United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

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On 21 February, to deny the enemy a chance to re- organize, another general advance was initiated, dubbed Operation Killer.4 The Marines secured their initial objective, the high ground overlooking Hoeng- song, on 24 February, but advance was slow every- where along the line. The weather was still cold, with occasional snow and extensive rain. The begin- ning of the thaw was turning ravines into raging torrents and paddies into beds of slime. Terrain and weather were as troublesome as the enemy. There were no roads worth the name. Nevertheless the UN offensive kept moving, and by March first the Com- munist breakout had been largely repulsed. Killer came to an end on 4 March, with the Marines solidly entrenched on phase line Arizona, a string of five hills north of Hoengsong. The entire area south of the Han River was again in United Nations control. A stable line lying about halfway between the 37th and 38th parallels began at Inchon, moved along the Han, then ran north of Hoengsong, and so northeast- ward out to Kangnung on the east coast. Operation Ripper A new advance, Operation Ripper, began on 7 March, the purpose of which was primarily to keep the enemy under such pressure as to prevent his re- grouping for a counteroffensivef' Again and again General Ridgway insisted that gaining ground was secondary to the destruction of Chinese Communist personnel and equipment. With I Corps and the ROK Army holding the left and right flanks, respec- tively, IX and X Corps, the former including the lst Marine Division, slugged slowly forward in the center against stubborn opposition, the enemy taking advan- tage of the precipitous slopes and lack of roads to hold on as long as possible before pulling back. On 14 March elements of I Corps reentered Seoul and the Republic of Korea flag was hoisted again over the National Assembly building. The Communists now began to pull back all along the line, lighting only delaying actions. The 7th Ma- rines entered the important communication center of Hongchon without a fight. The enemy's object was to reorganize a line just north of the 38th Parallel, based on fortifications apparently constructed before the initial invasion of South Korea in 1950.6 The .Mii 'Miller et al., op. cit., pp. 18f. Also Lynn Montross, Buttoning up the Offensive: The Marines in Operation Killer, Marine Corps Gazette CFebruary 19523. 5Marine Corps Gazette CMarch 19521, Lynn Montross, Advance to the 38th Parallel: The Marines in Operation Ripperu. Also Miller et al., op. cit., ch. III, esp. pp. 21ff. ' Miller et al., op. cit., pp. 24ff. central anchor of this line, dug into rock and protected by log and concrete reinforcement, was the area bounded by Chorwon, Kumha, and Pyonggang. Here, in what became known as the Iron Triangle, lay the hub of protection for the North Korean communica- tion and supply network. Clearly the enemy was preparing to regroup. That he would be ready for a spring advance, with at least some air potential, was clear from intelligence reports. The UN units were by now up against the Parallel again. Thinking it better to keep his advantage, Ridgway, as the responsible field commander, ordered his forces toward the so-called Kansas line, north of the 38th. On 4 April the Marines were among the first UN troops to cross the Parallel. Phase line Kansas,' had been reached by 9 April everywhere ex- cept in the center. On 11 April 1951 General MacArthur was relieved of his command by the Commander-in-Chief, Presi- dent Harry S. Truman, and replaced by General Ridg- way? Lt. Gen. James A. Van Fleet, Ridgeway's successor as 8th Army cormnander, ordered the tactics already in operation to continue. The advance con- tinued toward phase line Utah, and by 21 April UN forces were up against Chorwon, the southwestern pivot of the Iron Triangle. Van Fleet's line now began on the west coast near Kyodong, several miles above Inchon, moved sharply northward in a 450 angle to Chorwon, nearly 40 miles above the Parallel, and then eastward in an irregular line which skirted the Hwachon Reservoir and continued on to the east coast. Along this line forces of the United Nations were to meet the unleashed fury of the Communist counter- attack. Rotation System Beginning in December 1950 the Bureau of Naval Personnel instituted a system of rotation for chaplains sewing with Marines in Korea. All who had had 6 to 8 months of duty during the extremely difficult and hazardous opening months of the war were to be or- dered back stateside. The first to be relieved under the rotation system were the chaplains who had landed at Pusan with the Provisional Brigade. The first re- placements reported for duty on 7 January 1951. i Chaplain Ingvoldstad, Regimental Chaplain of the 5th Marines, was relieved by Chaplain Verner N. Carl- sen, who reported on 7 January. Ingvoldstad was ordered to the faculty of the newly reestablished Chap- ili 7 See M. B. Ridgway, Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway fNew York, 1956j, p. 220 and ch. 27. For Ridg- way's account of his months as 8th Army commander, see chs. 23 and following. .-55.-

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KAESONG EHMRO C Seoul. LINE D-UN FRONT LINES 'HAM nos: CHONGJ' U ' ' Amoous WSONG . vonsoox TAEJON ' POHANG YoNscHoN ' ' -meeu ' ENEMY ATTACKS 3l DEC -7JAN -54-

