Landing at Inchon, South Korea

Aug 8, 2017, 7:34 PM

Sometime in early 1943 at Drew Field, Tampa, FL, having just completed another fun filled day, came these words, "Listen up, guys, fall out tomorrow morning at 0800 in your fatigues and full field equipment, we're going to the Obstacle Course". Dang, we were there just a few days ago. What do they want, blood? When we went to the Obstacle Course, we called it "Pain Day"? We jumped, we crawled, we climbed, we fell, we couldn't make it across the water hazard, we couldn't stay on the small log. At the end we were wet, dirty and mad as a Gamecock fan after a Tiger drubbing.

The one obstacle I could not understand was our having to climb that net on that tall wall, up and down, up and down, up and down. We were not in the Infantry or the Marines. We were in the Army Air Corp (later I was assigned to the Signal Corp). We were not going to be the front men during a sea born invasion. We hoped by the time we got there we could land on dry ground. And, at no time during my three and one-half years during WW2 did I have to climb down the net on a troop ship.

Now, fast forward to late October, 1950. A new war, a new theater. Uncle Sam must have thought I was the key to victory in Korea. In late September, I arrived at Fort Hood, TX, and there I was, one month later on a troop ship in the China Sea preparing to climb down a net and somehow fall or jump into a landing craft. I don't want to even think about the consequences if the landing craft is not directly below me when I jump or fall.

I'll skip a lot of the excitement we experienced on the ship from Yokohama, Japan to Inchon, Korea, except for the weather. When we left Yokohama the temperature was in the mid to upper 60's and when we arrived in Inchon the temperature was well below freezing. The UN forces had landed at Inchon just a short time before our arrival. From a military standpoint, Inchon was not an ideal point for an invasion due to the treacherous tides and currents. The element of surprise and the success of the invasion at Inchon was the major factor in driving the North Korean forces out of South Korea.

(Due to time constraints this will be continued in another post.)

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Landing at Inchon, South Korea

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