Meritorious Unit Commendation

[<RonaldS842@aol.com>]

   During June 1951 we in COMINT noticed that Chinese and North Korean ground 
forces were attempting to recapture the island of Sinmi-do, a small island 
located southeast of Sinuiju off the west coast of North Korea. The PLAFF 
were attempting to Use Il-10 ground attact aircraft to support the communist 
ground forces. These planes had been training at Kaiyuan Air Base. We 
intercepted an order from Beijing to the commander of 5th Air Division in 
Kaiyuan Air Base in Manchuria to attack an "unidentified enemy target". We 
alerted American fighter forces to be on the look out for Chinese bombers off 
the west coast of Korea.
   The next morning a flight of P-51 Mustang fighters of the 18th Bomber 
Group were flying a ground attack mission south of Sinuiju. They spotted 
eight Il-10s flying towards Sinmi-do. The Mustangs shot down two and damaged 
three more. When six Yak-9 fighters arrived they were jumped by another 
flight of Mustangs over Sinmi-do and one Yak-9 was shot down. Shortly 
thereafter MiG-15 jet fighters arrived only to be met by F-86 Sabre jets 
flying cover for the Mustangs. The Sabers damaged four of the MiGs. 
   My unit, the 1st RSM of the USAFSS was awarded the Meritorious Unit 
Commendation (MUC) for providing "tactical and strategic intelligence of 
incalculable value to the success of the UN mission.
   It seems that lately all we have been hearing is criticism of our efforts 
and what bad guys we were. I for one would like to hear more positive 
stories. 

Ron