Radioman during Korean War
Source: TheWarPage.com
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
Tank crew during Korean War
Source: TheWarPage.com
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
Close Air Support
A marine air-observer team guides a marine Corsair in for a strike on an enemy-held hill. The “black Corsairs” were highly praised by army and marines alike for their precision strikes on targets and their extremely close support of forward units. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.)
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
Korean firefight
KOREA (21 Sep 1950) - A machine gun crew fires at fleeing Communist-led North Korean targets during heavy street fighting in the captured city of Waegwan. L-r: Pfc. Austin Dela Cruz of Honolulu; Cpl. William Purdy; Pfc. Alexander Domingo of Honolulu; and platoon leader Sgt. Robert I. Muramoto of Honolulu, T.H. (Signal Corps photo)
In: Images, Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
Medal of Honor history: Lewis Millett
war·rior
If there is a picture of someone next to the word “warrior” in the dictionary, it would be Lewis Millett.
The man joined the Army in 1940 to fight the fascists in Europe, but left the service when he figured out that the U.S. wouldn’t enter the war. But instead of deserting to run from battle, Millett did so to run to battle, joining the Canadian armed forces, where he fought in England.
When the U.S. joined the war in 1942, Millet was able to transfer back to the American Army. Joining the 1st Armored Division, Millett earned the Silver Star – the nation’s third-highest award for valor – for his actions in North Africa. He also fought at Salerno and Anzio, but paperwork suggesting he had “deserted” in 1940 (by going to Canada) caught up to Millett. He was court-martialed, demoted to private, and fined $52.
However following his punishment, Millett received a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant and a Bronze Star.
In his second war, Millett was the Company Commander in the 27th Infantry Regiment during the Korean War. On February 7, 1951 on Hill 180 (present-day Osan Air Base in South Korea), he led an incredibly daring assault in what is believed to be the last bayonet charge in American military history. And it is worth noting that the CO that Millett replaced also was awarded the Medal of Honor, but posthumously.
After the Korean War, Gen. William Westmoreland picked Millett to command the Recondo school, which produced some of the world’s finest jungle warriors.
The man took something as tame as retirement and kicked it up a notch: Millett retired in 1971 because he felt the U.S. no longer wanted to win in Vietnam. He took up work as a sheriff’s deputy.
There is so much more to the warrior, who unfortunately passed away in November. Please read the other posts about Col. Millett here.
In: Military History · Tagged with: "Wolfhounds", 27th Infantry Regiment, Col. Lewis L. "Red" Millett, Korean War, Lewis Millett, Medal of Honor, Recondo, US Army, Vietnam War
Today in Medal of Honor History: Ingman and Kinsman
Today in Medal of Honor history:
Feb. 6, 1968: While on a reconnaisance-in-force mission near Vinh Long, Vietnam, Army Private First Class Thomas J. Kinsman dove on a grenade to shield his comrades from the blast. His actions saved seven of his teammates, and he was able to recover from his injuries.
Multiple servicemen have used their bodies to shield comrades from injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hardly any have been recognized with the Medal of Honor.
Feb. 6, 1951: When enemy fire pinned down the two leading squads of the company’s assault platoon in Maltari, Korea, Army Corporal Einar H. Ingman, Jr. reorganized the squads and led them on a charge against the enemy. He single-handedly charged two enemy machine gun positions, killing the enemy with grenades, rifle fire, and his bayonet before collapsing from his severe wounds. Ingman’s actions resulted in over 100 enemy troops fleeing the battle, and his squad went on to secure the objective.
Links to the Medal of Honor citations for both men are found by clicking their names above.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Einar H. Ingman Jr., Korean War, Medal of Honor, Thomas J. Kinsman, US Army, Vietnam War
Thomas J. Hudner’s Medal of Honor
59 years ago during the Korean War, eight Navy F4U Corsairs from the USS Leyte‘s Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) were flying an armed reconnaissance mission near the Chosin Reservoir. Ensign Jesse Brown (the Navy’s first black aviator)’s plane was hit, and crash landed on the side of a snow-covered mountain. Brown was unable to get out of the cockpit of the smoking aircraft, and the men of VF-32 knew that the Chinese would reach Brown before the rescue helicopter could.
