United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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CHAPTER 2 THE INCHON-SEOUL OPERATION 13 September-7 October 1950 Military strategy called for a surprise landing in the rear of the North Korean Army. Inchon, on the west coast, about 20 miles from Seoul, was selected for several reasons. It was the port of the capital city. Its capture would permit the United Nations forces to cut the enemy's supply and communications lines. Moreover, because of the unusual tides in the area, it seemed to General MacArthur that the enemy would be expecting his counterattack elsewhere. The X Corps, commanded by Maj. General Edward M. Almond, was given the task of taking Inchon and advancing via Kimpo airfield to the Han River and the capital. X Corps included, besides the 1st Marine Division and the attached lst Marine Aircraft Wing, the 7th Infantry Division, an understrength occupa- tion-duty division whose complement would be filled out with South Korean soldiers. The operation had been planned even before the lst Marine Division was fully organized? Because of the wide range of high and low tides, the assault would have to made at just the right time, else the vessels would be stranded on mud-flats. Unless Inchon could be taken by the middle of September, the opera- tion would have to be postponed, and probably abandoned. Time was running out. The Division was embarked from Kobe on 11 September, minus the 7th Marines, not yet fully reorganized, and joined at a predetermined rendezvous point by its newly reintegrated elements which had constituted the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade. Victory Over Time and Tide The first objective was the island of Wolmi-Do, just offshore in Inchon harbor. Aerial bombardment be- gan on 10 September as Marine fliers started soft- ' 1Montross and Canzona, op. cit., vol. II, Chs. III-IV. See also Cagle and Manson, op. cit., ch. 3. Karig et al., op. cit., Chs. I4-21. ening upv Wolmi-Do, they were joined by planes from Task Force 77 operating from the VALLEY FORGE, the PHILIPPINE SEA, and the BOXER? This last ship had arrived from the States only within the last few days, having fought Typhoon Kezia in its last laps before reaching Sasebo. Preliminary bombard- ment was begun on 13 September by the cruisers TO- LEDO and ROCHESTER, in company with the British cruisers KENYA and JAMAICA. Early on Friday morning, 15 September, the 3d Battalion, 5th Marines landed on Wolmi-Do and an hour before sunset the remaining Marine units as- saulted Inchon itself on the evening tide? Within 24 hours the seaport of some 250,000 inhabitants was taken. The Marines suffered only moderate casual- ties as the attack took the enemy by surprise and the prelanding bombardment had wiped out most of his prepared defense positions. At the same time naval forces headed by the battle- ship MISSOURI, rushed to Korea from Norfolk, Va., shelled Communist troop concentrations, and the 8th Army, under Lt. Gen. W. H. Walker, launched a sud- den movement designed to break out from the Pusan Perimeter? By 26 September elements of 8th Army had effected a linkup with the 7th Army Division working its way southeastward from Inchon. By the end of the month organized NKPA resistance in the south had begun to collapse. Liberation of Seoul Within 48 hours after the initial landing the 5th Ma- rines took the important Kimpo airfield, and other 2 Montross and Canzona, op. vit., vol. II, pp. 85-87. Also Cagle and Manson, op. sit., pp. 91-94. 3 Ibid., pp. 94-ff. Montross and Canzona, op. cit., vol. II, chs. V-VII, beginning on p. 87. 4 Korea, 1950 fDepartrnent of the Armyj sketches the movements of other UN forces in the South while the Ma- rines were occupied in the Inchon-Seoul area. See pp. 147- 150. -15.-

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Korean War, having been begun with the burials of those killed in the Pusan Perimeter operations. Under the outline of duties expected of chaplains in combat operations were the following: Duties on Conclusion of Landing and Assault Phase: C15 At the close of operations, unit chaplains will prepare letters of condolence to next of kin of those lost in action. These letters will be properly channeled through the com- mand. The oflice of the Division Chaplain can assist a unit chaplain by looking up the following information relative to each person deceased: Name, rank, serial number. Date of death, place of burial, and religion. C03 fbi Ccj Name and address of next of kin. Cdl Name of officiating chaplain at burial. f2J At the close of an operation, the Division Chaplain, with the approval of the Commanding General, should ar- range for a memorial service to be held at the Division ceme- tery or in other cemeteries where Division dead are buried. Such letters of condolence were faithfully written by individual chaplains and, judging from the responses received from bereaved families, were deeply ap- preciated. Memorial services were held periodically throughout the Korean War, both on division level and also in smaller units. Misxion Completed On 13 September the lst Provisional Marine Brigade was deactivated and reabsorbed into the lst Marine Division, its components resuming their old unit designations and embarking from Pusan to join the main body of the Division being embarked from Kobe. For its outstanding and heroic performance of duty on the field of battle during the period 2 August 1950 to 6 September l950', the Brigade was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation by Syngman Rhee, President of the Republic of Korea. It was also given a Presidential Unit Citation by the Presi- dent of the United States for extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces in Korea from 7 August to 7 September 1950 On the eve of the Inchon assault, the following 28 Navy chaplains were attached to the Division: Division Chaplain-Robert M. Schwyhart. Headquarters Battalion-Garson Goodman and William N. Lyons. Division Troops-Howard H. Groover, Ernest A. Ham, William M. Hearn, Aarne J. Juntunen, Patrick A. Killeen, Preston D. Parsons, Robert L. Patton, Charles S. Pigott, Joseph G. Power, William A. Rennie, Eugene I. Van Ant- werp, and Lawrence R. Phillips. Regimental Units: lst Marines-Glyn Jones CRegimental Chaplainj, Kevin J. Keaney, land James W. Lewis. 5th Marines-Orlando Ingvoldstad, Jr. fRegimental Chaplainl, Bernard L. Hickey, and William G. Tennant. 7th Marines-John Craven fRegimental Chaplainj, Cornelius J, Griffin, and Kester M. Hearn. 11th Marines-Otto E. Sporrer CRegimental Chap- lainj, Robert A. Bonner, Barker C. Howland, and God- frey J. Reilly. Goodman was of the Jewish faith. Griffin, Hickey, Keaney, Killeen, Reilly, Sporrer, and Van Antwerp were Roman Catholics. The others were Protestants. Chaplain Ernest A. Ham was left with the Administra- tive Rear Echelon at Camp Garver, near Kobe, Japan, primarily for the purpose of giving assistance to Ma- rine casualties in the hospitals at Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto. Among those left behind were also some 500 17-year-old Marines, who by order of the Secretary of the Navy had been removed from the troop list just before the Division embarked for the Inchon am- phibious landing? M Montross and Canzona, op. cit., vol. II, p. 76. -14-

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