March 2013

I’ve often been asked, how many men were Prisoners of War (POWs) during the Korean War?  I don’t know exactly, and this story is worth telling.  Government figures are quite good, and the number most often seen is 7140.  It takes in 2701 men who died as POWs, 4418 who returned alive, and 21 who refused to come home.  Those who came back alive include Little Switch and Big Switch,...
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June 2012

More of us are using home computers, or even “smart” hand-helds, so here is an updated list of POW camps we’ve spoken about.  You can enter latitude and longitude from the right-hand column in Google Maps, go to satellite mode, and zoom in.  WGS-84 is today’s international map system.  A few comments follow: Camp Context Used WGS-84 for Google Kosan pre-Apex Oct 1950 126 08 00 E, 41 02 45 N...
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March 2012

It’s been a while since we’ve spoken of the Chosin Reservoir.  Very likely our recovery teams will be back in North Korea later this year.  One of our two previous base camps was on the east side of the Chosin–the other was at the Unsan battle zone, farther west.  We hope to be working on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir this Spring, and even to do some exploratory work on...
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December 2011

We’re still losing friends, but I have a story to tell on one . . . a very helpful story.  Dr. (Capt.) William R. Shadish was captured on 1 December 1950 when the 9th Infantry Medical Station was overrun by Chinese forces near Kunu-ri.  He was a good man, and he was with us at several of the annual meetings. As POWs were bundled up from around Kunu-ri, groups formed and moved by night. ...
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June 2011

Spring flows into Summer and thoughts turn to the Suan Camps where so many men were held in 1951.  After Chinese forces entered the war, the U.S. EIGHTH Army and the U.N. Command were pressed southward, back into present day South Korea.  Heavy fighting ensued as the Chinese took Seoul and tried to consolidate and move farther south across a broad front. Battles followed, month by month, from...
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