Are combat patches awarded for military service in the Republic of Korea?

Yes, the AFEM was awarded to us for service in Korea during the Vietnam War up to July 1974 because of military actions against a hostile enemy (North Koreans). I was with the 1st/9th INF, 2ID on the DMZ and what most of the American public doesn't know is that the Korea DMZ was an active combat zone during the Vietnam war. Agent Orange, enemy tunnels, minefields, booby traps, ambushes both friendly and enemy, the whole 9 yards! My squad leader had been in Vietnam before he was deployed to the DMZ and he told me it was no different and that as far as he was concerned he was still in Vietnam. We lost a lot of American soldiers there during Vietnam and I remember one of our sergeants telling us that if you get killed in action over here the army listed you as killed in an accident. We will never know the actual KIA numbers for service on the Korea DMZ since the so-called armistice of 1953. More books and articles are now starting to come out on the actions that occurred there during Vietnam and the involvement of North Korean soldiers in Vietnam and North Vietnamese soldiers that were in North Korea also. All new information that I didn't even know till recently but our military intellegince people did. The US government kept alot of our actions classified because of the strong Vietnam anti-war sentiment back home and didn't want the American public to know US forces were also fighting and dying in Korea again. I saw action there and caught a piece of shrapnel. We lost 9 good soldiers from our battalion one night to a mortar ambush. They had just relieved our patrol and I was one of the O+ to give blood that night for the wounded but they didn't make it. That news never got back home. They are still unaccounted for. I don't know how the army got away with hidding 9 deaths on the same day but they did. Must have put them on ice and one-by-one listed them as killed in a training exercise back in the states on different dates so they didn't reflect being killed all on the same day, otherwise it would have been suspicious. Tried to get awarded the CIB on three different occasions. Have several affidavits of our actions, one from a major. The Army Board of Review says I can't apply for the CIB anymore. My DAV rep said he will see about that and try to get me the Purple Heart also. Many of us on the DMZ had our 201 files and medical records lost and new ones made up after we returned back to the states. We were also told we could get in a lot of trouble if we told people what was going on. I was young and believed it. Most people never believe that there was a second Korean war anyways. Now in my old age I get so angry when I think about the guys we lost who will probably never be recognized for their heroism and ultimate sacrifice.