Sunday, January 7, 2018
Moon Jae in was at Operation Paul Bunyan
Moon Jae in was at Operation Paul Bunyan
This is a neat fact of history that I didnt know about. Current Korean presidential candidate Moon Jae-in (and come Tuesdays election, likely Koreas president), was one of the ROK soldiers accompanying the US Military in Operation Paul Bunyan of the infamous DMZ Ax Murders incident.
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| Moon Jae-in during his army days. Image: Yonhap |
From Time magazines recent profile of Moon:
On the morning of Aug. 18, 1976, two American soldiers set off to trim a poplar tree in the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). The tree was obscuring the line of sight between U.N. and North Korean guard towers on the narrow strip of land that has separated the peninsulas communist North from its capitalist South since an armistice effectively ended the 1950 � 53 Korean War. Both sides had approved the pruning, but North Korea sent soldiers to order the work to stop. Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett refused, and were promptly hacked to death with their own axes.
General Richard G. Stilwell, then commander of the U.N. Forces in South Korea, ordered the tree completely cut down as a symbolic act of resolve. Among the troops sent to help fell the tree was a young South Korean soldier named Moon Jae-in. Tensions were dangerously high, he says today. "If the North had tried to interfere, it could easily have triggered war."
Moon Jae-in: The Negotiator | Time.com
Id known about this incident, but never knew of Moons involvement. Pretty amazing. Heres a brief idea of the show of force Moon would have been part of:
The North Korean army was put on full-alert. War seemed imminent. What came instead was, the aptly named, Operation Paul Bunyan three days later. South Korean and American military vehicles streamed into the Joint Security Area on the morning of August 21. U.S. soldiers began removing the tree with chainsaws, as twenty-seven helicopters hovered above, daring the North Koreans to do something. B-52s and fighter planes rumbled in the skies a short distance away. It took 42 minutes to cut down the tree, though a stump was left as a memorial to the fallen Americans.
When two Americans were axed to death by N. Korean soldiers | NK News - North Korea News
It sounds like some of those ROK soldiers involved wanted some action:
In addition, a 64-man South Korean Special Forces company accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in Tae Kwon Do, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms, and handing out M16 rifles and M79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below Several of the special forces men also had M18 Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge.
Axe murder incident - Wikipedia
Heck maybe Moon was this wacky guy talked about here:
A few of the ROK marines with us unbutton their shirts, showing that they have claymore mines strapped to their chests and they have the clacker (firing mechanism) in their hands. They start yelling and waving at the KPA to come on over. One of the ROK�s is laying on his side, on the ground, supporting his head his his hand, looking all casual and care free.
Memories of the JSA, Sept 75 - Oct 76
In all seriousness, it seems like the reality was a bit less exciting as far as Moon is concerned. A quick search suggest that he was part of the back-up unit standing ready to rush in and defend the units assigned to actually get in and remove the tree:
(??? ?? ??? ???? ? ???? ??.)
??????? ????? ????? ??? ?? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ????? ????? ?? ???? ???.
?? 3???, ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? : ??? ???
Heres what he had to say about the operation:
�?? ? �??? ?? ?? ??�? ????. ? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???. ???? ?? ???? ???? ????. ??? ????. ??? ?? ? ??? ????? ??? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?????. ?? ???? ??? ?? ? ??? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??? ??? ??? ????. ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ? ? ? ?? ??? ?? ???. ?? ??? ???? ??? ?? ???? ??(??) ?? ????? ??? ????.
??? ?? (2/4) : ??pub(???) > ?? > ??
I ended up finding some photos I hadnt personally seen before by searching the Korean name of the event, ????????? (lit. Panmunjeom Ax Brutality Incident), on Google and also Naver which has a color version of the photo below, along with some surprisingly good looking action figure dioramas of the event.
Finally heres a line that I thought was pretty funny that sums up the incident:
I remember looking back at what�s left of the tree and thinking, �It�s not much, but it got their attention.�. Later, I try and rationalize with myself about the oriental, or at least Korean, culture. Saving face is very important; being bigger is better, etc., and that day they not only lost face, we proved to them that we were much bigger than they were, though for us it was still a letdown.
Memories of the JSA, Sept 75 - Oct 76
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| Engineers from the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division start to cut down the infamous tree while soldiers of the UNC Joint Security Force and ROK Army perform security around the operation. Caption: VFW Post #7591. Image: Wikipedia |
You can read plenty more on the Panmunjom Ax Murder incident over at the ROK Drop archives.
HT: Reddit
