COMBAT STORIES FROM Korea

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Showing : Korea Videos

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  Ben Malcom - Army +12 Total Videos

  8240th Army Unit, Special Forces

  Ben Malcom recalls a mission to infiltrate and destroy a 76mm gun hidden inside a North Korean mountain. During the cover of night on July 14, 1952, Malcom managed to sneak 120 guerilla fighters onto the mountain and into the bunker, and describes the combat that ensued.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment

  Ray Davis had distinguished himself in the Pacific campaigns and when he returned stateside, he was assigned to Quantico and the Marine schools. When the next war started, his regiment didn't exist but it was quickly formed and dispatched to Korea. Once the Chinese entered the fray, his battalion trekked up to the Chosin Reservoir where there was nothing but trouble. Part 1 of 2.

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  Ron Clark - Marines +7 Total Videos

  Mortarman, Baker Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Ron Clark remembers when the Chinese would attack and how the strategies between American and Chinese differed. He also explains one detailed account of an American casualty during battle and his own major injury that permanently disabled his eyesight.

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  Bill Minnich - Army +2 Total Videos

  C Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division

  When it was time to act, Bill Minnich came through. On a night watch, as he caught sight of a Chinese patrol, the only question was, rifle or grenade? When the unit was pinned down and no one responded to the order to move out, he cussed them all out and charged forward. And when he fell wounded, it was a sure thing that he would get up and scramble through the bullets landing at his feet.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  7th Marine Regiment

  We had to give up a lot of real estate when the fighting in Korea became focused on the demarcation line. Some units were very far to the north and had to pull back. Ray Davis had commanded a battalion during some of the fiercest fighting but there was a rotation system, so he was back home when the stalemate started.

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  Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Air Rescue pilot Allyn Johnson spent a lot of time in the air off the coast of Korea waiting for someone to ask for help. The brass disapproved an award when he successfully rescued some downed Navy airmen but the Navy presented him with a special gift.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  He was inland but still close enough to the coast to feel the effects of a devastating typhoon. Ray Bohn tells how his unit prepared for the storm and what happened when they had to build a rope bridge to their outhouse. It was on the other side of a stream that had become a raging torrent.

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  Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Allyn Johnson graduated high school in 1948 and went into the Air Force, figuring it would provide a secure future. He became an aircraft mechanic and then an instructor in rotary wing maintenance.

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  Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

  28th Infantry Division

  He was too young to be scared but there were a couple of times that Ed Fulghum thought he was going to die. Mortar fire will do that to you. The one thing that did affect him in Korea was seeing other guys get maimed. That will get to you.

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  Allyn Johnson - Air Force +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Allyn Johnson was an Air Force mechanic and instructor when he found out that he could apply for flight training. Now that was exciting. He had a phobia about acrobatics but he wanted to fly multi-engine aircraft so they let him slide on that part of the training. He went into Air Rescue because they had B-17's and he really wanted to fly one.

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  Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

  28th Infantry Division

  When Ed Fulghum got to Korea, he found out that the Inchon invasion was well underway. The notorious Inchon tide had gone out, so he had to slog a couple of hundreds yards through the mud flats to get to the shore. Was he scared? Not in the least.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  Ray Bohn never really left the front line while he was in Korea. He never saw the cities, ate a lot of C-rations and took up smoking. As the company courier, he had to visit a lot of different locations and it was at one of these near the coast that he was treated to a display of naval gunfire.

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  Ed Fulghum - Army +14 Total Videos

  28th Infantry Division

  He had to weigh 120 pounds but he only weighed 116. Ed Fulghum's induction physical was the next day and, as usual, he came up with a plan. It was knee deep snow where he did his basic training. When some joker didn't turn in his pistol at the range, the recruits were sent outside to stand in the snowy Indiana weather.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  7th Marine Regiment

  Based on his service in Korea and on his many trips back there, Ray Davis developed a great deal of admiration for the Korean people. It is nothing short of a miracle what they have done in their country since that war.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  A Marine and a North Korean were both approaching the corner of a building from opposite directions. What could happen? Marty Letellier laughed when he saw it. He and a buddy liberated some swords from a factory in Inchon, just before they were sent into the demolished city of Seoul.

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  GEN Ray Davis - Marines +11 Total Videos

  7th Marine Regiment

  The Chinese and the North Koreans were difficult to face because of the sheer numbers, if nothing else. Ray Davis faced them and the Japanese before them. He would eventually face the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese but there is no question in his mind who the toughest foe was.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Marty Letellier was at Camp Pendleton for two years after basic training and actually got to fire his mortar up in the hills. The rattlesnakes were not pleased. Suddenly, there was a war to fight. North Korea had invaded the South. What did he know about Korea? Nothing.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  Ray Bohn describes the Korean War era cryptography machine he was trained to use. He never really got to use it because when he got to the front line, he was made the courier for Headquarters Company.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Marine boot camp was a shock. The DI wasn't nice. Nothing he did was right. To Marty Letellier, the rigors were all mental and the physical part of it was no big deal. At his next stop, Camp Pendleton, he became a gunner on a 60 mm mortar crew.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  When it came time for Ray Bohn to come home from Korea, some of the guys were sore because, as a draftee, he was eligible and they were not. When he got home, he went to work with his father at a hardware firm where he started out sweeping floors and then rose to be president of the company.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  4th Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Regiment

  He never had to engage the enemy, but combat engineer Fred Culbreth did experience artillery barrages while working on gun emplacements in the Korean hills. He didn't know it at the time, but it damaged his hearing, as did his own rock blasting work.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  He had fought at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, and the Chosin Reservoir and was nearly ready to board the ship home. Marty Letellier asked a Red Cross worker for some coffee and was told it would cost a dime. You've got to be kidding.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  In an engineering unit, you had access to all kinds of things that other units needed and couldn't really get. Combat engineer Fred Culbreth made sure to collect plenty of plywood from his supply depots. You could get almost anything for plywood, including warmer boots, which were a big deal in Korea.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  President Truman extended his three year commitment to four years, so Marine Marty Letellier had a little more service to go. He served at Great Lakes and Camp LeJeune. He didn't care for the latter but he did discover that he could take academic tests while there, which helped him greatly.

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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  The severity of the winter weather during the Korean War was over exaggerated, according to Jim Larkin. He suffered from it at times but combat keeps your mind on more immediate concerns. He also scoffs at criticism of the weapon he carried, the M-1 rifle.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  A bridge was washed out on his route, but Fred Culbreth didn't want to waste hours on the detour. He knew that there were rocks and a hand cable at a certain point, so he plotted a route on the map and headed for the spot. When he saw that the ford was flooded, he decided to go for it, anyway.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Nearly everyone in his unit had frostbite to some degree, Marty Letellier had been very careful to take care of his feet, so he avoided the misery that many were feeling. As the Marines withdrew to the coast after the retreat from Chosin, they were followed by thousands of refugees, who were also evacuated to the South.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  Combat engineer Fred Culbreth was on a train rolling through Seoul toward the front. He had a support role but, within days of arriving at his post, he thought he may have to engage in combat in the middle of the night.

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  Jim Larkin - Marines +6 Total Videos

  1st Battalion, 5th Marines

  For seventeen year old Jim Larkin, what he found after he came ashore at Inchon was fascinating. The novelty of Asia soon wore off since there was a war to fight, but he discovered that the Koreans are a humble and polite people. It's not a bad way to be.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  The North Koreans were closing on Pusan when the Marines arrived to turn the tide. Mortarman Marty Letellier recalls that when other units failed to take a hill, his company was given the task. It was their turn in the meat grinder and they succeeded where the others had failed. Then they faced a grim task.