Word: inchon
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...were then some 1,500 yards off the Inchon coast. The nose of our craft was pointed at a flashing coastal light. Said Admiral Doyle to the CINC: "They've left their navigation lights on. That's the fourth we've picked up on the way in here this morning." Said MacArthur: "That's courtesy." As the Asiatic sunrise broke over the black, sawtooth hills of the Korean coast, the general grasped both arms of his chair. "Just like Lingayen Gulf," he observed. "But quieter and nicer...
WOLMI (Moon Tip) ISLAND was a rather useless place. Its only local reputation was as an off-the-cuff summer resort for the town of Inchon, to which it is joined by a long causeway. The northern end of the tiny island had boasted a large inn, complete with swimming pool, where Inchon's successful merchants could enjoy the summer breezes. After the Communists invaded South Korea, they set up a small guard unit on the island, ringed it with earthworks and hastily dug trenches...
Wolmi commands Inchon harbor, and enemy guns from the island could wreck any attempt to land in the port area. Thus the proposition facing U.S. planners was simple: capture Wolmi fast, or the Inchon landing would fail...
...morning of Sept. 15, when our LSD slipped into the channel leading to Wolmi, the atmosphere had grown tight. Shortly before 3 a.m. we saw bright, distant flashes of gunfire. The naval bombardment had begun. By 4:30 a tongue of flame was licking upward from the direction of Inchon. Aboard the LSD two lines of marines groped their way from troops' compartments to the three LSUs. A young marine said wistfully: "Three months ago I was so happy...
...Heaven on One Side." Late that afternoon I went back to Wolmi. Sitting along the road to the Inchon causeway were the marines of Taplett's battalion, ready to jump off again. Tanks were already on the move. I climbed a small ridge with them and watched what they were going into. Inchon blazed against the darkening sky, and the air over the city was choked with fumes and cinders. But in the far west the brightness of the setting sun painted one last patch of sky a peaceful, soothing yellow. A Marine chaplain standing on the ridge with...