Korean War Ex-POW Association: Current JPAC Update

JPAC

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of all Americans missing as a result of the nation’s past conflicts.

We will post Phil O’Brien’s and Steve Thompson’s updates here, as well as printing them in our newsletter. Be sure to visit JPAC’s website for much more information.

2008 updates
2007 updates
2006 updates - March-June / September-December
2005 updates

JPAC Conducts Recovery Mission In South Korea (added 12/09)

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will be conducting a recovery mission in the Republic of Korea (ROK) beginning May 10. The mission is planned in order to achieve the fullest possible accounting of Americans Missing in Action as a result of operations conducted during the Korean War.

The 12-person JPAC team includes a specially trained forensic anthropologist and several other experts including analysts, linguists, a medic, a communications technician and a forensic photographer. This is the fourth JPAC mission to ROK in fiscal year 2009 and will focus on two primary sites in Kangwon Province.

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:

For several others, the forensic process continues.

June 2009:

Accounting for former POWs and other missing men can become an adventure, because there are always new discoveries. So now, a story that you probably haven’t heard before. We begin with Tiger Group, which contained the fi rst U.S. POWs and quite a few civilians. It is very well known. Most of the men in Tiger Group were captured between 6 and 22 July 1950. Others joined later, but this is how Tiger Group (TG) came to be. A second group followed, of some early POWs left behind and others from after the fall of Taejon, in all over 300 men. Most were captured between 25 July and 10 August 1950. Sadly, men from this group died in the Sunchon Tunnel Massacre and at the Kujang Massacre and elsewhere along the way. We know of this group only from those who survived: quite a few escaped here and there, and three men fi nally reached Tiger Group at Manpo, just before it began its own death marchto the Apex Camps. For lack of a better name, this second group has become “TG+1.”

There were other gatherings of early-war POWs, as well. In September 1950, some died at Taejon and some were found alive at Namwon. But yet another group gradually began to take shape. Deep in South Korea, the Naktong Perimeter held from mid-August to mid-September. Good men were captured, and most died in the local area, for this is where their bodies were found after the breakout. But others marched north, directly from the upper Naktong toward Chunchon. Around 4 September 1950, eight members of D Company, 8th Combat Engineers, were captured near the north end of the Naktong Perimeter, and they began to move north. In the days that followed, they were joined by several men from the 8th Cavalry, and even by a few men from the 15th Field Artillery who had been captured in August.

A logic of its own begins to develop. The North Koreans could no longer move men to the west as freely as before. Many POWs were still being killed, but some, by blessed chance, lived long enough to be collected into this ad hoc group as it continued north. There may have been as many as 20 to 30 men, and perhaps more. Five were left behind at a North Korean aid station southwest of Chechon, we know of this from survivors still walking north. Their bodies were later discovered and identifi ed. This site was well above the Naktong Perimeter, affi rming these men as POWs. And one, remembered by name, had been among the original eight from D/8th Engineers.

If only for clarity, we need a name to call them by: fi rst TG, then TG+1, so for now, let us say, “TG+2.” We know that they were in a small, controlled group and that they were moving north. We know that a few others joined them along the way and that a few also fell by the wayside. This group, our TG+2, arrived in Chunchon about 1 October 1950. Farther west, the Inchon landing had already occurred, and likewise the great Naktong breakout, south, behind them. An air strike at Chunchon followed, guards panicked, and most of this group was hastily prodded up the road. Our TG+2, small and very thinly reported, passes from sight. But in the confusion, four men slipped off the track and waited, not so much an organized escape as events simply unfolding. Sick and injured, but still alert and able, they saw the opportunity and took the best chance that they could.

All four men survived. They later met a pursuing ROK Army patrol, whichbrought them to KMAG advisors, and from there they made their way home. These men were in shock, and the information we have from them is very limited, but it is enough to establish that this small group, our TG+2, really did exist. Almost to a moral certainty, the other men continuing north soon died: at the time and in these circumstances, that was all too frequently the norm. Even so, this is not the end of their story. There are memories to honor, of those who survived and of those who did not. Obviously, this extends from names we know to names we do not.

