73 After reading our comments and articles here today, how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State, knowing his history in and after Viet Nam?

74

I was stationed at camp casey from November 1990 to December 1991...during desert storm...we did road marches in December and January when it was too cold to do regular P.T....30 to 40 below zero....and -40 is breath takingly cold.

then in march and april we had to sand bag buildings because of the annual monsoon flooding

july and august brought 90 degree temps and 90% humidity...many days I wished I was back in cool Ft. Riley Ks...

during the first days of desret storm, we were on alert pretty much 24/7...and we had to set our minds to be ready for an Alamo style defenceive stand if Mr. Kim decided to get froggy....the Norks didn't and still don't take enlisted men prisoner. 

 

over all, it was the best year of my army career, inspite of the weather and uncertainty of being in a combat zone.

75 Hi rons, My uncle Ken is a Korea veteran. Most successful man I know. Everything he touches turns to gold., Land, cattle, career. I have never sat and talked to him. There is an outage at the Clinton Nuke plant in the fall. I'll be staying with him for that and I will, as tactfully as I can can, listen for the stories.

76 how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State,

We're not, and I think that many of us here don't.  I don't have a president, I don't have a secretary of state, I sure as hell don't have a senator or a congresscritter.  What I do have is caustic optimism that we might somehow find our way out of this stinking mess.  Ted Cruz!

77 how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State, I never did. He's a phony opportunist Piece of shit.

78 I was stationed in Korea 1972-1975 and could never understand how it could be so cold in the winter. The summers were hot enough.

79

74 After reading our comments and articles here today, how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State, knowing his history in and after Viet Nam?

 

Posted by: Never again! at May 25, 2013 06:23 PM (xYEjI) 

 

-------

 

I view it as yet another 'fuck you' from KingFlyingBird.

Accept him?

Oh hell no.

 

80 My late father was a Marine in the Korean War, and the above book was one of the few he ever read and actually said it was accurate.

Semper Fi.

81 Didn't find anything about him living in OC, but there sure is a whole lot named for him out there, huh? He's interred at his memorial here in my hometown. Been there many times.

82 in the South, the good guys won, and the results show it, and in the North, the bad guys won, and the results show it

This should end the argument - all arguments.

83 how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State, knowing his history in and after Viet Nam?

Because Kerry is better than the China Hands during the Mao / Chang conflict...? No, screw it, Kerry is exactly from that Boston-brahmin cloth.

84 Where the heck is everybody?

85 It's difficult to evaluate decisions made in Korea, except for Inchon.  Like Vietnam, there were so many political limitations as well as political meddling by Truman / LBJ


My father liked Walton Walker, who died early in the war in a jeep accident, but apparently the Conventional Wisdom is that his replacement was better

86

Halberstan's The Coldest Winter

 

 

Not at gun point.

87

My own dad was in Korea when I was born - I wasn't introduced to him until I was about a year old. Then, I did my last overseas at Yongson Garrison. Oh, lord, it was cold there in the winter - the wind comes straight off Siberia.

It was very strange to look out at what Seoul and South Korea has become since 1954 - so advanced, so cosmopolitan - nothing like what it seemed to soldiers of Dad's generation. It was poor then, so poor that Korean nationals just outside Camp Coiner watched the GI's eating K-rations enviously. As if K-rats weren't bad enough, that made Dad quite lose his appetite anyway - having starving Koreans watch him take every mouthful.

I hope Psy's fifteen minutes of music fame in the US is over, the ungrateful, vicious little twerp. And Jawn F***ing Kerry deserves every bit of scorn heaped upon him.

88 Horseface Kerry could be worse than  Rodhaman Clitoon, if that's possible. Skeezy Preezy loves to poke his thumb in our eye with his cabinet picks.

89

78 how are we supposed to accept John Kerry as Secretary of State,

 

I don't.  I wish for his untimely death in a sail ski accident.

90 I don't. I wish for his untimely death in a sail ski accident. Posted by: 98ZJUSMC at May 25, 2013 06:45 PM (XvgVa) I was thinkin a Bengazi type thing.

91

My own dad was in Korea when I was born - I wasn't introduced to him until I was about a year old. Then, I did my last overseas at Yongson Garrison. Oh, lord, it was cold there in the winter - the wind comes straight off Siberia.

 

 

Korea is the most brutal cold I have ever experienced.

