Profiles
Walking in the Boots of a Marine
“I have good memories of my time with the Marines.” – Johnny Nam, interpreter and guide during the Korean War He’ll always remember his first week scrubbing pots and pans for the Marines stationed near Yongchon, his hometown. “I thought it might be a good way to learn English, get food, and maybe even earn…
Read More1,010 Days of Hell
“They closed in steadily on us. There was no rush, no storming our positions. We kept knocking them down like ducks in a shooting gallery but they kept coming.” – Marine SSgt James Nash Chosin: Hellfire Valley Throughout the horrific night of November 29, 1950, Major John “Jack” McLaughlin and his men fought off wave…
Read MoreAn Eternal Brotherhood
On a cold, starless night deep in the snow-covered mountains of North Korea, John Lee, a Korean interpreter with 1st Marine Division, watched as about twenty people cautiously entered a small building. Worried that the suspicious-looking North Korean civilians might be communist sympathizers plotting to infiltrate American units at Chosin, he made his way silently…
Read MoreWe Would Have Followed Him Anywhere
“Of all the Marine Corps officers I remember, Lt. Carl Lindquist inspired me the most. I will remember him the rest of my life.” – Joe “Doc” Candilora, US Navy Corpsman, Korea, 1953. On the night of July 24, 1953, just three days before the Korean War armistice was signed, 2nd Lieutenant Carl E. Lindquist,…
Read MoreFollowing in His Father’s Footsteps
Fighting In Korea On the night of November 27, 1950, PFC Joe Dunford, a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) gunner, sat shivering in his foxhole at Yudam-ni, a village deep in the mountains of North Korea. It was his 20th birthday. Having already fought at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, and Seoul, Dunford, like all the Marines…
Read MoreA Marine for All Time
John Stevens, the steely-eyed, tireless Marine who fought in World War II and Korea and played a major role in establishing the Korean War Memorial Foundation’s memorial to Korean War veterans at the Presidio, passed away on May 25, 2021, just four weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. During his 23 years as a Marine,…
Read MoreThe Only Woman at Red Beach
As Marines climbed aboard their landing craft at Inchon, one woman, a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, went with them. She was the only female to land at Red Beach on September 15, 1950. She covered the invasion with up-close, graphic, and oftentimes tragic stories of courage and self-sacrifice. From Inchon to Seoul…
Read MoreYou Ain’t Going To Be No Officer
On November 10, 1945, the 170th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps, a small ceremony took place at Montford Point, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In what would later be deemed an historic day for the Marine Corps and the United States, Frederick C. Branch, a twenty-three-year-old World War II veteran with…
Read MoreFrom Bougainville to Hungnam: A Marine’s Life of Service
He’s one of the main reasons I’m in Korea. But after spending more than three years researching the Marine colonel who dedicated his life to country and Corps, I’m still no closer to knowing what made him click. I’ve pieced together some of the “who, what, where, and when” of his life, but it’s the…
Read MoreOn the East Side of Chosin
As the helicopter took off and disappeared over the North Korean mountains, Lt. Col. Don Faith, watching from his desolate, wind-swept command post at Chosin Reservoir, threw his newly awarded Silver Star into the snow. After enduring a horrific night of fighting against overwhelming Chinese forces, his commanding officer had just ordered him and his…
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