"DMZ Marines"

[Mike Yared <mikeyared@yahoo.com>]

DMZ Marines 
Bob Caulkins. 
Leatherneck. 
Aug 2003. Vol. 86, Iss. 8;  pg. 34 
ISSN/ISBN: 0023981X 

Caulkins details the activities of the Marines of 1st
Provisional Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Police Co in
Korea during the 1950s, who were constantly manning
checkpoints, patrolling and scanning the DMZ, looking
for unauthorized incursions in their assigned area.
The US Marine Corps' 1st Provisional Demilitarized
Zone Police Co was established to police the UN's
portion of the DMZ.

 
The Marines of 1st Provisional DMZ Police Co were
constantly manning checkpoints, patrolling and
scanning the DMZ (left to right), looking for
unauthorized incursions in their assigned area. They
also escorted members of the United Nations Military
Armistice Commission, Joint Observer Teams and members
of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.
(Leatherneck file photos) 

At 2200 on 27 July 1953, the 155-mile-long battle line
in Korea fell silent. High above every frontline
company along the 23-mile sector held by the First
Marine Division, white star clusters burst open in the
night sky, signaling the end of the fighting. The
rockets were not fired in celebration, but in
recognition of a cease-fire order from the United
Nations Command (UNC).

An uneasy quiet had come to Korea, ancient "Land of
the Morning Calm." The war was not ended, only
suspended by an armistice between the forces of
Communist China and North Korea and the UNC. The
26,000 Marines of Major General Randolph McC. Pate's
1stMarDiv stood down after 36 months of brutal, bloody
combat.

Each side was required by the armistice agreement to
withdraw 2,000 meters from their main line of
resistance (MLR) positions to create a
4,000-meter-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The DMZ was
designed as a buffer between the two opposing enemies
to prevent incidents that might lead to a resumption
of the fighting. Running through the middle of the DMZ
was a demarcation line (DML) separating the communist
DMZ from the U.N. DMZ.

An additional requirement was that both the communists
and the UNC police their respective zones with "civil
police." Because no civilian police were available to
either side, the requirement was altered so that
specially trained military units could be used.

Thus, 50 years ago on 4 Sept. 1953, the U.S. Marine
Corps' 1st Provisional Demilitarized Zone Police
Company was established to police the U.N.'s portion
of the DMZ. Each regiment of the 1stMarDiv provided 25
enlisted men and one officer. The new unit, which was
attached to the Fifth Marine Regiment for logistical
support, became operational three days later. A week
after that, the new unit's campsite had been built and
christened "Camp Semper Fidelis" in honor of the
Marines who had been killed in action during the three
years of fighting.

The man chosen to lead the new unit was Captain Samuel
A. Goich, former commanding officer of "Fox" Co, 2d
Battalion, 7th Marines. Capt Goich was a Marine Corps
reservist from Chicago, recalled to active duty for
the Korean War. Scuttlebutt had it that he had been a
time-study engineer (efficiency expert) in civilian
life.

Capt Goich's reputed civilian background immediately
would be put to the test. The fledgling DMZ Police Co,
consisting of only 100 enlisted men and five officers,
prepared to patrol the approximately 46-square-mile
section of the DMZ, facing off with their North Korean
counterparts on the other side of the DML. If one
stepped over, capture or death could result.

Marines were drawn from each of the 1stMarDiv's
regiments to form the 1st Provisional DMZ Police Co,
which was headquartered just north of the Imjin River
at Camp Semper Fidelis. The unit enforced the
armistice for the United Nations along a 20-mile
stretch of the 155-mile demilitarized zone between
North and South Korea. (Leatherneck file photo) 

The Marines of 1st Provisional DMZ Police Co were
constantly manning checkpoints, patrolling and
scanning the DMZ (left to right), looking for
unauthorized incursions in their assigned area. They
also escorted members of the United Nations Military
Armistice Commission, Joint Observer Teams and members
of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. 

The DMZ Police Co was a volunteer outfit. Many of the
Marines who volunteered did so for the challenge and
adventure of belonging to a unit initially described
as "a special unit attached to the Northern Regiment."
Others did so to avoid the labor of building new
trench lines and bunkers for the Division's new
defensive positions known as the "Kansas Line,"
several miles to the rear of the old MLR.

Reporting with record book in hand, each Marine was
interviewed by Capt Goich or one of his officers.
Applicants had to have a clean record, a General
Classification Test score of 95 or above, have at
least three months in Korea and preferably be a combat
veteran.