 

Bar none.

92 I was stationed in Korea 1972-1975 and could never understand how it could be so cold in the winter. The summers were hot enough. It's the amount of landmass in the Eurasian continent. It gets colder than a well-digger's ass in Mongolia, and that cold air blows down the peninsula.

93 I was thinkin a Bengazi type thing.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet Palin/Bolton 2016 at May 25, 2013 06:47 PM (XIxXP)

 

 

Even better, OSP.

94 Then, I did my last overseas at Yongson Garrison. How long ago if you don't mind my asking? I was not stationed in Korea when I was in the Army, but I spent my high school years there as a dependent.

95

98ZJUSMC,

 

My father was in Korea 53-54. He said the same thing about the winter. He said the summer was just the opposite, brutally hot and humid. 

96

"...some of us (ok older us) learned about as we watched M*A*S*H."

Some of us had second hand experience via guys a few years older than us who went to Korea and survived the combat there.  Our war, it turned out, was in Southeast Asia.  It was never just about Vietnam.  Although Cronkite and Rather and the others didn't tell you that and couldn't have covered the action even if they had the desire to do such a thing.  There were not many air conditioned hotels in Laos.

97 There were not many air conditioned hotels in Laos. Posted by: TOF at May 25, 2013 07:02 PM (PV2IU) ^^^^^^ That's a big no shitter right there.

98 Gotta say that on my first trip to DC back after the Bamster took office, I found that the Korean War Memorial was by far the most beautiful.  I was totally disappointed in the Vietnam War Memorial, I don't know what I thought but the fact that it was kinda in the side of a hill made it less impressive to me, structurally speaking.  Of course all the names are overwhelming, but the Korean War Memorial with all those different faces and the sculptures were fantastic.

99

There's an excellant book about the Korean War's POWs titled "Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War" by Lewis H. Carlson. About 7140 americans were POWs, of which nearly 40% would die. A death rate as bad as those held by the Japanese.

 

One thing I never knew was the relentless and vicious way the Army and FBI went after many of the former POWs for "collaborating" with the enemy. Some were harrassed for years simply for attending the daily required commie indoctrination sessions.

100 Speaking of Korea. He wasn't a soldier, but Fr. Emil Kapaun who served in Korea gave his life in service to Christ and in service to soldiers, and died while imprisoned. He was awarded the Medal of Honor a few months ago and RCs are working for his canonization: http://www.frkapaun.org/about.html

101 One thing I never knew was the relentless and vicious way the Army and FBI went after many of the former POWs for "collaborating" with the enemy. This is why we have The Code of Conduct. It is possible (maybe even probable) that former POWs were wrongfully hounded by the powers-that-be after their service; however, there were several accounts of actual, weaselly collaboration corroborated by several witnesses. Taking a step back for some perspective, I cannot help but note that it would be a really good thing if it was all right to waste a commie just because he is a commie. We would not be in the mess that we are in today if only. . .

102

FRONT TOWARD LEFT, I was there at Yongsan in 1994-95, working at AFKN-Seoul. I did the midday radio request show (under my mundane name, of course) and a radio news segment for AFKN Radio called "Seoul Source". I actually rather liked Seoul, but it was an unaccompanied tour, and I had a teenaged daughter, a couple of cats and a family life that I wanted to get back to, so I didn't stay for more than a year.

I thought it was ... ironic, to come back to Korea after Dad had been stationed there. And even more ironic, when my daughter enlisted in the Marines, and had her first overseas at Iwakuni. Dad spent his EML leave in Japan. So, there were three generations of Americans, doing time in the Far East.

103 I loaned out "This Kind of War" and never got it back.  His account was from a more conservative outlook and is a fine overview of the war.  My favorite on the Korean War is Martin Russ' excellent "Breakout".  Russ, a Marine himself, narrowed his focus to Chosin and the Chinese offensive.  He also covered the harrowing experience of the army on the other side of the peninsula.  Russ' book is one of the best military histories I have ever read.

