Was anybody here ever stationed at the DMZ or Panmunjom? I always found the situation in Korea pretty bizarre and always thought the tense posturing in Panmunjom pretty interesting and was wondering if anybody had any unique stories there.

I visited it once. They have a one hole golf course there.

I was stationed about 60 km south in the early 1970s. Visited the DMZ once..... depressing place.

I was on Staff Duty on Memorial Day holiday a few years ago at Aberdeen Proving Ground and my assistant was an E-7 that had just finished a tour on the DMZ. He told me that NK infiltrators up to squad size would come in at night and harrass the ROK/US border guards. Firefights were frequent and on one occasion, a firefight broke out and artillery was called. The next morning, he went to the area where the strike occurred and he said that only body parts was the only thing that was left of approxiamtely 12 NKs.

I didn't realize we've been having firefights in the DMZ!

Sounds like an active imagination.

During VietNam the fighting in Korea was as hot as any action in 'Nam, on a more limited scale. There were many American KIAs in Korea 1966-1970, and many more NK KIAs. Arty strikes were not uncommon.

Diyala, you ever been on active duty?

2 tours in Iraq. One as a PL in ramadi(2005).

Plenty of military folks have a tendency to lie about their experiences.

quote:

---

I didn't realize we've been having firefights in the DMZ!

---

During my 13 month tour in the ROK 1972-73 there were over 20 documented infiltrations of the south. All did not come through the DMZ, and several resulted in dead North Koreans.

I seem to recall one attack where the North Koreans hacked an American soldier to death with an axe. And from Wiki

quote:

---

July 1998: Fourteen North Korean soldiers crossed the MDL, causing a 23-minute exchange of heavy gunfire.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_border_incidents_involving_North_Korea



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/7/2013 5:55p).]

If you guys believe that in the era of Facebook we are having regular, unreported exchanges of gunfire with the north, I have a bridge to sell you.

Are there incidents? Yes, and they make the news.

I just finished a year at Camp Casey/Hovey and heard absolutely NOTHING during my tour about firefights on the DMZ. At museums and such saw and heard about the tunnels under the DMZ and the North Koreans killing two US officers in the 70s over a tree.

The entire peninsula is a dump...they don't like us or want us there(S. Korea)...been there several times..thay can have it and we should leave it to them to defend. We are only welcomed by the ROK Military....who by the way want to reclaim the "face" they lost in the first conflict. Should tyhe N come south, we will be "a speed bump only" in the beginning!

Col. A 1976

In 1984 I cut down trees in the DMZ with 500 pound bombs and dropped live naval mines in some obscure inlets and bays that the NKs used to infiltrate troops. I beleive stories of live fire fights in the DMZ. The Korean penninsula was crazy in 1984 and probably is even crazier now.

Aggiebrewer,

Im not talking about the media, Im talking about 11B or 19D Joe that hops on Facebook every five minutes. The biggest challenge commanders face to OPSEC is social media.....so, no, I do not believe stories of firefights in the DMZ.

quote:

---

During VietNam the fighting in Korea was as hot as any action in 'Nam, on a more limited scale.

---

I am truly eager to see any historical references to substantiate this claim. It would make no sense at all given that ROK was sending a significant number of troops to fight along with US forces IN Vietnam. Why on earth would they be deploying forces to Vietnam if there was action "as hot as any in 'Nam" on their own peninsula?

Consider also that there was indeed a lethal incident in the DMZ in 1976 that became known as the "Tree Trimming Incident." It resulted in the killing of two US soldiers and nearly escalated to breaking the cease fire and an international crisis. If as you state there were firefights there in the previous ten years that were comparable to what was going on in Vietnam (1000 KIA per month at some points in 1968), how does the death of two persons end up recorded in the official histories and the presumptive death and wounding of hundreds more not even have a footnote?

There are 2154 entries at www.koreanwar.org for the decade of the 1960s and scanning them does not seem to support the idea that there was active fighting going on there. The Korean DMZ has always been a dangerous place but I don't find the claim of routine intense firefights there during the 1960s to be credible. Like I said, I'd love to read the references.

http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/dmz/dmz_60_69.htm

Lastly, the list of names on the Korean War Memorial in Washington D.C. of those who were killed in hostilities there includes those killed in or along the DMZ since no peace treaty was signed. The names of those killed in the Tree Trimming Incident are there but I don't seek evidence of any during the 1960s (though I'm not ruling out that there may be a few, I cannot find a chronological listed of the dates).

http://www.abmc.gov/search/koreanwar.php

[This message has been edited by Ulysses90 (edited 4/10/2013 10:48p).]

Coincidentally, the remains of LTC Don Carlos Faith were returned to the United States and will be buried on 17 April at Arlington National Cemetery. LTC Faith received the Medal of Honor posthumously for leading the remnants of the 31st RCT in their attempt to break out from encirclement by the Chinese on the east side of Chosin Resevoir on Dec 1, 1950.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/10/medal-honor-soldier-killed-korean-war-hero-burial/



Of approximately 3000 soldiers in the 31st RCT that marched north through Hagaru ri in the last days of November 1950 only 385 made it out alive. It came as close to being annihilated as any unit of regimental size since WW II. The definitive history of that battle was written by the late Roy Appleman and was published in 1981 by Texas A&M University Press. It's one of the best forensic analyses of a battle that I've every read. The leadership and perseverance of the survivors is astonishing under the best of conditions and almost unbelievable as it happened in weather at 25 degrees below zero.

http://www.amazon.com/East-Chosin-Entrapment-Williams-Ford-University/dp/0890964653



(actual photo of stragglers crossing the frozen reservoir heading south to Hagaru ri.)



[This message has been edited by Ulysses90 (edited 4/10/2013 11:03p).]

Looks to me like it was a very dangerous place 1966-1969. I served in the mid-1980s. At that time, the Korean DMZ was commonly known to be one of the few locations where it was possible for infantrymen to earn a CIB and others to earn a SSI FWTS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_DMZ_Conflict_(1966%E2%80%9369)#References

A US Army CGSC Paper from 1988 on the DMZ War (1966-1969)--pages 32-43.

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p124201coll1/id/516/filename/517.pdf

finally

http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/dmz/p_dmz_deaths_after_jan_1955.htm

[This message has been edited by DogCo84 (edited 4/12/2013 2:02a).]

quote:

---

Looks to me like it was a very dangerous place 1966-1969.

---

You are correct and I was completely ignorant of the small war on the DMZ from 1966-69. Thanks for posting that.