17.9.10
15.9.10
TDIH: Inch'on Landing
Sixty years ago today, the U.S. Marines conducted a daring amphibious assault at the port city of Inch’on (west of Seoul). Inch’on was far from the United Nations Command’s tiny toehold at the southern end of the peninsula, in the city of Pusan, and was intended to split the North Korean lines to permit the U.N. forces to break out. Inch’on turned the tide of the three-month old Korean War in favor of the United Nations, and enabled General MacArthur’s forces to push the North Koreans all the way to the Yalu River.
Exactly five years before the Marine Corps reestablished their strategic relevance and excellence in amphibious operations at Inch'on, two young Marines were married in San Francisco. PFC Charles Mulrenin, USMC, a former mortarman with CHARLIE Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines at Guadalcanal and Tarawa, married PFC Louise Krausy, USMC, a clerk-typist at Hunters Point, San Francisco. My grandfather and grandmother:
Today would have been their 65th anniversary. While Grandpa died more than 30 years ago (from lung cancer, which was due to his smoking habit due to complications from the malaria he contracted on Guadalcanal), “Kupuna” is alive and well – and will likely outlive all of us.
Semper Fidelis!