Let Slip the Dogs of War
A Memoir of the GHQ 1st Raider Company (8245th Army Unit) a.k.a. Special Operations Company, Korea, 1950–51
by John W. Connor
A Merriam Press Original Publication
Military Monograph MM96
- First Edition (May 2008)
- Paperback (ISBN 978-1-4357-1522-6) #MM96-P — $19.95
- Hardcover (ISBN 978-1-4357-1741-1) #MM96-H — $36.95
- 234 6×9 inch pages
- 31 photos
- 7 documents
- 2 maps
On July 15, 1950, only a few weeks after North Korea invaded South Korea with overwhelming force, General Douglas MacArthur authorized the creation of a Provisional Raider Company to blow up bridges and railway tunnels behind enemy lines.
Of 800 potential volunteers, 115 made the cut and endured weeks of grueling amphibious and demolitions training. On September 9, they and a small contingent of British Commandos left to conduct a raid at Kunsan, South Korea. On subsequent assignments, the Raiders went ashore at Inchon with the Marines, and with the X Corps at Wonsan. They conducted long-range intelligence-gathering patrols in which they also inserted and removed Korean agents. During the Chosin Reservoir campaign they were assigned to take and hold open the mountain passes for the withdrawal of the Marines and the 7th Division.
The Raiders were evacuated from North Korea on December 14, 1950, and assigned anti-guerrilla activities in South Korea. At Chang-to they were cut off and surrounded by two North Korean regiments.
On April 1, 1951, all Ranger and Special Operations units were disbanded because the Army high command believed they were not being utilized prop-erly.
This is the story of that unit as told by one of its members, John Connor. In about seven months of almost continual combat, they managed to accumulate four battle stars, a bronze arrowhead for a combat assault landing, Presidential Unit citations from both the U.S. Navy and the Republic of Korea, along with a special commendation from the commanding general of X Corps for imposing losses on the enemy far in excess of their own numbers.
From the Preface
They were farm boys, city boys, kids fresh out of high school and high school drop-outs, college football players, and professional soldiers. Sprinkled among them were a few World War II veterans. Most had enlisted. At least one had been drafted during World War II. In Japan, in 1950, they were clerks, life guards, billeting managers, members of General Douglas MacArthur’s honor guard, radio operators, and medics. Prior to 25 June, combat seemed improbable, but at the moment the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel, the lives of the men of General Headquarters Far East Command (GHQ FEC) changed forever. From the ranks of clerks and guards and managers rose a company of men whose story is known only to themselves, perhaps their families, and a few fortunate outsiders whom they have welcomed into their midst.
Over the radio came the news that hordes of North Koreans had unleashed a storm of artillery and a flood of infantrymen against the South. Soon the legendary but ill-trained and ill-equipped soldiers from the 24th Infantry Division deployed to Korea. Within hours those men of Task Force Smith would be overwhelmed by the advancing hordes, but their legacy would be emblazoned in the histories of that war.
Those who fought in Korea and those who study the conflict will recognize the names and bitterness of “The Punchbowl,” “Pork Chop Hill,” “Old Baldy,” “Heartbreak Ridge,” Inchon, and the Chosin Reservoir. Military historians are well-aware of the heroics of the United States Army cavalry and infantry divisions who fought there; the Marine units that so gallantly delayed the Chinese masses that swarmed across the Yalu River; the Navy vessels that sent tons of shells roaring into the enemy ranks; and those Air Force pilots who so often came to the aid of the embattled foot soldiers. The written accounts of the Korean War are replete with the tales of those valiant warriors who were forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, who regrouped and then sped all the way to the Chinese border before again being thrown back by overwhelming odds. While truce talks inched along, infantrymen on hills known only by their height in meters, dug foxholes as shelter from enemy bullets and biting cold. Many would die in those foxholes in attacks and in counter-attacks to improve their defensive positions and to gain a negotiating edge against the Communist aggressors. These are the stories of the histories.