The new DMZ Co Marines were briefed on the mission and
what was expected of them. The Marines also were given
comprehensive classes in the truce agreement and the
importance of ensuring the safety of the United
Nations Truce Commission personnel, who often entered
the DMZ on inspection tours. An equally important
mission was to observe the activities of the enemy
within the communist sector of the DMZ. Therefore,
classes were held on map reading and radio
communications. Each DMZ Marine was armed with an M1
rifle and a .45-caliber pistol and was responsible for
both weapons.

Many of the hilltops and combat outposts in the old
MLR were lost to the communists when the DMZ was
established. The result was that some enemy territory
could not be seen by units of the Division, which had
pulled back 2,000 meters to their new positions on the
Kansas Line. Only the DMZ Co Marines had a relatively
unobstructed view of enemy positions from their
hilltop OPs.

While on the OPs and while patrolling, the Marines
were linked by PRC-10 radios to DMZ police
headquarters located several miles to the rear. It did
not take long for the DMZ Marines to realize that if
hostilities were to resume suddenly, the only
immediate reporting of enemy troop movements would
come from DMZ Co patrols isolated on six or seven
hilltop OPs. The military labeled this type of
assignment as "The Forlorn Hope."

The majority of DMZ Co were combat veterans of "The
Outpost Battles." These battles were around combat
outposts Berlin, East Berlin, Carson, Reno, Vegas and
Boulder City. The scenes were some of the most
violent, close-in, costly combat of the Korean War.
Some of these Marines found themselves back on those
very hilltops, facing armed enemy soldiers only yards,
and sometimes only a few feet, away.

Corporal Walter Steen fought with F/2/7 at Boulder
City. He returned to the demolished outpost after the
truce as a DMZ policeman. He recalled: "On my first
patrol to Boulder City, I almost cried when I saw how
much of the hill had been given to the communists; it
seemed unfair. During July 1953, 2/7, 1/1 and 3/1
suffered some of the worst casualties of the war, but
we held that damned hill!"

Private First Class Richard Mey remembered: "After
arriving at the company, I went through the
orientation period and then went out on my first
patrol in the zone. Three of the guys on the patrol
were experienced, but I didn't exactly know what to
expect. As we were climbing to the top of a hill where
an OP was located, we saw communist DMZ policemen
already at the top. What a way to be introduced to the
DMZ. This was the enemy! There were no barriers or
fences, just a sign that said 'Military Demarcation
Line' in English and Korean. When we got to the top of
the hill, we were standing literally face to face.
They looked at us, and we looked at them, not a word
was spoken. After a while they left, and we continued
our observations of the enemy side of the DMZ,
plotting the location of any enemy activity on a map
and then radioing the information in to headquarters."

Tactical and political complications for the DMZ
Police Co increased dramatically in October 1953, when
23,000 North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war were
resettled in a new POW camp located in the Marine
portion of the DMZ near Panmunjom. The prisoners were
under the supervision of 5,500 soldiers of the Indian
Army Custodial Forces.

The camp was divided into five compounds, and each
compound had its own prisoner command structure. Most
of the POWs were known to be armed with homemade
knives, spears and clubs. For example, there were
several thousand flags and banners that the POWs
carried at various rallies and demonstrations within
the compounds. Every flag and banner had a
spear-shaped tip, wrapped in cloth or tissue paper.
Underneath these innocent-looking coverings were spear
points, made from pieces of steel cut from 55-gallon
oil drums and honed to razor sharpness. Rumor also had
it that a fairly large supply of firearms had been
smuggled into the compounds by sympathetic South
Koreans.
 
Hospital Corpsman Third Class Sam Saba, the DMZ Police
Co corpsman, posed with Cpl Reckless, the famous
ammunition carrier of the Antitank Co, Fifth Marine
Regiment. The mare returned with the Marine Division
to Camp Pendleton, Calif., went on to attain the rank
of staff sergeant and lived her life as a hero at
Pendleton's base stables. 

These POWs (the vast majority were Chinese) had
committed themselves to not returning to their
communist homeland. They had announced that they would
resist to the death any attempt to force them to go
back to Red China.

Cpl Jim Flannigan related, "One day an Indian officer
drove up to our OP on Hill 155, which overlooked the
POW camp, and told me that several POWs had changed
their minds and decided to go back home to Red China.
Shortly thereafter, they were murdered by their
anti-communist comrades; their bodies were
dismembered, and the parts buried throughout the
compound."

Although the DMZ Co Marines had no official duties
involving the camp or the POWs, their patrols had to
pass through the camp to reach a checkpoint situated
between the camp and the DML. This checkpoint was
called the "Explainer Gate."

