Goodbye, Gen. Olmstead!

By Ahn Ho-young

During my time as ambassador to the U.S., it was such an honor to meet with remarkable U.S. soldiers who fought valiantly during the Korean War, made huge sacrifices and took much pride in Korea's remarkably successful nation-building. Gen. Olmstead, who passed away on July 20, was one such soldier.

Gen. Olmstead's obituary carried in The Washington Post included the following passage, "his calmness under fire earned him a battlefield promotion and selection to attend the Officer's Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia."

The battlefield mentioned in the obituary refers to the Battle of Lake Changjin. It was a battle fought around Lake Changjin in the northeastern part of North Korea near the port of Heungnam from Nov. 27 to Dec. 13, 1950. About 30,000 U.N. troops were encircled and attacked by about 120,000 Chinese troops, who were ordered to crush the U.N. troops to stop the evacuation of around 100,000 U.N. troops from Heungnam.

The U.N. troops were attacked in surprise and badly outnumbered four to one. Furthermore, they had to fight in the most difficult terrain, where the temperature often dropped to around minus 40 degrees Celsius. Batteries for cars and radios were frozen. Even rifle springs were frozen. The 15,000-strong 1st Division of the U.S. Marines, to which Gen. Olmstead belonged as a private, lost 3,000 soldiers and suffered 6,000 wounded in the battle.

Still, the U.N. troops held their ground for more than two weeks, earning time for preparations for the Heungnam evacuation. The troops then made an orderly retreat to Heungnam, remained as a viable fighting force and returned to the battlefield.

It would not have been easy for a 21-year-old young man to maintain his calmness under such circumstances. But, that's what Gen. Olmstead did, earning a battlefield promotion as an officer. He continued to serve in the U.S. Marines for 41 years, eventually leaving the service as a lieutenant general.

I first learned of the Battle of Lake Changjin when I joined Korea's Foreign Service in 1978 and began to work at the U.S. Desk. I could not but admire the courage and huge sacrifices of the young soldiers who fought in the battle. All of these memories came back to me when I met with Gen. Olmstead in 2014 to discuss the construction of a memorial for the soldiers at Quantico, Virginia.

In one of our meetings, I came to find that he was wearing on a summer day a pair of thick black compression stockings up to his knee and asked him the reason why he was doing so. He answered that he, as well as a large number of his fellow soldiers at Changjin, sustained severe frostbite, for which he now had to wear the compression stockings for the rest of his life.

Another day, Gen. Olmstead also told me a story of the tootsie rolls. The soldiers ran out of ammunition for 60 millimeter mortars and called for urgent resupply. The radio operator did not understand that "tootsie rolls" was the code name for ammunition and arranged the immediate supply of real tootsie rolls.

Each time Gen. Olmstead shared these anecdotes with me, he did not dwell on how difficult it was. He always recalled these stories in high spirits and said how proud he was to have been part of the effort to defend Korea against the communist invasion and to see Korea develop itself so spectacularly.

Changjin soldiers' commitment to Korea did not end with their fight during the Korean War. Another Changjin survivor, Gen. Alfred Gray, Jr., later served as a commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps during the critical time when the Cold War came to an end in the early 1990s. Gen. Gray grabbed every possible opportunity to share with U.S. leaders his views on the security environment in Asia in the post-Cold War context.

Senator Sam Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time, passed a resolution calling on the secretary of defense to submit a report to streamline U.S. troops deployed in Asia after the Cold War. Gen. Gray happened to meet with Senator Nunn in an out-of-town seminar. He went to meet with the senator in his room in an effort to make the senator better understand the precarious security environment in Asia. Their talks continued into the wee hours of the morning.

Korea as a nation owes a lot to these Changjin soldiers. It was such an honor for me to work with Gen. Olmstead and other Changjin soldiers to build a memorial in their honor at Quantico. I cannot forget the joy and pride with which Changjin soldiers and their family members celebrated the inauguration of the octagonal memorial on May 4, 2017. Gen. Dunford, who used to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, was also at the ceremony along with his father, a Changjin Battle veteran himself, and all of his brothers.

Gen. Olmstead passed away on July 20 and is resting at the Quantico National Cemetery not too far from the memorial. Thank you, Gen. Olmstead, for all your service, sacrifice and friendship. You had a full life, helping to save the life and happiness of a large number of people in the U.S., in Korea and around the world. May you rest in eternal peace.

Ahn Ho-young (hyahn78@mofa.or.kr) is the president of the University of North Korean Studies. He served as Korean ambassador to the United States and first vice foreign minister.