George Atcheson
(1923
- 2011)
Underwater
Demolition TEAM THREE
I was born in Beijing in 1923 where my father was studying Chinese in
preparation for a career in the diplomatic service. My parents had met when my
mother passed through there as a tourist in 1921. I spent most of my young
boyhood in various Chinese cities until I was sixteen, when my father was
ordered to the State Department. By that time, 1939, all of North China was occupied by the Japanese Army. Although seldom
bothered ourselves, we had front row seats on a very brutal army behaving at
its worst. Even so, Beijing remained one of the world’s most beautiful and
charming cities…for foreigners.
After high school in Washington, I spent a semester at Berkeley before joining the Navy in 1943 as an aviation
cadet. After some vicissitudes I emerged as an ensign and aerial navigator in
1945. In 1947 I applied for a Regular Navy commission and was accepted. After a
year of destroyer duty in the Atlantic, I applied for Underwater Demolition duty and was
assigned to UDT 3 in Coronado. When the Korean War started, I happened to be in Japan with a 10 man unit. We joined UDT I upon its arrival
and participated in a series of demolition raids and beach recons on both the
Korean coasts. After Inchon I was sent to Japan to participate in the training of Escape and Evasion
units under the aegis of the CIA. In 1951,
after another sojourn in destroyers, I was again assigned to a CIA clandestine program. My part involved recon swimming, demolitions, and
small unit tactics, about which I knew almost nothing. Nevertheless, we formed
Special Missions Group of about 30 men. They were all North Koreans who had
fled south at the time of the initial NK attack, and been recruited by a South
Korean Army captain, who was himself then recruited by the Agency. It was from
this cadre of highly motivated North Koreans that the E and E and SMG volunteers were drawn. Over time I took part in a dozen or so SMG landings.
Soon after Korean armistice talks began, SMG and other UN operations were discontinued. I was reassigned - the
Korean cadre, among whom I had formed many fast friends, was disbanded. I
enjoyed a couple of years ashore returning to destroyers. But my long period of
independent duty had spoiled me and I decided that my 13 years in the Navy were
enough.
Being unmarried and without responsibility,
I was free to indulge an old hankering to go sailing. After seeing something of
the two great oceans, another fellow and I sailed my ancient 40 foot yawl to
the Virgin Islands. There I sold my boat - said
to be the second happiest day in every boat owner’s life – and
managed in the next six years to pick up some of the rudiments of construction
carpentry.
Soon after returning to Los Angeles, fortune smiled on me again, and I met Claire who
consented to marry me. And we have been here ever since, with me working as a
building contractor and Claire as a journalist. Not long after we both retired
about fifteen years ago, my legendary good luck brought me once again into
contact with Captain Lefteris Lavrakas,
in whose fine APD I had the good fortune to sail for a number of
operations in the Korean War.
George Atcheson
2003
(Note: George Atcheson
passed away on September 1, 2011, at his home in Santa Monica, CA. He was born April 16, 1923 in China of U. S. Diplomat parents. He wrote a book “The Peking Incident,” published in 1973, about his
experiences during the Japanese invasion of China. George was an officer in Underwater Demolition Team
THREE during the Korean War. He is survived by his wife, Claire.)
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