Charles Rangel: “I guess it was in June of 1950 when I was with the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, when we heard that…”

“I guess it was in June of 1950 when I was with the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, when we heard that there was a police action in Korea. In July and August of that year, we were sent to Korea in a troop ship. Most of us were 19, 20 years old, and we were the first troops, American troops, from the States to go into Korea. The 24th and 25th Divisions having left from Japan going there had been pushed from the 38th Parallel to the Pusan Perimeter. We landed and had substantial casualties but managed to get close to the 38th Parallel. General MacArthur had the Inchon landing and then we moved swiftly north to the Yalu river which separated North Korea from Manchuria, and the entire 8th Army and the 2nd Infantry Division, of which I was a member, were there waiting to go home in September of 1950. It was on or about this time that the Commander in Chief, Harry Truman, had a dispute with General MacArthur and General MacArthur left and dealt with the President of the United States. During this time, the Peoples' Volunteer Army completely surrounded the entire 8th Army, and on November 30, 1950, a massacre occurred of the 2nd Infantry Division and many of the supporting battalions that were there. In June, I will be taking some of those veterans back to South Korea, and we are attempting to revisit some of the battle sites in North Korea.”