The Explainer Gate had been established when the
Chinese and North Korean governments were given 90
days to convince the 23,000 POWs who did not wish to
return home to change their minds. In order for the
"Explainers" to get to the POW camp, they had to cross
into the Marine side of the DMZ.

Early each morning, for 90 days, a convoy of Russian
jeeps would pull up to the Marine-manned Explainer
Gate, and the senior communist, usually a Chinese
colonel, would present a list of the names and
nationalities of the people in the convoy to a DMZ
Police Co officer. The nationalities included Chinese,
North Koreans and representatives of the "neutral"
nations of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Marine
officer would check the manifest against the people in
the convoy. Once the manifest had checked out, the
convoy proceeded through the Marine post and into the
POW camp. They would exit at the end of the day with
the same check of the personnel manifest.

Constant vigilance were the watchwords of the
leathernecks of the DMZ Police Co. All North Korean
activity was plotted on a map and reported. 

While the explanations were going on, the DMZ Marines
also were consolidating their base at Camp Semper
Fidelis and becoming more familiar with their
demilitarized zone "beat." Many dangers existed in the
zone, especially on some of the old fighting positions
due to unexploded artillery shells, mortar rounds,
hand grenades and antipersonnel mines of both U.N. and
communist origin. One DMZ Co patrol was pinned down by
ordnance cooking off in a brush fire that had
encircled their OP and was burning toward the top of
the hill. Most of it was small-arms ammunition;
however, several antipersonnel mines or dud mortar
shells also detonated. The Marines were forced to take
cover in a half-demolished bunker until the fire
burned out and the explosions stopped.

Unexploded ordnance was not the only thing that
remained in the zone after the truce. In many gullies
and draws, where the wind was relatively calm, the
smell of death was evident. The corpses of numerous
Chinese soldiers were scattered throughout the patrol
areas. On several occasions, DMZ Marines were required
to escort graves registration details into the U.N.
side of the DMZ to investigate various sites where
casualties possibly were located. This was an
exceptionally dangerous activity; lanes through known
minefields had been marked, but heavy rain and high
winds obliterated the safe lanes.

The author knows of only one DMZ Marine who died while
on duty in the zone in a mine accident. He was
escorting a party of infantry Marines who were
clearing a pathway along the southern boundary of the
DMZ. A mine was tripped; two of the Marines were
slightly wounded and another lost an arm.
Unfortunately, the DMZ Marine caught a piece of
shrapnel in the forehead and was killed instantly. In
a second incident, a DMZ Co Marine was seriously
wounded by another mine and was evacuated to a Mobile
Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit.

In late October 1953 because of increased commitments
and the mounting number of enemy sightings, the table
of organization strength of the company was increased
to 314 men and six officers. At the same time, the
number of DMZ Marines allowed to operate inside the
zone was increased from 50 to 175.

At about that same time, Capt Goich rotated to the
States, and the company welcomed Capt Clark Ashton
aboard as its new CO. Capt Ashton had been a member of
the Palestine-Jordan truce commission and had
commanded Marines in Europe and Africa. Prior to
taking the helm of the DMZ Co, he had been CO of
ceremonial troops at Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.

In early November 1953, Capt Ashton learned of an
upcoming drill competition among all the units of I
Corps, which was the senior United States Army command
in western Korea. He learned that the contest was to
be held in Uijonbu, south of Camp Semper Fidelis. He
quickly formed a drill team of 30 enthusiastic
volunteers and began an intensive program to train
them to perform a Barracks' specialty, an eight-minute
silent drill routine. He had only 10 days to do it.

On the day of the competition, the 1st Provisional DMZ
Police Co drill team literally "trooped and stomped"
the four competing Army drill teams into the dust-even
the Army spectators applauded. Capt Ashton was able to
finagle a special R&R in Japan for the victorious DMZ
team.

On 10 Nov. 1953, the DMZ Co celebrated the Corps'
178th birthday in its own slopchute, constructed by
hook or crook, sweat and numerous midnight
requisitions. Over the polished, plywood bar hung a
mural of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which was
contrasted by the red, neonlike wallpaper. After the
appropriate toasts to Corps and country and the
cutting of the birthday cake, the champagne corks
began popping. Entertainment consisted of the 5th
Marines' chaplain playing jazz selections on his
trumpet. He used an empty beer can as a mute to play
"Sugar Blues." A good time was had by all, even if the
outside temperature was 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

In late January 1954, the 90-day period of
explanations came to a close. Of the 23,000 prisoners
being held in the POW camp, only 137 were persuaded by
the communist explainers to change their minds and
return home. It now became crucial that the remaining
thousands of Chinese POWs be quickly evacuated south
to Inchon for transport to Formosa (present-day
Taiwan). Any delay might prompt the POWs to think that
the United Nations was abandoning them to the tender
mercies of their former communist masters, resulting
in a mass breakout attempt with the accompanying
bloodshed.
 
