September 2009

This is the story of a place that never was, yet it took on a “life” all its own. The story is worth telling, for many of you had a hand in it. But first, some background info. We begin with POWs captured in 1951. The Chinese pressed into South Korea, and a flow of POWs began to work its way north. Those captured in January and February 1951 stopped en route at the Suan Bean Camp, a very real place very well remembered, although not pleasantly. The site officially closed after an inadvertent air raid on 22 April 1951, but over 100 men, too weak to march out, were left behind.

The war continued, and another group of POWs captured in April 1951 arrived. During May, they helped to carry the sick and wounded from Suan Bean Camp about seven miles to a new site, afterwards known as Suan Mining Camp. Many more men passed through Suan Mining Camp, including a very large group from May 1951. Groups also marched out, in June and September 1951, and the last men there were trucked out in October and November 1951. As near as I can tell, few if any spent the New Year 1952 at any Suan camp.

Now our peculiar story begins. Other men were captured in 1952 and 1953, usually in small numbers. By then, the battle front was pretty well dug-in along ridge lines, so large numbers were no longer being captured on a regular basis. But prisoners continued to march north, often to roadside points from which they were trucked farther along. Some men went all the way by foot and some had opportune rides, well, for part of the way. Then a new Suan camp reportedly opened, the so-called Collection Camp, sometimes also called Camp 6 or Camp 17. (Caution: both of these numbers were re-used, so don’t rely on them.)

There were never more than about 60 to 80 men at Collection Camp. But to prevent accidents, the Chinese identified it to U.N. authorities, giving an exact location in a steep valley containing Hol-gol and Soktal-li villages. These villages were about 12 kilometers northeast of the “old” Suan Mining Camp. This was also the site of a Chinese Army Headquarters. We continued to bomb some nearby enemy strongpoints, but we tried to respect the villages at Hol-gol and Soktal-li, assuming they were in fact, active POW holding points. After June 1953, the Chinese and North Koreans stopped sending men north to the Yalu River camps, so Collection Camp became “permanent” in its own right. During Operation Big Switch, men were trucked directly to Panmumjom from the Collection Camp.

Then debriefings began, in Korea and Japan and on ships crossing the Pacific to San Francisco. A mystery started to unfold. Suan Bean Camp and Suan Mining Camp were easy to “prove up,” because quite a few men had been at both. But no one overlapped between the earlier Suan camps and Collection Camp. Its description was another problem, an old mining site with ruins of a smelter or refinery. Some recalled spillage of mining wastes, even the smell of sulfur, in a small stream. More and more, this new Collection Camp was starting to sound like Suan Mining Camp.

Could it be the same? The Chinese and North Koreans might have pulled a fast one, naming a false site to protect one of their own headquarters. Collection Camp might simply have been a couple of hut clusters just beyond the edge of Suan Mining Camp, in effect, a re-using and with no one the wiser.

Years passed . . . no answers. During Operation Glory, when human remains were returned in September-November 1954, none came from this area. And, of course, we’ve never been allowed to work in this part of North Korea, it’s too close to their “deep defensive zone,” and visitors have not been welcomed. But the North Koreans did return 208 caskets containing U.S. remains in 1990-94, and quite a few were from sites in and around the Suan Camps. Sixteen of the 208 caskets were marked as from Holdong-gu, as Hol-gol is now known.

So the forensic work began, and the results couldn’t have been more welcome. At least 6 of the 16 caskets have already been associated with men very well known to us. (I’m using “letters,” not actual casket numbers, because there is still work to do on some of these cases.) Casket “A” contained three human remains, and all of them overlap other turnovers from the main Suan Camps. Caskets “B, C, D, E, and F” contained single individuals, and all have now been identified. Each of these men died among companions at the main Suan Camps, none was ever at the Collection Camp.

May seem strange, but men continued to serve, even in the act of dying, remembered by their companions. Together they helped us to sort out the curious case of the “new” Collection Camp. In closing, we can honor four names: their work is complete, and these men have been accepted by their families:

SFC Patrick James Arthur

CPL Leslie Ray Heath

SFC Walter Leroy Hood

PFC Ross William Katzman

For several others, the forensic process continues.