Overview

On Sunday, 25 June 1950, Communist North Korea unexpectedly invaded its southern neighbor, the American-backed Republic of Korea (ROK). The poorly equipped ROK Army was no match for the well prepared North Korean People's Army (NKPA) whose armored spearheads quickly thrust across the 38th Parallel. The stunned world helplessly looked on as the out-numbered and outgunned South Koreans were quickly routed. With the fall of the capital city of Seoul imminent, President Harry S. Truman ordered General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief, Far East, in Tokyo, to immediately pull all American nationals in South Korea out of harm's way. During the course of the resultant noncombatant evacuation operations an unmanned American transport plane was destroyed on the ground and a flight of U.S. Air Force aircraft were buzzed by a North Korean Air Force plane over the Yellow Sea without any shots being fired. On 27 July, an American combat air patrol protecting Kimpo Airfield near the South Korean capital actively engaged menacing North Korean planes and promptly downed three of the five Soviet-built Yak fighters. Soon thereafter American military forces operating under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC) were committed to thwart a Communist takeover of South Korea. Thus, only four years and nine months after V-J Day marked the end of World War II, the United States was once again involved in a shooting war in Asia.

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9781475061093

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Lieutenant Colonel Ronald J. Brown. USMCR (Ret), is a freelance writer, a high school football coach, and an educational consultant. The author of several official histories (A Brief History of the 74th Marines, With Marines in Operation Provide Coin/on, and With Marine Forces Afloat in Desert Shield and Desert Storin), he was also a contributing essayist for the best-selling book, The Marines, and was the sole author of A Few Good Men: The Fighting Fifth Marines. After almost four years active duty from 1968 to 1971, Brown returned to teaching high school for the next three decades; intermittently, he served as an activated reservist traveling to Korea among other places. He is a combat veteran of both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf conflicts. He spent 20 years as a reservist with Mobilization Training Unit DC 7, the Reserve unit that supports the History and Museums Division. Lieutenant Colonel Brown commanded the training unit before retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1996. He is the author of an earlier pamphlet in this series, Counteroffensive: U.S. Marines from Pohang to No Name Line.

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