COMBAT STORIES FROM Korea

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Showing : Korea Videos

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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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  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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  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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  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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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Jim Bolan returned to Korea as an officer where he witnessed a huge display of celebratory firepower on the last day of the war. While there, a reporter for a Dallas newspaper interviewed a home town boy and wound up causing a scandal.

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  Lloyd Glasson - Army +6 Total Videos

  5th Regimental Combat Team

  Because he had some college and could type, Lloyd Glasson was assigned to headquarters company. He became the Awards and Decorations Section Chief and it was his job to write up the awards and interview soldiers who were recommended for them.

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  William Alli - Marines +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Seven months into his tour in Korea, William Alli was put in charge of the local unit of Korean laborers. The nineteen year old Marine was now an Asian despot, according to his friends. He didn't mind the ribbing. After all, he wasn't carrying that heavy machine gun ammo any more.

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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

  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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  David Epstein - Marines

  1st Marine Division

  When David Epstein was drafted in 1952, he chose the Marines, along with his buddies. He swore vengeance on his DI, but when he ran into him in Korea, it was another story. He spent a year there just behind the lines at the 38th parallel.

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  William Alli - Marines +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  He didn't get seasick crossing the Pacific, but William Alli disliked the sea, nonetheless. It's too big. He finally arrived in Korea and he wasn't too thrilled with that, either. What was that smell?

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  When asked if he met anyone during his service who inspired him, Ray Bohn responds with two stories that both speak well of race relations in the Army.

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  Marty Letellier - Marines +17 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Marty Letellier pays tribute to his platoon leader, a Marine who led by example. The hardships of Korea were all worth it, especially when he looks at his adopted Korean grandchild. He does have some worries about the future of the military as fewer people volunteer or are even qualified to serve.

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  LTG (Ret) Charles Cleveland - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

  Army brat Charles Cleveland entered West Point in 1945 between VE Day and VJ Day. He chose the Air Force after graduation for the chance to become a fighter pilot and this he did. The early Air Force had a club atmosphere, but the pilots were not slacking. They drilled for dogfighting on their own.

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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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  William Moncus - Marines +7 Total Videos

  1st Marine Division

  When North Korea invaded the South, a train pulled out of Brooklyn with William Moncus on board. It picked up more Marines as it traveled across the country, arriving finally in San Diego. After shipping across the Pacific, they landed at Pusan and went straight into battle. The tide was turned.

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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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  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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  Sinclair Stickle - Army +7 Total Videos

  7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division

  Beside night patrols, the I&R platoon also maintained a listening post on high ground. Sinclair Stickle sometimes manned this post, observing and reporting and acting as a forward observer for artillery, as well. There were other tasks, like the grim job of picking up the enemy dead. There came a time when he and his buddy were laughing while doing this, an amazing juxtaposition of humor and horror. (Caution: Graphic Material)

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  LTG (Ret) Charles Cleveland - Air Force +5 Total Videos

  334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

  Fighter Pilot Charles Cleveland compares the aircraft he flew, the F-86 Sabre, to the aircraft flown by the enemy, the MiG-15. The plane flown by the Communists had the edge in armament but they had lousy gun sights. By the end of the war, the victory in combat ratio was not in their favor.

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  Jack Wold - Army +4 Total Videos

  3rd Infantry Division

  WWII veteran Jack Wold reentered the Army with a commission out of ROTC in 1951. He then served in Korea as an S3 managing the evacuations of wounded. He nearly got hit himself, but fate intervened on his side. At that point in the war, the Chinese were using huge human wave attacks.

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  Fred Culbreth - Army +8 Total Videos

  36th Engineer Combat Group

  Korean civilians were filtering back into areas which had recently seen combat. Engineering officer Fred Culbreth engaged in a strange interplay with one farmer. Every day, his men would have to move a homemade irrigation line to work on a bridge and, every night, the farmer would rebuild it.

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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Jim Bolan was attached to the Marines for a while as a sniper. He used an M-1 for the closer stuff but for anything really distant, he used his own rifle that his father had sent to him. Then a general got a look at it. Son, that's an illegal weapon.

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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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  Jim Bolan - Army +13 Total Videos

  82nd Airborne Division

  Chesty Puller was already a legend when Jim Bolan met him in Korea. It wasn't long after that that he stood on the bank of the Yalu River and it wasn't long after that there was a long retreat back down the peninsula. He had some good friends there, including one who earned the Medal of Honor and one who maybe should have.

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  William Alli - Marines +9 Total Videos

  2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division

  Marines in Korea had a special relationship with Tootsie Rolls. William Alli missed out on that but he does have something to say about the chow when he was up on the line. When you were opening up the boxes and pulling out the cans, you had what you called The Deadly Three.

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  Sinclair Stickle - Army +7 Total Videos

  7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division

  Chinese artillery was zeroed in on the road. The only way you could make it was to floor it and not stop. Sinclair Stickle was in a truck barreling down that road when the shells started. What happened next made him think he'd had it, but the closest he ever came to dying in Korea occurred in a jeep and he wasn't even in combat.

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  T.J. Martin - Army +9 Total Videos

  2nd Infantry Division, 38th Infantry Regiment

  While in Camp 1, the North Koreans attempted to indoctrinate T.J. Martin and his squad. He tells the story of his attempt to resist this and his punishment.

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  Ray Bohn - Army +11 Total Videos

  27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division

  As a courier, Ray Bohn had to deliver his messages no matter how much live fire was happening. This could get dangerous, like the time he negotiated a terrible mountain road that was right in the sights of the Chinese artillery. What was his secret that kept him alive?

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  Charles Vicari - Marines +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  While walking past a recruiting office, Charles Vicari made a spur of the moment decision to join the Marine Corps. When the Korean War broke out, he volunteered for duty on the west coast to replace Marines that had been sent there. He was told the duty may be a little further than the west coast.