EmaxHealth: More Korean War Vets Can Make Agent Orange Claims
The Department of Veterans Affairs has expanded the pool of Korean War vets who can make claims related to exposure to Agent Orange. This toxic defoliant has been linked to more than a dozen serious, often fatal health problems, including various types of cancer.
Korean vets do not have to prove Agent Orange exposure
Until now, only those Korean War vets who served in certain units along the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) between April 1968 and July 1969 could make claims regarding Agent Orange exposure. The new ruling, which was published in the Federal Register, extends the net of health coverage to those who served between April 1, 1968, and August 31, 1971 “in a unit determined by VA and the Department of Defense to have operated in an area in or near the Korean DMZ in which herbicides were applied.”
According to the Department of VA, Agent Orange is the name assigned to a combination of herbicides used by the US military sprayed from 1961 to 1971 in Vietnam to eliminate foliage that provided cover for the enemy. It was called “Agent Orange” because the 55-gallon drums in which it was stored had an orange stripe.
Agent Orange contained minute traces of a substance known as TCDD or dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), which causes various illnesses in laboratory animals. Other herbicides were also used during the war, including Agent Blue and Agent White, but Agent Orange was the toxin most widely applied.
The VA estimates that 2.6 million US military personnel were exposed to Agent Orange. Among the diseases for which veterans can make claims regarding exposure to the toxin are acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy, chronic B-cell leukemias, chloracne, type 2 diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers (e.g., larynx, lung, trachea, bronchus), ischemic heart disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, and some forms of soft tissue sarcoma.
The VA noted that Korean War vets do not have to prove their medical condition happened during their time in Korea. By presuming their conditions are associated with Agent Orange, the application process is accelerated and makes sure the vets have access to the health benefits they need and deserve.
The VA is asking that Korean War vets who meet the new guidelines submit claims for conditions presumed to be associated with Agent Orange exposure as soon as possible.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Bridge at No Gun Ri, by Hanley, Choe and Mendoza
The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War, by Charles Hanley, Sang-Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza
Henry Holt and Company, 2001
268 pages plus 16 pages of b&w photos, epilogue and notes on sources, victim list, acknowledgments and index
Library: 951.904 HAN
[see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri for an alternate view]
Description
In the fall of 1999, a team of Associated Press investigative reporters broke the news that US troops had killed a large number of South Korean refugees, mostly women and children, early in the Korean War. ON the eve of that pivotal conflict's fiftieth anniversary, theri reports brought to light a story that had been suppressed for decades. The story made headlines around the world and sparked an official investigation by the Pentagon that confirmed the allegations the US military had dismissed, and Charles Hanley, Sang-Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting.
In the summer of 1950, US military forces opened fire on a group of South Korean refugees at a railroad trestle near hte village of No Gun Ri. SUrvivors say hundreds died, mostly women and children. Retreating US commanders had issued orders to shoot approaching civilians to guard against North Korean infiltrations among refugee columns.
In The Bridge at No Gun Ri, the three journalists tell the larger, human story behind this dark chapter of the Korean War through the eyes of the people, both Korean and American, who lived through it. The soldiers were green recruits of the US occoupation army in Japan thrown unprepared into the frontlines of the war, teenagers who viewed unarmed farmers as enemies, led by officers who had never commanded men in battle. THe Koreans were peasant farmers trapped in their ancestral valley between the North Korean invaders and the American intervention force.
In a powerful, richly detailed narrative, The Bridge at No Gun Ri brings to life these Americn GIs and Korean villagers, the high-level decision making that led to their fatsl encounter, the terror of the three-day slaughter, the harrowing months of war that followed and the memories and ghosts that forever haunted the survivors. The Bridge at No Gun Ri also presents for the first time the full documented background of a broad landscape of refugee killings in Korea that lasted until 1951.