104 "Does anyone know if Douglas MacArthur and his family, I believe during his childhood but perhaps later, lived in Orange County, California?" Looks like the closest he got was Oakland, where his father was stationed at the time he was graduated from West Point

105 Here's the wiki url http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur Tried to embed the HTML

106 Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 25, 2013 07:34 PM (PvxhO) Nice. Thank you and your family so much for your service! I left Korea in 1985. The last time I was back was in 1987. The crazy thing was that when I was there, we listened to the Korean radio stations because AFRTS (outside of the "syndicated" stuff like Wolfman Jack and Charlie Tuna) was an even split between soul and country. Hell, AFKN TV used to run Soul Train and Hee Haw back-to-back on Saturday mornings. One hilarious thing along those lines: I know of a lot more ABBA songs than I *ought* to know as a straight male.

107 (outside of the "syndicated" stuff like Wolfman Jack and Charlie Tuna) I forgot about Casey Kasem, too!

108 I failed to mention earlier: Be careful on the MacArthur-bashing. There is a lot shit smearing MacArthur (starting with that Gregory Peck cocksucker's vicious maligning in the movie). The problem is that it is not possible to figure out what is real and what is democrat party propaganda spun against the idea of his being recruited to challenge Truman in '52.

109

102 FRONT TOWARD LEFT,

 

You should read the book I mentioned. The truth is the Korean War POWs behaved no different than any of our other war's POWs.

110 I had an uncle at the Bulge, an uncle at Guadalcanal and an uncle in Korea, who was drafted after having served briefly in the Navy at the end of WWII.  The uncle who served in Korea was awarded a Bronze Star for fixing a tank under fire.  He said, What was I gonna do?  Not fix it?

111 Didn't find anything about him living in OC, but there sure is a whole lot named for him out there, huh?

Shredded: there is. Maybe it's just because Orange County's always been more or less the conservative capital of California, and MacArthur has the legendary reputation (right or wrong) for sticking it in Truman's eye-- after getting fired-- by returning to NYC with a hero's welcome, complete with tickertape parade.

112 When our son was a little boy, we were in DC for a convention.


I took him to the Korean War monument, as well as the Vietnam Wall.

It touched him enough to become a Marine.

113

114 My son, on tour there now. Kunsan AFB. Been there thru this whole crazy past year. It's been real for them too. They were ready for Lil Kim, if if had gone that far.

115 115 My son, on tour there now. Kunsan AFB. Been there thru this whole crazy past year. It's been real for them too. They were ready for Lil Kim, if if had gone that far.

Posted by: small town girl at May 25, 2013 09:28 PM (EvEIZ

Our son, an Afghanistan vet, just finished his second tour there.  Relax.  Your boy will be fine.

116

Posted by: small town girl at May 25, 2013 09:28 PM (EvEIZ)

 

 

I spent a total of 6 and a half years at Kunsan Air Base. (AFBs in foreign countries are called Air Bases. Anderson AFB, Guam is a US territory.) These days GIs are not allowed to live off base, among other things, so I would not even think of doing that now. Too many rules now.

117 Was at the Kun in 96 (I think) when the NorKs ran a sub aground on the east coast. We were right in the middle of an exercise and all they did was pull some cops out of the exercise, take their blanks and give them real bullets. The rest of us pressed with the wargame.

118 I lived there for a year. Flew the line in P-518. Passed the monument to Task Force Smith every week. I won't ever forget it it. there's no comparison between North & South; just too many who are too ignorant to know the difference. I'd go back tomorrow if needed.

119 If you ever saw the mud flats on the west coast at low tide, you'd realize what a gutsy move Inchon was. And it is cold there in the winter. And the DMZ is about as bleak a place as you can imagine. It raise the level of contempt to immeasurable heights to see the photo op of Bill Clinton there, vie
wing the scene (or not) with binos that still had the lens caps on them.

120 Never saw Inchon at low tide but Kunsan isn't a whole lot different. Saw MacArthur's statue in Inchon and the older Koreans think highly of him.

121 By the way, I had to think hard to remember P-518. I maintenance and that is only designated that way on flight maps.

122 My uncle was a sergeant in the infantry. Had been stationed in Japan when the war broke out. Told me about guys freezing to death overnight because all they had to cover themselves was a blanket. Said his own feet froze to his boots because he didn't have dry socks to put on. He's in a VA hospital now, feet buggered up so bad he can't walk. He pushed to have the memorial created, but he never bitched about having to serve, or what it did to him physically. Kept his head on straight in spite of all he saw and endured. God bless him, and all those who got thrown into that miserable place.

123 Recently worked in South Korea for 7 months. The South Koreans have not forgotten.