Uncle Stuart - Private First Class, M Company, 24th Infantry Division, 34th Infantry Regiment of the Eighth United States Army.In the first action of the Korean War July 1950, the 24th Infantry suffered 3,602 dead and wounded and 2,962 captured, including the Division's Commander, Major General William F. Dean.
Letter to Stuart's brother from soldier/survivors March, 1999:
Stuart was with our group of POW's in North Korea. We are now known as Tiger Survivors. We take our name from a brutal and murdering North Korean Major who took great delight in killing POW's and civilians alike. He was a madman.
Our group consisted of people who were taken prisoner from 29 June thru 25 July 1950. The military was mostly from the 24 Infantry Division that was rushed from Japan to fight the Communist hordes from the north. We also had 79 multi national civilians with us. Nuns and priests, Methodist missionaries, French and British Legion people, white Russians and Tatars, a German lady and a couple of war correspondents. In the beginning we numbered about 850.
We were assembled from the various battle sites in South Korea and formed up in Seoul then we were moved to the capitol of North Korea, Pyongyang. From there we went to several places and finally ended up in Manpo-jin, a small town on the Yalu River. Manchuria was just across the river. We were very concerned because we were that close to China and the Soviet Union.
In October 1950 four hundred thousand Chinese came from Manchuria to help North Korea. They were called volunteers. THey comandeered everything and we were put in a large corn field just south of Manpo. It was cold and it had already snowed. Many of us had no shoes or shirts and what clothing we had was summer fatigues. Many were dying every day from various reasons.
On Halloween 1950 a new commandant took over (the Tiger). He had the rank of Major. No one remembers his name. He was always refered to as "The Tiger". On 1 November we started our Death March north toward the mountains. The road was marked with blood from the feet of the POW's. We had gone a short distance when the Tiger noticed some men had been left behind. The guard told the men to stay there and they would be taken to a hospital. The guards denied this and the Tiger was going to shoot several officers and because of the pleading of Commissioner Herbert Lord, Salvation Army of England, he shot only one, right through the head. He murdered Lt. Thornton that day and we knew at that moment that this man meant business. The Death March ended on 9 November but the damage done to many of us followed for a long time.
Finally we arrived at a very small town of Hanjang-ni. (The Ni at the end means a very small place.) This waS 17 November 1950. We were housed in a school house and several out-buildings. It was extremely crowded and everyone was sick to some degree. We were suffering from malnutrition, prolonged exposure, respiratory disease, lice, internal worms, berriberri, mental depression, diarrhea, dysentery, frost bite to mention a few. Those who were wounded or beaten after capture were suffering from those wounds as well. Medical treatment was non-existant. We had Captain Boysen, a battalion surgeon with us who could have saved most of the ones who died if he only had some simple medicines. This is where we spent the winter of 1950-and the spring of 1951. 202 people were left behind when we left that God awful hell on 29 March 1951.
Your brother died on March 21, 1951 just 8 days before we were to leave. He had just turned 20 years old.
I never knew uncle Stuart. I was born March 21, 1950. The first action in the Korean War wasn't talked about much. The US sent untrained, ill-equipped troops not to stop the NKA but to simply slow them down while the real Army could get there. Over 3000 died in the first battle. Not something to be proud of.