Based on extensive archival research, including newly unearthed documents that show unmistakably where responsibility lay for the widespread civilian killings, and more than five hundred interviews with US veterans and Korean survivors, The Bridge at No Gun Ri is an authoritative account of the terrifying events of July 1950-a long-buried secret from a misunderstood war.
Table of Contents
Preface
Korea map
The No Gun Ri area map
The US Eigth Army in Korea, July 1950
The Korean families
Prologue: the End of the Road
Part 1: The Road to No Gun Ri
Part 2: The Bridge at No Gun Ri
Part 3 The Road From No Gun Ri
Epilogue and Notes on Sources
A Note on the Pentagon REport
A Survivor's Petition to President Clinton
No Gun Ri victim list
Acknowledgments
Index
________
This blog is updated every Tuesday and Friday
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Oglala man given medal for Korean War service
Rapid City Journal: Oglala man given medal for Korean War service
George Adolph Looks Twice tried to join the Army when he was 16.
"I wanted to go in when I was 16, but I looked like a 14-year-old," Looks Twice said.
He finally got in at 17, and after a trip to West Germany soon found himself in an active war on the far side of the world in Korea.
Sixty years after Looks Twice, now 77, first joined the Army, the Oglala resident was recognized for his service with a medal.
Looks Twice said he is honored to receive the Republic of Korea War Service Medal, an award offered by the South Korean government to American veterans of the 1950-1953 conflict.
The medal was originally offered shortly after the war ended, but at the time, Americans weren't allowed to receive medals from foreign countries.
As the 50th anniversary of the war approached in 1998, South Korea offered again to give the medal to U.S. Korean War veterans, or their next of kin.
Looks Twice received his medal with help from Sen. John Thune's office.
"We're grateful for your service," Thune said Thursday, pinning the medal on Looks Twice. "It's an honor.
Members of Thune's staff said many Korean War veterans aren't aware they are eligible to receive this medal.
"I told a friend of mine about it, to check on it," Looks Twice said. "I'm glad I got it."
While Looks Twice was serving as a rifleman as part of a machine gun crew in Korea, he was wounded in the face and torso by a land mine. He spent several weeks in the hospital before returning to active duty and received a Purple Heart.
Nicholas Black Elk, Looks Twice's cousin, said his relative remains a proud veteran to this day, sometimes marching in a veterans color guard at ceremonies.
Looks Twice echoed the same sentiment.
"You want to be part of something," he said.
George Adolph Looks Twice tried to join the Army when he was 16.
"I wanted to go in when I was 16, but I looked like a 14-year-old," Looks Twice said.
He finally got in at 17, and after a trip to West Germany soon found himself in an active war on the far side of the world in Korea.
Sixty years after Looks Twice, now 77, first joined the Army, the Oglala resident was recognized for his service with a medal.
Looks Twice said he is honored to receive the Republic of Korea War Service Medal, an award offered by the South Korean government to American veterans of the 1950-1953 conflict.
The medal was originally offered shortly after the war ended, but at the time, Americans weren't allowed to receive medals from foreign countries.
As the 50th anniversary of the war approached in 1998, South Korea offered again to give the medal to U.S. Korean War veterans, or their next of kin.
Looks Twice received his medal with help from Sen. John Thune's office.
"We're grateful for your service," Thune said Thursday, pinning the medal on Looks Twice. "It's an honor.
Members of Thune's staff said many Korean War veterans aren't aware they are eligible to receive this medal.
"I told a friend of mine about it, to check on it," Looks Twice said. "I'm glad I got it."
While Looks Twice was serving as a rifleman as part of a machine gun crew in Korea, he was wounded in the face and torso by a land mine. He spent several weeks in the hospital before returning to active duty and received a Purple Heart.
Nicholas Black Elk, Looks Twice's cousin, said his relative remains a proud veteran to this day, sometimes marching in a veterans color guard at ceremonies.
Looks Twice echoed the same sentiment.
"You want to be part of something," he said.