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lain School, located at Newport, R.I. He was the first of the chaplains who had seen duty in Korea to be assigned to the school. Previously, in October 1950, Chaplain W. N. Lyons, already attached to the Division, had relieved Glyn Jones as Regimental Chaplain, lst Marines, when jones was ordered to the Personnel Distribution desk in the Chaplains Division. Chaplain Leslie L. O'Con- nor, reporting on 13 January, now relieved Craven as Regimental Chaplain, 7th Marines 5 Craven reported for duty in the Chaplains Division, in charge of the Ecclesiastical Relations desk. Chaplain Joseph C. Fitzgerald, who reported 14 January, followed Sporrer as Regimental Chaplain of the 11th Marines. Other chaplains reporting during this first major rotation were John M. Quirk Q7 januaryj , Solomon K. John- son QI4 januaryj, George C. Bingaman and Howard E. Waters Cboth on 17 Januaryj . Division Chaplain R. M. Schwyhart was having personnel problems. Chaplain Preston D. Parsons, after a jeep accident on 20 January, was evacuated to Japan. Within 9 days all three chaplains in the 11th Marines lSporrer, Howland, and Parsonsj had been changed. Chaplain Van Antwerp was hospitalized after being wounded on 26 january. On 5 February Chaplain Carlsen was evacuated to Yokosuka after a flareup of peptic ulcers. On 6 February Chaplain Killeen was fiown from the lst Marines area to Divi- sion Hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Re- porting all these moves, Schwyhart added: It does seem that we have chaplain difficulties: two in the hospital and another evacuated within a period of 12 days. I have been keeping in close communication with all other chaplains, by jeep, telephone, and radio, and am glad to report that all is well with them. On Monday, 5 February, I went by plane to Masan to check on some items at our Adminis- trative Rear Echelon and to see Chaplains Ham, Engle, and Bingaman, whom I hadn't seen for 3 weeks, since my move north. Chaplain Francis W. Kelly, who had served tours of duty with the lst and 2d Marine Divisions during World War II, receiving the Legion of Merit for heroism in combat, was ordered as the relief of Schwy- hart as the Division Chaplain. Chaplain Kelly had performed exceptional service with the Marines in the battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Okinawa. His courage and closeness to the fighting men was depicted in the movie Guadalcanal Diary, with the well-known actor Preston Foster portraying Chaplain Kelly. In The Marines Take Tarawa, a Marine Corps docu- mentary movie, Chaplain Kelly himself plays one of the principal roles. Kelly had been released to inactive duty in july 1946 but returned to active duty 4 years later when the Korean hostilities began. Before going to Korea, he served with the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point, N.C. Because of his distinguished service with the Marines, he was sometimes known as the Fighting Padref, Kelly relieved Schwyhart on 20 February 1951. Other replacements were gradually made during the spring months of 1951 so that by june a complete turnover of chaplains attached to the lst Marine Divi- sion had been completed. After the front line became more stabilized, the tour of duty for chaplains serving with Marines in Korea would be extended to 10 months and finally to a year. Following the Korean Armistice, the duty was lengthened from 12 to 15 months. Corps Expansion The expansion of the Nation's Armed Forces neces- sitated by the continuing war naturally made great demands on the Chaplain Corps. It was Chief of Chaplains S. W. Salisbury's policy to meet the need for more personnel through a voluntary and selective recall of chaplains in the Inactive Reserve. Chaplains desiring to offer their services submitted a request for active duty orders to the Chief of Naval Personnel. A selection board consisting of both of- ficers of the line and members of the Chaplains Di- vision reviewed their jackets, taking into consideration each applicant's record, as well as age, rank, and denomination. A chaplain was then either ordered to active duty or else placed in category II, the latter making him available in the event of total mobiliza- tion. As always the needs of the service determined selec- tion. In the nature of the case, the chaplains in the Reserve tended to fall into the higher grades, whereas the need was for younger men in the rank of lieutenant and lieutenant f junior gradel. Denominational dis- tribution also naturally entered into the picture. Each applicant was advised that the necessary ecclesiastical endorsement was the individual's responsibility, and it proveclnecessary to warn applicants not to give up their 'civilian positions or otherwise make plans for entering upon active duty until officially notified by the Bureau of having been accepted. The Navy Chaplains Bulletin lspring-summer, 1951j carried a summary of the chaplain personnel distribution picture. As of 15 April the Corps had 743 allowances and 608 chaplains on active duty. Al- though 8 percent was allowed for contingent unavail- ability Cchaplains in transit, on sick list, etc.l, the ac- tual figure was proving nearer 12 percent, because of casualties in combat, a high rate of sickness among -56-