Captured line-crossers were blindfolded to prevent
them from seeing inside Marine positions and then each
was interviewed by a Korean Marine interpreter, as
U.S. Marines observed. Capt Clark Ashton, DMZ Police
Co commander, is seated behind the table. 


The DMZ Police Co was chosen by the U.N. Command to
assist in the evacuation of the prisoners. On 23 Jan.
1954, DMZ Marines moved into each camp compound,
separating the POWs into groups of 500, with one
Marine in charge of each group. When directed, the
lone Marine, armed with a .45-cal. pistol and Ml rifle
with fixed bayonet, would gesture to his 500 squatting
charges to stand up and follow him. The Marine then
would march the POWs out of the camp to the railhead
to board the train to Inchon.

The loading of prisoners onto several trains lasted
from early in the morning of 23 Jan. until late into a
rainy, windy night. Many of the Marines came away with
souvenir homemade flags presented to them by the
grateful Chinese "ex-prisoners."

Once the prisoners had departed South Korea, the job
of the Indian Custodial Force was finished, and they
prepared to head back to India. Shortly before
leaving, a jeep with four Indian soldiers ran off a
road and turned over, pinning the soldiers under the
jeep in several feet of water. A quick-acting DMZ
Marine jumped into the water and succeeded in freeing
two of the soldiers; unfortunately, the other two
died. Several days after the event, Indian officers
paid a visit to Camp Semper Fidelis and presented the
Marine with a beautiful serving tray, inlaid with
pearl and precious stones, in gratitude for his heroic
act.

By the end of the POW episode, deep winter had settled
in with temperatures often down to 15 to 20 degrees
below zero. The weather, however, did not curtail the
patrol, observation or security duties of DMZ Co. Day
and night, Marines stood watch on frigid, snow-blown
hilltop observation posts and patrolled in areas
determined to be favorable terrain for infiltrators or
line-crossers.

Many line-crossers were Koreans trying to reach their
homes in the north or south. Some, however, were North
Korean agents trying to infiltrate into South Korea on
intelligence missions or trying to return to North
Korea after fulfilling their missions.

Several probable agents were apprehended, along with a
good number of deserters who surrendered to the
Marines and took their weapons with them, which made
the situation a bit tense.

The company became a magnet for visiting dignitaries.
The Secretary of the Navy, the Commandant of the
Marine Corps and numerous other military personnel
dropped in almost on a weekly basis. They were picked
up at the company helipad with a jeep polished with
shoe polish (there was no auto wax available) and
driven to the company CP to be greeted by a DMZ Co
honor guard.

Until March 1955, the DMZ Police Co continued to
perform its exacting, strenuous, and often dangerous
duties within the DMZ.

In the latter part of March 1955, with the impending
departure of the 1stMarDiv from Korea, a demilitarized
zone police company from the Army's 24th Infantry
Division relieved the 1st Provisional Demilitarized
Zone Police Co. The relief ceremonies were held at
1stMarDiv headquarters and witnessed by senior members
of the United Nations Command and the President of
South Korea, Syngman Rhee.

The DMZ Marines had made a difference. Thrust suddenly
into a situation where the slightest misstep might
have precipitated a resumption in the fighting, the
leathernecks were dedicated, knowledgeable and highly
adaptable in a fluid situation. They performed their
frequently dangerous duty with honor and courage.

Unfortunately, recognition for a job well done was not
to be. Although members of the DMZ Co initially were
recognized with a Letter of Commendation signed by the
commanding general of the 1stMarDiv, the letters were
withdrawn several years later without explanation.

Except for a brief mention in "U.S. Marine Operations
in Korea, Volume V" and an article in Leatherneck
magazine in February 1954, the company faded into
obscure Marine Corps history. In the pensive words of
a Marine who served with the company up to its relief
by the 24th Infantry Div: "A couple of days after the
relief ceremonies, we boarded ships at Inchon and
headed for the United States. When we arrived at San
Diego, we were broken up and scattered to units
throughout the Corps, and the 1st Provisional
Demilitarized Zone Police Company ceased to exist.
Amen."

Editor's note: Retired MSgt Caulkins was a DMZ MP in
1953-54. 
 


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