15 Jan, 2011, Colonel's Korean War memoir honors his men
FayObersver: Colonel's Korean War memoir honors his men
By Mike Hixenbaugh
The old soldier scribbled his memories from The Forgotten War on four yellow pages, and there they remained, untouched, for the better part of 25 years.
Retired Col. Bill Richardson always knew he wanted to write about his experiences during the Korean War. And so, on a rainy day the week after he retired from the Army in 1985, Richardson jotted some of the highlights into a legal tablet while on vacation with his wife.
She looked up from a book and asked her husband what he was doing.
"I told her I was writing about my men, and at that moment, she knew," Richardson said. "After that, I put it away and didn't touch it again for more than 20 years."
Those four pages - faded after years in storage - were the starting point for Richardson's memoir, "Valleys of Death," which hit bookshelves nationwide last month. The 81-year-old Fayetteville resident wrote the book with the assistance of Kevin Maurer, a former military reporter for The Fayetteville Observer.
Both men will sign copies of the book at 2 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Glensford Drive.
"I was initially attracted to the story because there is a kind of universal appeal to Bill's story that goes beyond the Korean War," Maurer said. "Some of his actions during that period of his life go beyond your normal war story."
The memoir spans Richardson's experiences during the Korean War, first as a corporal charged with leading a 57 mm recoilless rifle unit. Soon after, he was promoted to master sergeant during the defense of the Pusan perimeter. A month later, his unit was caught in the bloody North Korean counterattack on Unsan, where Richardson recalls reactions of both fear and heroism amid explosions, flying shrapnel and mass slaughter.
"We were on our own," Richardson wrote of the battle. "No relief column was on its way ... and if we stayed in this hellhole, we would all die."
Richardson sent his remaining men back to the safety of the allied lines, but he was captured by the Chinese and turned over to the North Koreans. The final third of the memoir details Richardson's fight to survive during 34 months as a prisoner of war in the notorious Death Valley torture camp.
Richardson said he struggled to recall a few names from the battlefields, but otherwise he had no trouble remembering the vivid details of the war and his detainment nearly 60 years ago.
"It's just like a movie in my head," Richardson said. "I've always had a good recall of things ... and this isn't something that you forget easily."
After only a month in print, Richardson's memoir has generated positive reviews nationally. Publisher's Weekly writes of the book, "Richardson never pulls his punches" during his descriptions of bloody combat, interrupted by occasional flashbacks to his youth on the streets of Philadelphia.
"We've had very good reactions so far," Richardson said.
Family members of slain soldiers Richardson served with during the war have called him in recent weeks, thanking him for documenting the lives of their fathers and grandfathers in print. Some of those conversations have been emotional, Richardson said.
It's why he wrote the book, he said.
"My goal was to tell the story of the men I was with, which I think is very important," Richardson said. "We send people off to war, then when it's done, it's done. There are people who have lost loves, people who have suffered for this country, and they're not always recognized."
By Mike Hixenbaugh
The old soldier scribbled his memories from The Forgotten War on four yellow pages, and there they remained, untouched, for the better part of 25 years.
Retired Col. Bill Richardson always knew he wanted to write about his experiences during the Korean War. And so, on a rainy day the week after he retired from the Army in 1985, Richardson jotted some of the highlights into a legal tablet while on vacation with his wife.
She looked up from a book and asked her husband what he was doing.
"I told her I was writing about my men, and at that moment, she knew," Richardson said. "After that, I put it away and didn't touch it again for more than 20 years."
Those four pages - faded after years in storage - were the starting point for Richardson's memoir, "Valleys of Death," which hit bookshelves nationwide last month. The 81-year-old Fayetteville resident wrote the book with the assistance of Kevin Maurer, a former military reporter for The Fayetteville Observer.
Both men will sign copies of the book at 2 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Glensford Drive.
"I was initially attracted to the story because there is a kind of universal appeal to Bill's story that goes beyond the Korean War," Maurer said. "Some of his actions during that period of his life go beyond your normal war story."
