| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 05.07.16 16:24l 59 Lines 2797 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 98792_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jul 5
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<ZL2BAU<ZS0MEE<N9PMO<N0KFQ
Sent: 160705/1419Z 98792@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1950
First U.S. fatality in the Korean War
Near Sojong, South Korea, Private Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-year-old
infantryman from Skin Fork, West Virginia, becomes the first
American reported killed in the Korean War. Shadrick, a member of
a bazooka squad, had just fired the weapon at a Soviet-made tank
when he looked up to check his aim and was cut down by enemy
machine-gun fire.
Near the end of World War II, the "Big Three" Allied powers-the
United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain-agreed to
divide Korea into two separate occupation zones and temporarily
govern the nation. The country was split along the 38th parallel,
with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone and Americans
stationed in the south. By 1949, separate Korean governments had
been established, and both the United States and the USSR
withdrew the majority of their troops from the Korean Peninsula.
The 38th parallel was heavily fortified on both sides, but the
South Koreans were unprepared for the hordes of North Korean
troops and Soviet-made tanks that suddenly rolled across the
border on June 25, 1950.
Two days later, President Harry Truman announced that the United
States would intervene in the Korean conflict to stem the spread
of communism, and on June 28 the United Nations approved the use
of force against communist North Korea. In the opening months of
the war, the U.S.-led U.N. forces rapidly advanced against the
North Koreans, but in October, Chinese communist troops entered
the fray, throwing the Allies into a hasty retreat. By May 1951,
the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, where the
battle line remained for the rest of the war.
In 1953, an armistice was signed, ending the war and
reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists
today. Approximately 150,000 troops from South Korea, the United
States, and participating U.N. nations were killed in the Korean
War, and as many as one million South Korean civilians perished.
An estimated 800,000 communist soldiers were killed, and more
than 200,000 North Korean civilians died.
The original figure of American troops lost-54,246 killed-became
controversial when the Pentagon acknowledged in 2000 that all
U.S. troops killed around the world during the period of the
Korean War were incorporated into that number. For example, any
American soldier killed in a car accident anywhere in the world
from June 1950 to July 1953 was considered a casualty of the
Korean War. If these deaths are subtracted from the 54,246 total,
leaving just the Americans who died (from whatever cause) in the
Korean theater of operations, the total U.S. dead in the Korean
War numbers 36,516.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
E-Mail : kohiggs@gmail.com
Using WinPack-Telnet V6.80
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
