Posts Tagged ‘Col. Edward H. Forney’
The Best Christmas Present Ever
Seventy years ago, US Navy demolition teams, Army engineers, and hundreds of other American servicemen, all part of a UN force that weeks earlier had numbered over 100,000, watched as a massive explosion – the largest since World War II – erupted over a small port in North Korea. With docks, warehouses, and wharfs bursting…
Read MoreA “Timeless” Tribute to the Korean War
In one of the most unlikely events of holiday primetime television, the writers of “Timeless,” a science fiction drama series with a following of millions, showcased the Korean War’s Hungnam Evacuation. The show’s final episode, which aired on December 20 and highlighted the little-known military and humanitarian operation, became the talk of the town on…
Read MoreA Christmas Miracle
Thousands of refugees, huddled at the water’s edge and anxiously waiting to board American ships, knew what would happen if they were left behind. The Chinese, massing in the nearby mountains, would storm into Hungnam and make an example of anyone who had defied them. US and ROK collaborators, Christians, anti-communists, and anyone deemed a…
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 MoreWorld War II and a Grand Matriarch
On December 7, 1941, Pauline Peyton Forney, like all Americans who heard the fateful news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, knew everything was about to change. The United States was at war, and for her and millions of others, nothing would ever be the same. With over 2,300 American dead, more than a thousand…
Read MoreThe Marine I Never Knew
He’s one of the main reasons I’m in Korea, but he died when I was two, and our family rarely talked about him. He’s always been, in the words of Winston Churchill, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” After spending over three years researching the man who’s made such an impact on…
Read MoreHonoring the Past
They’re a loyal, fun-loving bunch. The former North Korean refugees, men now in their seventies and eighties, get together four times a year to have dinner, reminisce, sing, and give thanks for the opportunity to live in a free, democratic country. It all started five years ago when, on a whim, a few members of…
Read MorePlanes, Presidents, and Presentations – A Look Back at 2017
Nearly eight months ago, on May 11, 2017, I posted my first blog. I had written an article the day before for the Korea Times, Moon Jae-in: From Geoje to Cheong Wa Dae, with my reflections on the newly elected president of South Korea, and the blog reiterated some of the points I’d mentioned in…
Read MoreHungnam Evacuation – A Christmas Miracle
In December 1950, dramatic events unfolding in the rugged mountains of North Korea captivated the world’s attention. The Battle of Chosin, one of the fiercest engagements in U.S. history, was taking place in sub-zero temperatures and knee-deep snow. After days of horrific fighting, U.N. troops, surrounded by overwhelming Chinese forces and suffering heavy casualties, began an…
Read MoreVeterans Day 2017 – A Message from Seoul
Today, in tribute to all veterans and in honor of my grandfather, Colonel Edward H. Forney, USMC, I’m posting a speech he made at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Seoul, South Korea on November 10, 1958. Col. Forney was the senior US Marine Corps advisor to the ROK Marine Corps from 1957-’59 and as…
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