The memoir spans Richardson's experiences during the Korean War, first as a corporal charged with leading a 57 mm recoilless rifle unit. Soon after, he was promoted to master sergeant during the defense of the Pusan perimeter. A month later, his unit was caught in the bloody North Korean counterattack on Unsan, where Richardson recalls reactions of both fear and heroism amid explosions, flying shrapnel and mass slaughter.
"We were on our own," Richardson wrote of the battle. "No relief column was on its way ... and if we stayed in this hellhole, we would all die."
Richardson sent his remaining men back to the safety of the allied lines, but he was captured by the Chinese and turned over to the North Koreans. The final third of the memoir details Richardson's fight to survive during 34 months as a prisoner of war in the notorious Death Valley torture camp.
Richardson said he struggled to recall a few names from the battlefields, but otherwise he had no trouble remembering the vivid details of the war and his detainment nearly 60 years ago.
"It's just like a movie in my head," Richardson said. "I've always had a good recall of things ... and this isn't something that you forget easily."
After only a month in print, Richardson's memoir has generated positive reviews nationally. Publisher's Weekly writes of the book, "Richardson never pulls his punches" during his descriptions of bloody combat, interrupted by occasional flashbacks to his youth on the streets of Philadelphia.
"We've had very good reactions so far," Richardson said.
Family members of slain soldiers Richardson served with during the war have called him in recent weeks, thanking him for documenting the lives of their fathers and grandfathers in print. Some of those conversations have been emotional, Richardson said.
It's why he wrote the book, he said.
"My goal was to tell the story of the men I was with, which I think is very important," Richardson said. "We send people off to war, then when it's done, it's done. There are people who have lost loves, people who have suffered for this country, and they're not always recognized."
15 Jan, 2011: Missing Filipino soldiers during Korean war found in Pampanga
Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporaton: Missing Filipino soldiers during Korean war found in Pampanga
CANDABA, Pampanga, Philippines (PNA) -- Two of the 16 Filipino soldiers declared missing during the Korean war in the 1950s were finally found in this town.
Dr. Paterno Villoria , president of the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK), disclosed this during Thursday’s unveiling of the Philippine-Korean friendship monument here.
“We have finally found the two of the 16 missing soldiers whom we now considered as Korean War veterans. It is our great honor to come over here and to see our former comrades who fought for the freedom of Korea,” Villoria said.
The Korean War veterans were identified as Francisco Salac, 81, from Barangay Paralaya; and Victoriano Manalastas, 83, residing in Barangay Pansinao, both in Candaba town.
For a long time, Villoria said their organization has been exerting all efforts to find the missing comrades from the five battalion teams of the Philippine Army (PA) who fought during Korean War.
Salac served in South Korea under the Recon Company while Manalastas at the C-Company of the 10th Batallion Combat Team.
Villoria said the Philippines paid in blood and pain for defending democracy in South Korea.
The first war between democracy and communism took the lives of 112 Filipino soldiers and wounded 299 others.
With this development, only 14 soldiers now remain officially missing-in-action.
Villoria said it is about time for the government of South Korea to return the favor to Filipino soldiers who risked their lives during the war.
"We are not asking for too much. What we only want is to give to us what is appropriate. We are only few who are still alive. From more than 7,000, we are now only 2,000,” Villoria said.
As this developed, Lee Kyung Jae, a Korean legislator, assured the surviving Korean War veterans that South Korea will provide what is due to them.
"We will do return the favor. We never forget what we got from you," Jae said.
CANDABA, Pampanga, Philippines (PNA) -- Two of the 16 Filipino soldiers declared missing during the Korean war in the 1950s were finally found in this town.
Dr. Paterno Villoria , president of the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK), disclosed this during Thursday’s unveiling of the Philippine-Korean friendship monument here.
“We have finally found the two of the 16 missing soldiers whom we now considered as Korean War veterans. It is our great honor to come over here and to see our former comrades who fought for the freedom of Korea,” Villoria said.
