Re: Some Almost Forgotten KW Adventures;

[Ed Evanhoe <evanhoe1@korean-war.com>]

Bill,

>>At 01:05 AM 8/20/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> Ed, before it's forgotten, tell the guys about the dark night you guys 
> sailed away from a harbour (after imbibing in the Juice) in a Sampan and 
> the harbour erupted due to some cleverly placed explosives.  Seems you 
> have First-Hand knowledge of the episode and I'm sure the Guys & Gals 
> would get a kick out of it.  Don't let it slip away to oblivian as it's 
> too entertaining to forget.<<
I suspect you are thinking about the time some of the guys from Sochok-do 
got their hands on a large quantity of firecrackers, which they put on a 
makeshift raft with a timer when they sailed out of Inch'on.  When it went 
off it caused quite a stir. <LOL>

Or are you thinking about the time we floated an old junk loaded with 10 
drums of naphtha  and a thousand pounds of pre-WWII photographic flash 
power (delivered to Nan-do by mistake and then no one wanted it back) into 
Wonsan with timers set and when it went off about daybreak looked like 
someone had popped a nuke, sending everyone all the way up to Washington 
into a complete panic for a while?  <LOL>

>  >>For those who don't know, Ed was part of the original SpecOps (Behind 
> the Lines) units who were part of some heavy stuff that we ordinary 
> Dogfaces have no idea of what dangers they went through operating inside 
> the CCF/NKPVA lines and off-shore operations.
> He could tell all of us some hairy stuff which we had no idea of how their 
> actions preceded our operations.  They were the guys who, when were listed 
> as MIA/KIA, no details could be documented or Military Awards bestowed 
> with details of action.  These were the Unsung Heroes who were not given 
> Credit for the Important Missions they performed.  <<
While the job had its moments, most of the time it was simply training the 
Korean partisans/agents with little or no danger   In other words, the 
average infantryman had a helluva lot more direct combat than we did and 
was in a lot more danger than we were most of the time.  As for the 
KIA/MIA, we had surprisingly few.  When the partisans/intelligence 
operations belonged to 8th Army G-3 Miscellaneous Group, KIA/MIA were 
listed as belonging to KMAG.  Once FECOM took over and established UNITED 
NATIONS PARTISAN FORCES, KOREA, 8240th AU, KIA/MIA working with the 
partisans were listed as belonging to the 8240th.  However, those with 
intelligence operations (CCRAK -- COMBINED COMMAND RECONNAISSANCE 
ACTIVITIES, KOREA, 8240th AU) would continue to be listed as belonging to 
KMAG.  As for military awards, what you said was true as long the partisans 
belonged to 8th Army but did change for those with the partisans once FECOM 
took over (10 Dec 1951.)  However, those with CCRAK went unrecognized since 
to do so would have required supporting information/documentation that, at 
the time, would have helped the enemy.

As a matter of information, Col. (ret) Doug Dillard is now in the process 
of obtaining a DSC for SFC William Miles (MIA on the Spitfire mission) and 
a Silver Star for Sgt Garner, (alive and living in Alaska) who was the 
radio operator on the Spitfire Mission.  He is also working on awards for 
several other intelligence operations people including the KIA/MIA since 
back-up documents were recently declassified.  To date the Awards and 
Decorations Branch has been very supportive of Col. Dillard's efforts so 
most, if not all, should be approved. As they say, "Better late than never."

Ed