Korean War Memoirs

It was 1953, the Korean War in full throttle, when two men—already experts in their fields—crossed the fabled 38th Parallel into Communist airspace aboard matching Panther jets. John Glenn was an ambitious operations officer with fifty-nine World War II combat missions under his belt. His wingman was Ted Williams, the two-time American League Triple Crown winner who, at the pinnacle of his career, was inexplicably recalled to active service in the United States Marine Corps. Together, the affable flier and the tempestuous left fielder soared into North Korea, creating a death-defying bond.

The Yalu River Boys is the true story of the forgotten men from the forgotten war. Follow a B-29 bomber crew as it battles Russian MiG-15 fighters in the heart of MiG Alley during the Korean War. Learn the heartbreaking truth of the communist prison camp gulags, the cruelty of the North Korean enemy, and the propaganda attacks from friend and foe. Marvin King joined the US Air Force in peacetime but soon found himself in the midst of jet-age aerial combat, captured and taken into China, and later subjected to the abject horror of a place in North Korea known only as The Caves.

On November 25, 1950, during one of the toughest battles of the Korean War, the US Eighth Army Ranger Company seized and held the strategically important Hill 205 overlooking the Chongchon River. Separated by more than a mile from the nearest friendly unit, 51 soldiers fought several hundred Chinese attackers. Their commander, Lieutenant Ralph Puckett, was wounded three times before he was evacuated. For his actions, he received the country's second-highest award for courage on the battlefield and resumed active duty later that year as a living legend.

Douglas MacArthur is best remembered for his adaptability, a quality which hoisted him to his greatest accomplishments. Adaptability now reigns as the most indispensable trait for high military leadership in this era of technological leaps, which guarantee radical changes in the nature of war during the span of an ordinary career.

Richard Edward Carey came from a broken home. Enlisting in the Corps in 1946 he later earned a commission, fighting at Inchon and Chosin in Korea before becoming a pilot. During his thirty-eight-year military career he witnessed and participated in major historical events, though a high school wrestling injury would eliminate him from the Mercury-7 space program. As a second lieutenant, he tackled General Douglas MacArthur on the way to Seoul in 1950. Carey would provide critical intelligence decisions enabling the successful defense of the Chinese attack on Hagaru-ri at the Chosin Reservoir.

The focus of the United States during the Cold War was to prevent the spread of communism. The soldiers who served then were the wall that protected the world from that threat. None were in harm's way more than those who patrolled inside the DMZ in Korea. This book covers the history for the years following the "Second Korean War". No longer an official combat zone, it was still one of the most dangerous places in the world. This book documents the history of the DMZ from the perspective of the soldiers who were actually there, facing that threat each day.

For 34 months, while wounded and struggling to survive in Korean War prison camps, Felix Ferranto recited the Lord's Prayer daily and dreamed of being free and with his family. Proper "attitude" and having learned enough of the Chinese language and culture during his time with the American Legation Guard in Peiping, China would be critical for his survival.

The last days of the Korean War saw savage battles for control of important local terrain features, and in the trench warfare of the Chorwon Valley a young U.S. Army lieutenant was assigned to lead an infantry company charged with holding Outpost Harry against a determined Chinese assault. The battle devolved into hand-to-hand combat during a period of constant, intense fighting that lasted two days.

In 1952, John T. “Jack” Downey, a 23-year-old CIA officer from Connecticut, was shot down over Manchuria during the Korean War. The pilots died in the crash, but Downey and his partner Richard “Dick” Fecteau were captured by the Chinese. For the next 20 years, they were harshly interrogated, put through show trials, held in solitary confinement, placed in reeducation camps, and toured around China as political pawns.

Growing up in a small farming town in California's San Joaquin Valley during the 1930s and 1940s, Jim was a devoted son, a caring older brother, a talented athlete, and a young man of moral character who always put others first. He started high school as the Second World War was at its peak, and graduated during a time of transition within America and around the world.

October 6, 1951. Richard Bassett remembers the day vividly. That was the day his platoon ran into an ambush near Kumwha. During the firefight, many were wounded, four were killed, and Bassett, along with three others, was captured. During a month-long march to the POW camp, the Americans frequently came under friendly fire. Surviving the march paled in comparison to what the captured soldiers had to endure at Camp 5 Pyokdong.

A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one's life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary set. For the extraordinary writer James Salter, recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award, this moment was contained in the fighter planes over Korea where, during his young manhood, he flew more than one hundred missions.

L'opération Moolah était une tentative de la United States Air Force, pendant la guerre de Corée, d'obtenir par le biais de la défection un chasseur MiG-15 complet et opérationnel. Les forces communistes introduisirent le MiG-15 en Corée le 1er novembre 1950. Les pilotes de l'US Air Force rapportèrent que les performances de l'avion soviétique étaient supérieures à celles de tous les avions que pouvaient lui opposer les Nations unies, y compris la dernière acquisition en date de l'armée de l'air américaine, le F-86 Sabre.