him. They wanted to tell him that the ROK HQ was leaving Seoul, and wanted to know if KMAG should also leave.
But the officer taking Wright's calls determined to let the Old Man sleep, and it was not until a KMAG officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Vieman, went personally to Wright's quarters and routed out Wright's houseboy that the message got through.
Once Wright was awake, Vieman briefed him on the chaotic situation at ROK Army HQ. He had just finished when the Han bridges blew. After the great flash of orange and thunderclap of sound from the south, Wright, exhausted as he was, was fully alert.
He immediately got all the American officers together, found trucks, and started them in convoy for a bridge on the east side of Seoul. They were almost there when ROK troops informed them that this bridge, too, was gone. The convoy turned back to a KMAG housing compound in the Sobingo area near the river to wait for daylight.
Parts of Seoul were aflame; firing was heard continually as the retreating ROK's battled the NKPA within the city, and the city was in confusion. In the dark, disorganized ROK soldiers were falling back to the river, firing at anything that moved.
At dawn, KMAG sent out a small recon party, which soon reported back that the ferries just east of the blown highway bridge were still in operation. This party also made contact with Lieutenant Colonel Lee Chi Yep, an officer who greatly liked Americans. This was a fortunate break, for Lee said he understood their plight and would help them to get across the river.
Along the banks of the Han this Wednesday morning, Colonel Wright and his group found complete chaos. ROK soldiers and civilians were milling about the ferry, fighting each other, shooting at the boatmen who were trying to retain possession of their craft. Colonel Lee Chi Yep ordered a ferryman to carry the KMAG party across. When the Korean refused to bring his boat alongside the milling crowd on the riverbank, Lee shot a hole in the man's shirt.
In this way, Lee got attention, and a few at a time, taking two hours, the KMAG party finally crossed the broad Han. Colonel Wright crossed last, insisting the command radio truck be ferried across with him. The radio was KMAG's only link with Japan. When Wright finally got truck and radio into a ferryboat, artillery fire was bursting along the riverside, and he could hear the sharp
On the south bank, Colonel Wright went ahead with a small advance group to Suwon. The others walked fifteen miles to Anyang-ni, where at 1500 trucks sent by Colonel Wright picked them up and brought them to Suwon.
The KMAG party had come through without the loss of a man.
At approximately 1900 hours, 27 June, MacArthur's survey party from Tokyo landed at Suwon Airfield, where it was met by Ambassador Muccio. This party consisted of thirteen officers and two enlisted men from MacArthur's GHQ, under command of Brigadier General John H. Church. After the survey party had left Japan, MacArthur received authority from the Joint Chiefs to assume command of all military personnel in Korea, and he immediately redesignated the survey party GHQ Advance Command and Liaison Group in Korea (ADCOM), giving it the added mission of assuming control of KMAG and assisting the ROK Army.
In Suwon, General Church, a slender, hatchet-faced officer in neat khakis, telephoned Colonel Wright, who was still in Seoul. Wright advised him not to try to enter Seoul that night, and ADCOM took over the Experimental Agriculture Building in Suwon to await further developments.
At 0400 the next morning, Colonel Hazlett and Captain Hausman, who had missed being blown up with the Han highway bridge by a matter of five minutes, drove their jeep into Suwon. They reported immediately to General Church.
They told him that the Seoul bridges were blown, that there were already NKPA tanks inside the city, and that the ROK Army was falling apart. They were very much afraid that the KMAG officers still in Seoul were trapped.
General Church realized he had walked into a hell of a situation, one that no one in Tokyo had understood at all. Now he ordered Hazlett to locate the ROK chief of staff, General Chae.
When Fat Chae finally came into ADCOM HQ, Church informed him that General MacArthur had taken charge of U.S. operations in Korea. He suggested that Chae move his own HQ into the same building with ADCOM. A subtle but very real change had come into American-Korean relations, for Church, listening to the complaints of KMAG officers, realized that someone had to take charge.
He strongly urged Chae to order the ROK troops still in Seoul to continue fighting, to establish straggler points south of the Han, and to put together enough troops to defend the Han Line at all costs.
Chae was able to collect about a thousand officers and eight thousand men to deploy along the river in provisional units.
Then Church, feeling as gloomy as he looked, radioed MacArthur that the United States was going to have to commit ground troops if it wanted to restore the original border of Korea. In the early evening he received a return radiogram stating that a high-ranking officer would fly into Suwon the next morning, and asking if Suwon Airfield was still operational. Church replied affirmatively.
Shortly after 0800 on 29 June, Major General Earle E. Partridge, acting commander of the Far Eastern Air Force, received a radio message from his chief, General Stratemeyer, who was already aloft in MacArthur's personal C-54, the
The message said, succinctly:
'Stratemeyer to Partridge: Take out North Korean Airfields immediately. No Publicity. MacArthur approves.'
The Far Eastern Air Force was the largest body of American air power outside the continental United States. Lieutenant General Stratemeyer had nine groups of combat planes, or a total of about 350 operational combat aircraft. Only four groups were initially in position to support the fighting in Korea, but immediate orders went out to the more distant units to close in on Japan.
And immediately, FEAF began to wreak havoc on the North Korean Air Force. The propeller-driven YAK's, and their pilots, were no match in the air for the American jets. And while Communist air was being shattered, FEAF flew hundreds of missions against the advancing ground troops of the NKPA.
In the first few hours they did more harm than good. Without groundcontrol parties, and with the situation on the ground so confused, FEAF pilots could not tell friend from foe.
Young Colonel Paik Sun Yup, trying to bring the remaining half of his 1st Division back across the Han, was struck by American air.
The U.S. planes rocketed and strafed his columns, killing or wounding dozens, sending Paik and his staff scrambling into the ditches.
When the jets, their ammunition exhausted, sighed high and away, Paik got his shaken staff together. 'You see,' he told them, 'you did not believe the Americans would come to help us. Now you know better!'
The staff had to agree that the Americans, indeed, were in the war.
But while FEAF could quickly wipe out the small NKPA air forces, it immediately became obvious that American air power alone could not seriously affect the outcome on the ground. The NKPA took their losses and came on.
Meanwhile, an American ground force unit had already entered Korea. Designated only as Detachment X, 33 officers and men of the 507th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion had flown into Suwon and emplaced their four M-55 machine guns about the airfield. A few minutes after the
MacArthur, Stratemeyer, and a party of high-ranking officers were on the way to Suwon Airfield, which was being strafed at the moment by Russianbuilt YAK's.
As the
On the ground, MacArthur, wearing his gold-braided cap, a leather jacket over his khaki uniform shirt, and his long corncob in his left hand, was met by President Syngman Rhee of Korea, Ambassador Muccio, and General Church. They all entered an ancient sedan and were driven to Church's ADCOM HQ.
Church told MacArthur that by nightfall he expected to be able to account for about 25,000 ROK troops south
