Korean War History

 

Korean War

On June 25, 1950, South Korea was invaded by North Korea. Six days later the United States deployed a battalion of the US 24th Infantry Division from Japan to Korea where fighting against the North Korean armies began on the outskirts of Seoul. By mid-September 1950, the first Marines and units of the 7th Infantry Division made an amphibious landing at Inchon, South Korea. Around the end of September 1950, the United Nations Assembly authorized the crossing of the 38th Parallel. By the end of October/early November the Chinese entered the war to support North Korea.

The Korean War ended on July 27, 1953 without a signed Peace Agreement. 36,568 military personnel died; 103,284 were wounded; 7,140 were POWs; and 8,277 MIA. Operation “Big Switch” was the largest and final exchange of prisoners, with 4,700 United States POWs returned to US control in a one month period from August 5, 1953 to September 6, 1953.

As for the men who fought in Korea, Secretary of the Army, Cyrus R. Vance said on March 15, 1963:

“No braver war was ever fought,under more trying conditions, than that which was fought in Korea. In the Army, for example, more than 41,660 awards for valor, more than 100,000 Purple Hearts attest to this. The Men were magnificent and we should remember them so.”