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Atcheson continued
Steaming at flank speed, we made Sasebo by noon, and sent Foley ashore
to the hospital. By then I knew Foley's wounds were not from my .45, but
from the Koreans' rifles. I took small comfort from that. In retrospect,
haste may have had a hand in our poor performance, the elapsed time from
boarding the PBM to our return to
Sasebo being only about 30 hours. Historical note: The night's events
had made Foley the first US Naval casualty of the Korean War. I
recommended him for a Silver Star which ADM duly awarded him.
UDT One soon arrived in the Bass, another fine APD, along with part of
the 1st Marine Division's Recon Company. We joined them for a series of
six recons and demo raids giving our morale a big boost, mine
especially.
UDT One's MO was quickly honed in two practice landings in Japan. Step
one was four swimmer recon to check the beach environs. If clear, the
Marine security force would land and establish a perimeter. A special
photo recon flight had been flown for us and we had excellent stereo
photos. The demolition teams would then land and carry charges to
previously assigned demo targets. The coast we would be working was
mountainous with many tunnels and small bridges, and the RR track pushed
down close to the water by the steep terrain behind. down close to the
water by the steep terrain behind. We planned to ignore the tunnels as
being impervious to the small charges we could carry and concentrate on
blowing track and bridges. Explosives were #40 TNT or C3 plastic packs
each containing, if I remember, #10 blocks connected by primacord. Both
TNT and C3 are very stable, not even to be detonated by rifle fire.
The Team 3 eleven joined Team One at Camp McGill in Japan and were
included in their demo and recon ops. They had part of the 1st Marine
Brigade's Recon company attached to provide target site security. And a
good thing too.
We embarked on the Bass which had carried Team One from San Diego. The
skipper of the Bass at that time being LCDR Ray, and Team One being
skippered by LCDR David F. "Kelly" Welch. Our first demo op was a dud
because of people on the beach, but the next three were successful: we
blew up lots of track and 3 small bridges. As for the NK's, things were
uneven full and no one bothered us. Only once did a train pass through
while were loading the track, but because we had orders to avoid the
NK's, we had to grit our teeth and hunker down. The orders were correct,
I think. Either you're there to do demo or shoot people but not both.
We then moved around to the West Coast and did three recons, ostensibly
to fool the NK's, the thought being that if they had gotten wind of the
forthcoming Inchon operation this might fool them. Whatever! The first
two were uneventful, but on the last on a beach at the edge of the
Kunsan airport, we ran into trouble. There were NK troops camped on the
field and they took us and our Marines under fire.
Photo above:
UDT-3, April 28, 2004,
Biloxi
MS, at West Coast Reunion
(click to
enlarge)
Atcheson continue—
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Atcheson
continued
We abandoned the recon and got back in our boats, but then got back in
the water and towed the boats as best we could
Further out, at the LCPR's, we learned we had two wounded and were
missing Marines. This was quickly done. The Marines, five of them as I
recall, had waded out as far as they could, disassembled their rifles,
throwing the parts away, and waiting patiently, treading water. "We knew
you'd be back", one of them said. But the raid had its heavy cost as one
of the wounded, Sergeant Matachek was paralyzed from the waist. down.
The following year I was again in Korea, this time assigned to the
training of a night raider unit for work similar to our UDT demo raids.
The program was under the aegis of the CIA and manned by North Korean
refugees, young men who escaped from the north in chaos of the war's
early days. Chosen originally to form escape and evasion teams for the
rescue of downed airman, they formed a cadre from which I could draw
about 30 men for my Special Missions Group Although not really any
better prepared for raider ops of the SEAL type than I was before, I
could only forge ahead. The Koreans had been through a sort of boot camp
already, and were eager and very fine fellows to work with. Our first
operation was a nice success. We revisited an old UDT target and worked
it over again, this time even trapping a locomotive which blundered in
the pre-dawn darkness into the space where the bridge had been. It was
winter then with snow on the ground. We went ashore in white coveralls.
It was too cold for a swimmer recon. We just went on in, counting on the
snow and the starlight to help us out. The Koreans did fine, just as I
had hoped. Although I had an interpreter, I opted to leave the operation
pretty much up to the men's good sense, reserving only the making and
setting of fuse lighters for myself.
In spite of our successes some time passed before we could be assigned
another ship, but when the time came, the ship was again my old friend
the Bass, now captained by LCDR Lavrakas. My memory is hazy about that
time and has gotten no better since. I recall we had several raids
planned. Some went well, some failed because no targets were found or
some high surf cancelled it. And one was a disaster. The recon party had
gotten ashore uneventfully, and the demo teams were on their way in when
a firefight began. We had been sucked into an ambush. The LCPR's were in
close, the demo teams were half ashore an half afloat and things were
very bad. The Bass boat crews performed with cool courage, working right
up into the shallows to gather up whoever made it back to the water. The
boats were in so close that several returned with grenade fragments
embedded in their hull. My interpreter was killed while standing beside
me in a LCPR. Several of my Korean troopers were taken prisoner by
the North Koreans, a fate I would not wish on anyone. Shaken and bedraggled, we
returned to the ship for a sad voyage home. One bright spot came the
next day far off the coast, we came upon a motor fishing sampan, broken
down and in distress with three crew still aboard, two alive and one
dead. The Bass' captain and crew, in the best traditions of the sea,
hoisted the sampan aboard, fed the survivors, and wrapped up the poor dead
man, got the motor running and dropped the lot of them close enough. But
then, the engine would not restart. Grind, grind, slower and slower,
fuel
almost gone, no other way home. My nerves were stretching painfully
tight when the damn thing finally started. By then the boats were
alongside and we were okay. Their foray had been a success with a large
variety documents and passbooks, and three "prisoners," two middle aged
men and a young woman. To this day I have some qualms about the
prisoners. I am not hard- hearted enough for this business-but they
seemed content, maybe glad to be leaving. They had, after all, come
along willingly or so I told myself. We chugged our way back to Pusan
and turned over our loot and our captives to "proper authority" and I
was done.
Two weeks later I was on my way back to Coronado and reassignment.
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MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Washington DC, Jan 17, 1961
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquision of
unwarranted influence, where sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex," President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned in
his farewell address on Jan 17,1961. Retired Army Lt General Andrew
Goodpaster, who served on the President's staff, offers insight on
Eisenhowers' mindset.
"Eisenhower had a tremendous ability to look at a problem as a whole in
the light of what is the overarching need, the requirements to which
forces should respond. He brought that into the White House.
With the military-industrial, he was deeply concerned about these
groups, particularly the military and the military industry, working
together with the backing of Congress and elements of the press. They
were pressing to do things, crash programs in particular, that he did
not think were in the best overall interest of the United States.
"He experienced a lot of pressures, of many kinds, for crash programs he
was convinced were not needed, were costly and would not add to national
security, but in fact was the so-called 'missile gap' (between the
Soviet Union and US). he knew there was no missile gap and he was not
going to be strong-armed into a crash program of building missiles."
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