Korea -- 50 years ago this week, Feb. 13-19

[Mike Davino <mdavino@yahoo.com>]

This aricle mentions an incursion of Japan's airspace
by Soviet-style fighters.  Was this common during the
Korea War?

Mike Davino

Korea -- 50 years ago this week, Feb. 13-19 
Baseball star Ted Williams escapes crashed jet 

by Jim Caldwell 


WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 11, 2003) -- Capt.
Ted Williams, a Boston Red Sox baseball star and
serving Marine fighter pilot, escaped from his crashed
jet without serious injury, 50 years ago this week in
Korea. 


Feb. 13, 1953 -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's
subcommittee on the Far East that the Eisenhower
Administration will take no actions that could lead to
World War III without first consulting Congress and
allies. 

Afterward, he holds his first news conference since
taking office. He said the administration is seeking
ways to bar trade from reaching China. Studies of ways
to "interrupt or minimize" strategic goods reaching
China have been underway "pretty continuously" in the
State Department since the Chinese entered the Korean
War, but the subject was now "under perhaps more
intensive scrutiny." 

Two solutions are a naval blockade and a U.N. embargo
on trade with China. They top the list of "a whole
series of measures of varying kinds which could be
adopted." But Dulles says he will not take action
regarding China to the U.N. General Assembly when it
reconvenes Feb. 24. 

At Panmunjom, Communist liaison officers hand their
U.N. counterparts a message from their command
demanding that the United Nations decide if the truce
talks are to be permanently called off. 


Feb. 15 -- Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, Eighth Army
commanding general, tells reporters that adding
Nationalist China troops to his command would be
welcome. He would not have a say on policy concerning
their employment. 

The question arises because of recent statements by
Nationalist China's Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek that
Formosa must invade mainland China now, even though
his forces aren't completely ready. An invasion would
pull Chinese troops from Korea, he said. 

Taylor also says he asks "nothing better" than for the
communists to try another offensive. He says the
Eighth Army is more than ready to take them on. 

After aerial reconnaissance showed the Reds were
trying to rebuild the power plant on Suiho Reservoir,
allied aircraft destroy it again. The reservoir power
plan, first knocked out last June, is across the Yalu
River from Manchuria. 


Feb. 16 -- About 200 allied tactical fighters attack a
troop assembly and supply center southwest of
Pyongyang. 

Capt. Ted Williams, a Marine Corps jet fighter pilot
and a Boston Red Sox star outfielder, escapes from a
Panther jet that crashes at an airfield in Korea. He
was returning from his third combat mission over North
Korea. 

The Air Force reports that two American fighters fired
at two Soviet-style aircraft over northern Japan
today. They damaged both and chased them back to the
Kurile Islands. 


Feb. 17 -- The Air Force reports that F-86 Sabrejet
pilots have shot down 11 MiGs, probably destroyed
another six and damaged 11 in dogfights since Feb. 1. 

The second largest all-jet tactical fighter raid of
the war hits a tank and infantry training center west
of Pyongyang Feb. 18. A force of 389 Air Force and
Marine fighters reportedly destroys 139 buildings. 


Feb. 18 -- The Defense Department releases the list of
American casualties in Korea as of Feb. 9. The overall
count of 130,093 includes 22,948 dead. 

Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru tells India's lower
house of parliament that talks in America of
blockading China are not messages "that can lead to
peace." 


(Editor's note: Jim Caldwell writes for the TRADOC
News Service.) 



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