ARLINGTON, Va., - Today marks 60 years when North Korea invaded South Korea, in what many thought was the start of World War III.
To counter the offensive, six Army Guard infantry divisions were mobilized, including the 28th from Pennsylvania, the 29th from Virginia and Maryland, the 31st from Mississippi and Alabama, the 45th from Oklahoma, the 40th from California and the 43rd from Rhode Island and Connecticut.
A total of 138,600 Army Guard and 45,000 Air Guard troops were mobilized for the conflict, which was one-third of the Army Guard's total strength, and 80 percent of the Air Guard's.
At the end of their second month on active duty, the six divisions' chances of seeing Korea appeared remote, although Congress gave President Harry Truman the authority to call up the reserve components.
After the daring landing an Inchon, Eighth Army had broken out at Pusan, driving the North Koreans before them and joining X Corps across the 38th parallel in North Korea on Oct. 9.
Puerto Ricans head north
Eighth Army's push up the peninsula included an infantry regiment from Puerto Rico that was not a National Guard unit at the time, but later became one.
The 65th ID was organized in Puerto Rico in 1899 after the Spanish-American War and allotted to the regular Army in 1908. With the exception of a few "Anglo" officers, the regiment was composed entirely of Puerto Ricans. In 1959, it was transferred to the Puerto Rico National Guard.
The "Borinquineers," a nickname chosen aboard ship and the name of Puerto Rico's aboriginal population at the time of the Spanish conquest, landed in South Korea on Sept. 20.
As they disembarked from their ship, the regiment's commander called Eighth Army's commander, Army Lt. Gen. Walton H. "Johnnie" Walker, who bluntly asked if the Puerto Ricans would fight. The commander answered strongly in the affirmative. Walker pointed him toward some railroad cars, and told him to head north.
The regiment wasn't 10 miles from Pusan when their train came under North Korean attack. Less than a month after arriving in Korea, the 65th ID had lost 23 men and had 17 wounded. The Puerto Ricans quickly adjusted to the tactics of the North Koreans, especially their propensity for night attacks.
The 65th ID was sea-lifted to the North Korean port of Wonsan in late October. It was attached to the 3rd ID, but while the 3rd and the 1st Marine Division headed north, the 65th pushed west, skirmishing against strong North Korean resistance and probing for contact with Eighth Army units.
The regiment first encountered the Chinese on Nov. 21. On Dec. 7, the Marine column was days away from safety when the 65th ID, as the spearhead of "Task Force Dog," headed north. Their mission was to drive the Chinese away from the southern end of the last mountain pass through which the Chosin column would advance, so that engineers could bridge it and then to hold the pass.
Company G of the 65th's 2nd Battalion was part of Task Force Dog's forward elements and repelled a strong Chinese attack on the night of Dec. 10. These Puerto Ricans were among the first U.S. troops encouraged by the Chosin column, and as a Marine company commander later commented,
"It sure was a wonderful sight to see friendly troops on the ridges."
With the perimeter around the ports still under attack, the Chosin survivors marched straight to the waiting navy transports at Hungnam. They were the first of 105,000 U.S. and ROK troops and 98,000 civilian refugees to leave by ship.
The last Army troops to leave were the Puerto Ricans of the 65th ID, who were fighting off Chinese attacks on Dec. 22, and boarded their ship two days later. It was too early to evaluate their experiences, but the Borinquineers had just played their part in one of the greatest feats of arms in American history.
More mobilizations
Despite proclaiming a state of national emergency on Dec. 15, President Truman, a former Guardsman, would not increase the size of the overall troop commitment in Korea. But it did need replacements for the units already there.
In February, the federalized 28th ID was asked for several thousand men to be shipped to Korea and since draftees assigned to the division could not be sent until their initial training was completed, most of these men were Guardsmen.
Several months later, the 28th ID, along with the 43rd , was ordered to prepare for overseas movement, but fears of a Soviet move against Western Europe sent these two divisions to Germany. They arrived in Europe in November 1951. Their presence was a reassurance to the NATO allies that the war in Korea was not deflecting U.S. attention from its commitment to the security of Western Europe.
More Air Guard units also went to Europe and the United Kingdom, rather than to Korea.
However, the Air Guard units and personnel in Korea contributed substantially to the air war. They flew 39,530 combat sorties and destroyed 39 enemy aircraft. But they also paid a high price in Korea as 101 of its members were either killed or declared missing in action during the conflict.
Although Army National Guard units continued to be federalized for another year, full mobilization never occurred. By Jan. 1, 1951, one week after the 65th ID had followed the rest of X Corps out of Hungnam, the first Army Guard transportation units began to arrive in South Korea. Engineers followed as well as field artillery battalions, which played a key role in beating back the numerically superior Chinese and North Koreans.
As the three-year war in Korea passed its half-way point by late 1952, the number of Army Guard units arriving on the peninsula began to decrease. Other fighting strategies did not require additional Guard manpower.
(This story was compiled from "Turning Point: The Air National Guard and the Korean War" by Dr. Charles J. Gross, and "When are we going? The Army National Guard and the Korean War, 1950-1953" by Renee Hylton. Gross and Hylton served as historians for the National Guard Bureau.)