KOREAN WAR VET REMINDS US

ORIGINALLY POSTED IN OUR DISCUSSION SECTION

A READER TELLS OF HIS EXPERIENCE IN KOREA 1950

By Bobby "Y" for VT

Duffster: You invited me to write about my experiences in the Korean War which I am not going to do to any extent. War is hell in all wars. I am going to write some facts about the Korean war that has seemed to slip between the cracks. Some of what I am going to post will seem like I may be downing the Nam war, but it is not so. I am only going to state facts to show that the Korean war was worse than the Nam war.

. So let the words flow. In Nam you had 58,220 deaths in nine years of war. In Korea we had 54,246 deaths. So with Nam deaths it comes to 6400 + per year. Now in Korea we had 18,000 + per year. Tell me where there was more fighting. Right the FORGOTTEN WAR. Not to us Korean war vets-is it forgotten.

Here is more> We had old worn out WW2 equipment to fight with. We had a big load of 2.2 ? bazooka rounds to start with and it did not take long to find out the load was all practice rounds. Thousands of them.

Not much bang for your buck. We got some of the real ones and they would bounce of the Russian T-34 tanks. After the losses from that screw up we got the 3.5? I may have the numbers a little wrong on the rocket sizes. Back then they were not called rockets that I recall. Next> We were up north in 30 below zero weather trying to fight with the old weapons.

Water cooled machine guns just froze up. You talked about being under staffed, well we were fighting the chinks against large odds, sometimes 10 to 1. We had no real winter gear in 1950. We lost several thousand to frost bitten feet, including me. If we had the same equipment used in Nam, the war would have been over in less than the three years.

We did not go back behind the lines to sleep and eat under shelters. We would be on line for weeks at a time, Sometimes w/o any amount of water or the old WW2 rations. No MREs. We had radios that would not reach one mile in the hills.

I know as I carried the big and heavy old WW2 SCR 300. We did not have good tanks at the start and they would knock them out about as fast as we could repair or replace. When we got the better tank we done a job on the T-34s.They had us beat in jet fighters, knocked us out of the skies.. The table turned when we got the better jets. We had to work with old bombers.

No jet ones then like was had in Nam. We had 103,000 wounded in three years. Figure that out per year. 8,177 MIAs. Compare that to Nam. About 7000 POWs. 389 unaccounted for. Only 3,450 returned alive. 51% died in prison camps.

When the Nam war stopped they had what. 2500 MIAs. I could go on and on with a lot more, but I just wanted to show the differences in wars and let the ones out there that did not have the facts right. Again I am not downing the Nam vet. It was hell there and with that large loss it ended up being the first war we lost.

There will be two more loss of wars after we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m not a writer of talent but just telling a small part of the way it is. I have enough facts to right a book, but that is where I got it all, from books and federal info. Thanks for reading, Regards to all Vets from from this fine country.

Bob Y

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022