The Korean War veterans were identified as Francisco Salac, 81, from Barangay Paralaya; and Victoriano Manalastas, 83, residing in Barangay Pansinao, both in Candaba town.
For a long time, Villoria said their organization has been exerting all efforts to find the missing comrades from the five battalion teams of the Philippine Army (PA) who fought during Korean War.
Salac served in South Korea under the Recon Company while Manalastas at the C-Company of the 10th Batallion Combat Team.
Villoria said the Philippines paid in blood and pain for defending democracy in South Korea.
The first war between democracy and communism took the lives of 112 Filipino soldiers and wounded 299 others.
With this development, only 14 soldiers now remain officially missing-in-action.
Villoria said it is about time for the government of South Korea to return the favor to Filipino soldiers who risked their lives during the war.
"We are not asking for too much. What we only want is to give to us what is appropriate. We are only few who are still alive. From more than 7,000, we are now only 2,000,” Villoria said.
As this developed, Lee Kyung Jae, a Korean legislator, assured the surviving Korean War veterans that South Korea will provide what is due to them.
"We will do return the favor. We never forget what we got from you," Jae said.
15 Jan 2011: Medal Of Honor Recipients Share Their Stories
WOWT.com: Medal Of Honor Recipients Share Their Stories
Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland
A very special group gathered Saturday at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, California. Four of America's Medal of Honor recipients shared their stories of heroism.
The youngest of the group, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, recently received the Medal of Honor for saving members of his squad in Afghanistan and is the first living recipient since the Vietnam War.
Staff Sgt. Giunta was born in Clinton, Iowa and grew up in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.
The other Medal of Honor recipients at the museum were Navy Capt. Thomas Hudner Jr., who won his medal for valor during the Korean War, Army Sgt. Peter Lemon, who received his medal for action in Vietnam and World War II Medal of Honor winner Chief Warrant Officer Hershel Williams.
Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland
A very special group gathered Saturday at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, California. Four of America's Medal of Honor recipients shared their stories of heroism.
The youngest of the group, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, recently received the Medal of Honor for saving members of his squad in Afghanistan and is the first living recipient since the Vietnam War.
Staff Sgt. Giunta was born in Clinton, Iowa and grew up in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.
The other Medal of Honor recipients at the museum were Navy Capt. Thomas Hudner Jr., who won his medal for valor during the Korean War, Army Sgt. Peter Lemon, who received his medal for action in Vietnam and World War II Medal of Honor winner Chief Warrant Officer Hershel Williams.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Mustangs Over Korea, by David R. McLaren
Mustangs Over Korea: The North American F-51 at War 1950-1953, by David R. McLaren
Schiffer Publishing, 1999
Oversize, 166 pages, appendices, glossary, bibliography, no index. The whole book is chock full of photos
Description
Mustangs Over Korea is a documentary history of one of the most famous fighters ever built during a historically almost unrecognized war. Flown by four air forces in support of the United Nations, the F-51 Mustang dropped more napalm and fired more rockets than any other aircraft during that conflict, and in the process suffered the highest number of losses.
TOld is the story of the bravery of the fighter-bomber pilots in the serious air-to-mud war against horrendous anti-aircraft fire, and aslo the first swirling air battles againt the vaunted MiG-15.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Korea: The Country Nobody Ever Heard Of
2. The Opponents: The North Korean Air Force
3. The Republic of Korea's Air Force
4. 77 Squadron - Royal Air Force
5. The 8th Fighter Bomber Wing
6. The 35th Fighter Interceptor Wing
7. 18th Fighter Bomber Wing
8. 2 SQuadron - South African Air Force
9. The 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron
Epilogue
Appendices
1. Confirmed Mustang Pilot Losses in the Korean Conflict
2. Australian Mustangs in the Korean conflict
3. USAF Mustangs in the Korean conflict
4. Enemy aircraft destroyed by Mustang Pilots
5. Key to Korean place name endings and 5-51 Air Bases
Glossary
Bibliography
__________
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