Military History: North Korea’s Surprise Attack, An Important Lesson in Battle Preparation - In...

66 years years ago...The invasion by the North into South Korea was announced on the radio late on a Sunday night. The next day I rode with my Dad to begin working with him on a construction project in Watertown MA. He was very worried with this news and he was probably thinking that I and my friends could very well end up in a war in Korea. He was right just about all of my friends who were a few years older than I was ended up in Korea in 1950- 1951. I enlisted in 1953, 4 months after the truce in Panmunjom. A year later I was assigned to a Guard Company at the Boston Navy Yard and we had many who had just returned from Korea.

"Military History: North Korea’s Surprise Attack, An Important Lesson in Battle Preparation "

We studied the Korean War in NCO School at Camp Lejeune and the instructors were mostly SNCOs & Officers who had been in Korea, They tried to summarize what went wrong and what went right in Korea. And how in the next conflict the Marines planned to use Helicopters more than they were used in the last year in Korea. Chosin was just one example of how things went wrong in Korea & both the Army & Marines because they were forced to react instead of have better planning before moving on up to the Chosin Reservoir area. They were not aware of the Chinese buildup north of the Yalu and that China was getting ready to invade North Korea in such massive numbers.

I learned much about the Korean War from instructors who had been there and done that but sadly some of the same mistakes the Marines made in Korea were made again in Vietnam ten years later. Underestimating the enemy, training, physical conditioning, are just a few of many..

Greetings Sir,
You are aware it is not PC to monitor the enemy signals while they are getting their FOB's filled with AKs, ammo and C-4.
What kind of American are you?
I suspect, a compassion training course is in store for folks like you.
M. Morris RVT