While the remaining aircraft circled overhead, Brown’s wingman, Lt. J.G. Thomas Hudner, decided to crash-land his own Corsair next to Brown’s. “I knew what I had to do,” said Hudner in an interview. “I was not going to leave him down there for the Chinese. Besides, it was 30 degrees below zero on that slope, and he was a fellow aviator. My association with the Marines had rubbed off on me. They don’t leave wounded Marines behind.”
After reaching Brown’s aircraft, Hudner was unable to remove his wingman from the cockpit. Brown was barely alive, and by the time a Marine helicopter arrived to assist in the rescue, Brown had died. They were unable to remove Brown’s body, and the approaching darkness forced the men to leave the fallen aviator behind.
For his actions, Thomas Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor. Jesse Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the escort ship USS Jesse L. Brown was named in his honor.
You can read Hudner’s Medal of Honor citation here.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Jesse L. Brown, Korean War, Medal of Honor, Thomas J. Hudner Jr., US Marine Corps, USS Jesse L. Brown, USS Leyte, VF-32
Military Milestones from Bloody Betio to Mao’s Death Warrant
Chinese Premier Mao Tse-Tung: “The American Marine First Division has the highest combat effectiveness in the American armed forces.”
Originally published at Human Events
This Week in American Military History:
Nov. 23, 1863: The battles of the Chattanooga campaign begin between newly appointed commander of the Western armies, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg (yes, Fort Bragg, N.C. is named in his honor).
Within days, Union Army forces will attack and capture Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, and the Confederate works on Missionary Ridge. The “Gateway to the Lower South” will open, and within a year, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman will pass through the “gateway” enroute to Atlanta.
Nov. 23, 1943: Japanese-held Tarawa — “an elongated, sharply curving chain of little islands with a heavily defended southwest tip” known to U.S. Marines as “bloody Betio” — falls to American forces despite the boast of its defending commander, Rear Adm. Keiji Shibasaki, that “a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years.”
In fact, it takes several thousand Marines and about 76 hours to seize Tarawa. But it is not without great cost. Marine casualties (including sailors) number over 1,020 killed and nearly 2,300 wounded. Many are lost during the first few hours of the fighting as the landing craft are unable to get ashore, and Marines (carrying all of their equipment) are forced to wade toward the beach, stumbling over jagged coral reef for several hundred yards — some falling into deep holes and drowning — all the time under withering fire.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Civil War, David M. Shoup, Doolittle Raid, Korean War, Medal of Honor, Tarawa, US Marine Corps, W. Thomas Smith Jr., World War II
Medal of Honor Awarded to Two E/27th Commanders within 3 Months
27th Infantry Regiment insignia "Fear No Difficulties"
Military History magazine conducted a great interview in 2002 with the late Medal of Honor recipient Col. Lewis Millett.
Among many other new things I learned about Col. Millett, I read that the commander whom Millett replaced, Capt. Reginald B. Desiderio, was also awarded the Medal of Honor (posthumously) for his actions. Only three months after Desiderio’s actions, Millett’s bayonet charge would earn him the medal as well.
Desiderio also fought in Southern France and Germany during World War II, earning a Silver Star, Purple Heart, and four Bronze Stars for courage.
In: Military History · Tagged with: "Wolfhounds", 27th Infantry Regiment, Bronze Star, Col. Lewis L. "Red" Millett, Korean War, Lewis Millett, Medal of Honor, Reginald B. Desiderio, Reginald Desiderio, Silver Star, US Army, World War II
Cold War
December, 1950
“The thing that bothered me worse than anything that winter was the cold. I’d always gone through life bitching about it being too hot or too cold; during the pullback from the Yalu, I decided I would never complain about the heat again if I could only just get warm. And the thing you had to realize, with life expectancy being what it was on the battlefield, was that chances were you weren’t going to live until spring anyway. You had to realize that you might never get warm again.”
- Col. Allan D. Bell, Jr. USA, Ret.
G/27th Artillery Forward Observer
Korea, 1950-51
In: Military History · Tagged with: Korean War