Not told, or mentioned only in passing, are the stories of those clerks and guards and managers from GHQ FEC. Shortly after the North Korean invasion, word spread that GHQ wanted volunteers for a special unit to be created and deployed to Korea. Among those who volunteered was John W. Connor. On 12 September he and the other volunteers of the newly-formed Provisional Raider Company silently paddled ashore near Kunsan, approximately 100 miles south of Inchon. Within minutes, three of their number would be dead or mortally wounded. A few days later they landed at Inchon, patrolled northwest of Seoul, came ashore at Wonsan, slogged almost to the Yalu River, withdrew to the South, and fought bands of North Korean and Chinese soldiers either cut off from their units or attempting to infiltrate United Nations’ forces lines. On 31 March 1951 the unit was disbanded. There was no flag to furl. There were few records to ship. There were no awards to be written.
Within days of deactivation, some of the Raiders were assigned to infantry divisions in Korea. John Connor and many of his compatriots found themselves back in Tokyo as clerks and guards and managers. The names on the uniforms of those battle-hardened men were the same as on the uniforms of those young, eager, adventurous, idealistic youths who left Tokyo only a few months earlier. The wearers of those uniforms, though, were not the same. They had experienced combat. They had experienced war, as had many of their fathers in World War II or even World War I. Many of those in the company photograph taken prior to leaving Japan would not return to Japan. Some would find a final resting place in Korea or in a burial at sea, or be among those whose bodies were never recovered. And the existence of the Raider Company would be largely forgotten.
After the war, most of the Raiders returned to civilian life. They became mayors, judges, professors, engineers, husbands, and fathers. In February 2000, a few of the former Raiders gathered in El Paso, Texas. Every year since then they have reunited to remember those months in Korea, to mourn those who fell, and to recall the increasing numbers of those for whom Taps has sounded since the previous reunion. As more and more Raiders pass from the scene, it becomes more and more vital that the exploits of these few valorous and honorable men be recorded. In this memoir, John Connor has done that.
Through the eyes of one soldier, he recalls the history of the company from “scuttlebutt” about the creation of a special unit through deactivation. In so doing, he tells of the comrades with whom he shared foxholes, C-rations, jokes, fun, and fear, and with whom he endured the bitter cold of a Korean winter. He recounts the training conducted from submarines and destroyers and the difficulty of handling a rubber boat in pounding surf. He conveys the sights, the sounds, the smells of combat, and the sorrow of losing friends to enemy bullets. And how a “shy, innocent boy” was changed.
There is nothing self-serving about John Connor’s accounts. Although a memoir, the story is as much about the men with whom he served as it is about himself. Ken Hamburger in Leadership in the Crucible observed that “the longer a unit is together under stress, the stronger the cohesion grows.” He talks of pride that comes from sharing the danger of combat, the bone-tired feeling from intense cold and little sleep, the hard training and the harder-still missions, and the “feeling that they are not really the same as other units.” What he wrote in that book could be said equally for John Connor and the men of the 1st Raider Company.
Today’s Army Special Operations Forces (SOF) embodies in doctrine what the Raiders and similar units from World War II learned in the crucible of combat. Resourcefulness, initiative, flexibility, proficiency in skills that exceed basic military training, teamwork, and exceptional leadership are hallmarks of the soldiers of Army SOF. Those, too, were the hallmarks of the men of the 1st Raider Company.
I have had the privilege of attending four Raider reunions. What I experienced was what Hamburger described. To a man, the Raiders talked of those months in Korea that became for all, in Connor’s words, a “defining experience.” These warriors remember, and talk, and laugh, and shed a tear or two. And they share a pride that comes from being part of an extraordinary unit that did extraordinary things. Thankfully, John Connor is telling not only his story, but theirs as well.
Richard L. Kiper, Ph.D.
Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.)
U.S. Army Special Forces
Leavenworth, Kansas
Fall, 2007
Contents
- Dedication
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Prologue
- Childhood
- Basic Training
- Chapter 1: Occupation Duty
- Chapter 2: Camp McGill
- Chapter 3: Kusan
- Chapter 4: Inchon and Kimpo
- Chapter 5: North Korea
- Chapter 6: Chosin Reservoir
- Chapter 7: South Korea
- Chapter 8: The Battle at Chang-to
- Chapter 9: Business as Usual
- Chapter 10: Deactivation
- Epilogue
- Afterword
- Appendices
- Satellite photo of Korean Peninsula at night
- Surrender leaflet and news article
- Presidential Unit Citation
- Personal message to General Collins from GHQ, 1950
- Fragmentary order to Colonel Ely
- Commendation to CO, Special Activities Group
- Permanent orders to John Connor
- Bibliography
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Index