Posts Tagged ‘Changjin’
Fighting and Dying in a Frozen Hell
It’s a pivotal event of the 20th century. The Battle of Chosin, or “Changjin” as it’s called in Korea, a two-week-long bloodbath pitting 30,000 US, ROK, and British troops against 120,000 Chinese soldiers, was a defining moment of the Korean War. Fighting in the winter of 1950 in bitter cold and brutal terrain, men endured…
Read MoreOn a Hill Far Away
We’ll never know the terror 18-year-old Marine PFC Edward “Eddie” Thorn experienced in the final minutes of his life, but we do know that what he and hundreds of other Marines went through at the Chosin, or “Changjin,” Reservoir was unimaginable. Shivering on a wind-swept, snow-covered hill on the night of November 28, 1950, PFC Thorn…
Read MoreChildhood Dog Tag Hunts
Country “A”: “We don’t study that.” “No, our teachers never talk about it.” “I may have heard about it in a movie but not at school.” Country “B”: “Oh, yes, we learn about it starting in grade school.” “It’s taught as a great victory.” “We study it in detail.” Living in Korea for the past…
Read MoreTurkey Popsicles and Frozen Gravy
67 years ago today, men of the 1st Marine Division found themselves on the other side of the world. The Korean War was raging, and they had been sent to a cold, grey, and lonely place no one had ever heard of – Chosin, or Changjin, as it’s called here in Korea. And it was…
Read MoreRemembering Chosin
It’s a pivotal event of the 20th century. An experience so monumental that it has come to represent, even encapsulate, the ongoing struggle between the forces of oppression, tyranny, and authoritarianism and those who believe in freedom, justice, and democracy. The Chosin Campaign, correctly called “Changjin” in Korea, was a defining moment in history. The two-week…
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