September 2006

At Nashville, some of you had questions about Camp 5 on the south bank of the Yalu River at Old Pyoktong. (In recent years, the North Koreans have moved the “name” several miles west, to create New Pyoktong, so the site of Camp 5 is now known as Tongju-ri. Up to their usual tricks…). How many men died at Camp 5? We have a tradition, based on best memory and best estimation, of 1600. But we can come up with only about 1100 names. Here’s why: many of the men who died in February and March of 1951 took with them the names and memories of others who had already passed. But at least we know this much: when the North Koreans and Chinese returned some of the Korean War burials during Operation Glory in September 1954, they marked 556 as coming from Camp 5. We were able to identify and sent home all but 75 of them. These 75 are now among the Unknowns individually buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu.

More recently, during 1990–94, the North Korean returned 208 caskets from several locations. They marked 21 of these caskets as coming from Tongju-ri, their present name for Camp 5.

The quality of the work here is interesting. 75 Unknowns from 1954 have pretty good integrity as individual men, and most were likely exhumed from up on the slope beyond the back water arm. But the 21 caskets from Tongju-ri have mixed skeletal remains, which we are trying to sort out. Perhaps 50 men are present. These may have come from lower down by the edge of water across from Camp 5. So we have about 125 unidentified men from Camp 5 in possession right now. The earlier 75 are buried, and the more recent 50 are in respectful storage above ground. Friends at the lab at Hickam AFB are cutting many of the bones from the 50 to try for DNA matches that lead to identifications. Later, they would like to exhume some of the 75 as well, but first things first, since several of the other men are already in the works.

You might find one bit of news to be surprising, remember Camp 5: stand near the pagoda sick house and look down toward the two toes of the peninsula. You are looking almost due west, over your right shoulder, to the north, is the back water arm. Men were carried across the ice or around the edge to be buried, as well as could be done, in the winter of 1950–51. Then came springtime, and many of these shallow burials washed away. But what happened next? Only a small creek flows into the back water arm; this is not the main course of the Yalu River. Many years later, the North Koreans built a dike about half way down and drained the upper portion. This is now an area for small crops and such. If we ever get back to Camp 5, we’ll look at this drained area very closely, and probably begin digging near the edges.

Many of the human remains that once washed down are probably still there, they will be skeletal, and mixed, and incomplete. But very likely, we can still do some recoveries. We would hope to find a few, then tens, then well over a hundred. Once again, putting back together and cutting bones for DNA samples will be the core of the process. Don’t get discouraged, there are still some good men to find. I just hope that all of this can begin in our lifetimes. We are not working in North Korea this year… Let’s see how 2007 unfolds!