A practical issue also follows. We never really exclude, but now we’re taking a closer look at some of the unidentifi ed human remains currently in possession. Of the historical Unknowns from the 1950s and 1960s buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacifi c in Honolulu, 11 have been exhumed and six have been successfully identifi ed. We do not exhume, except for good cause, because these men are properly at rest. But there are other, more recent recoveries from Joint Field Activities, North and South, and from North Korean turnovers in 1990-94 and 2007. These men are under examination and are respectfully kept above ground at the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command. It’s all a process of relating names to remains and to “plausible situations.” Now, the existence of a small TG+2 which reached the upper end of today’s South Korea, and likely North Korea as well, widens that window, just a little.

March 2009:

New Year has begun, and we are looking back over many of our records. We’re trying to resolve several questions that could prove helpful to recovery teams going into the field in 2009. As I write in late January, we have not yet had direct contact with North Korean authorities. There is still a little time, as Winter moves toward Spring. But we do not have any firm basis for expecting to go back into North Korea this year. If we do return, it would likely be to one of the two base camp sites from which we were working 2005, either at the Chosin Reservoir or at the Unsan battle zone. Some of our equipment was left stored in place, it may still be usable, and a single recovery effort might be a good, transparent way to begin anew. We are faced with several “if so” questions. We know that, but such questions typically resolve themselves one at a time, as events continue to unfold.

A longer-term concern, beyond immediate work in battle zones, is how many men we could expect to find at the former POW camp sites. Camp 5, of course, is the worst case. Up to 1,600 men died there, with some of the earlier names pretty much unknown to us. Friends of friends died, and with them, living memory was lost. Once the Chinese took over control of Camp 5 from the North Koreans, around April 1951, record keeping became much better. But there are still gaps, name conflicts, and inconsistencies extending well into the Summer of 1951.

During Operation Glory, in September 1954, the Chinese and North Koreans returned 556 sets of human remains from Camp 5, and all but 75 of these were successfully identified and sent home to their families. The 75 others are now among the Unknowns buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. Right now, we’re tracking over 500 names either known or suspected to have died at Camp 5. If the long-held estimate of up to 1600 deaths is near to accurate, then another 500 to 600 men, mainly from among the missing in November and December 1950 battles around Unsan, Kunu-ri, Ipsok, and Kujang, are still at rest among the Camp 5 burials. Even if we have over-stated the total number of deaths at Camp 5, including some men from, say, the Pukchin-Tarigol holding point, we still have a large number of missing men at Camp 5 or en route . . . each one, a possible recovery.

Someday, if we can enter Camp 5, we’ll be looking at known burial areas behind the Pagoda sick house, and along the ridge running up the spine of the peninsula, and at the very toe where some of the first burials took place. But most importantly, we’ll be looking along the edge of the old back water arm just above the peninsular camp. Thankfully, a small stream trickled into the Yalu River there: most of these burials were not along the shore line of the main river. We know that there were wash-aways in springtime floods, but many of these remains would have collected farther down the course of the side stream, still along the side of the peninsula.

The upper area of this back water arm has now been dyked. There are huts and a soccer field for the small police or army garrison, and even what appears to be vegetable gardens. We can’t say for sure until we are actually “boots on ground,” but our most productive exploration would probably be along the former shore of this back water arm, just below the old high water line, and especially along the extended axis of the small side stream that finally flows into the Yalu River. All of this is a bit speculative But can you see, in your mind’s eye, how we can set up the outline of an exploration long before arriving on scene?

Half a world away, at Hickam Air Force Base and at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, I’m very thankful that additional table space is now becoming available at Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s new, expansion facility. Any remains coming back from a situation like Camp 5’s would surely be fragmentary and commingled: we expect that and we can deal with it. If we do succeed in finding a large remains concentration, we will have the tables we need to do “simultaneous re-articulation.” That will speed the process of making selections for DNA sampling and, then, the final identification process.

We are trying to prepare in depth, even for Camp 5, oh so far away. Then there are the Apex Camps where so many men from Tiger Group died, and the Pukchin-Tarigol sites, and the Suan Camps, and several other locations. Well, what can we do now? We estimate. We get our notes together. We hope for the best. Our task is to be ready, whenever... and hopefully soon.