Word: airstrips
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...Communist shelling of the U.S. airfield at Taejon (see above) was forcing increasing reliance on bases in Japan, but the U.S. was also beginning to build emergency airstrips in South Korea. One such airstrip, already in operation last week, consisted of a tiny cluster of rundown concrete buildings, hastily made over into an operations office and control tower, two rickety hangars and a long, grassy runway...
...Dark, slender Major Dean Hess, a 32-year-old World War II fighter pilot, landed at a South Korean airstrip one day last week to report a highly successful strafing mission. Hess had spotted four Communist boats crossing the Kum River east of Taejon. He burned and strafed the boats, wheeled and roared back at the target again. Fleeing Red soldiers were scrambling up the river bank. Hess's six machine guns laced a pattern of lead along the bank. "I looked back," he said, "and there were 30 soldiers stretched out flatter than pancakes." He grinned, then checked...
...South Koreans, now short of weapons of any sort, wavered and broke, and the Communists pushed on. Meanwhile, U.S. jets and F82 Twin Mustangs were beginning to shoot down Yaks and knock out some of the enemy armor. The Yaks retaliated by destructive sneak attacks on Suwon's airstrip...
When he took off again from Suwon airstrip, MacArthur, who had planned to spend two days in Korea, had been there only eight hours. Some read this change of plans as a bad sign. It was. Behind MacArthur lay a disintegrating South Korean army. Before him lay a battle which might, at the worst, take a place in U.S. history alongside the battle of Bataan...
...along, the weather grew better, and over southern Japan four Mustangs flew up to provide a fighter umbrella for,the general's plane. Overruling his subordinates, who wanted to land him ia safety at Korea's far southern port of Pusan, MacArthur insisted on heading for Suwon airstrip, 20 miles south of Seoul and a target of persistent North Korean bombing and strafing attacks. Over Korea, a Russian-built Yak tried to slip through the Mustangs to get at the Bataan. As a Mustang closed in on the Yak, MacArthur said hopefully, "We'll get him cold...