Occupation of Japan and Korean War
The 7th stayed in Japan as part of the occupation force. Coincidentally, one of its officers during this period was Lt. Col. Brice C. W. Custer, the grand-nephew of former commander George Armstrong Custer.
The 7th Cavalry fought in the Korean War's bloodiest battles. These include Hwanggan, Poksong-Dong, Kwanni, and Naktong River Defense (Battle of Pusan Perimeter). When the 1st Cavalry Division attacked north, the 7th Cavalry was in front, smashing 106 miles behind enemy lines in an historic 24 hours. Three more Presidential Unit Citations were added to the colors.
In the No Gun Ri Massacre, July 26-29, 1950, early in the war, the regiment's 2nd Battalion was found to have killed South Korean refugees under and around a railroad bridge at the village of No Gun Ri, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Seoul, because of fear of North Korean infiltrators among civilian groups. In 2005, the South Korean government certified the names of 163 dead or missing (mostly women, children and old men) and 55 wounded, and said many other victims' names were not reported. Survivors generally estimated some 400 were killed. The massacre first gained worldwide attention through Associated Press articles in 1999 in which 7th Cavalry veterans corroborated Korean survivors' accounts.
7th Cavalry Regiment was reorganized under a new Table of Organization & Equipment on March 25, 1949, when the Troops were once again designated as Companies.
Read more about this topic: 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words occupation, japan and/or war:
“Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration; but the soldier’s occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“War is thus divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular.... War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it.... War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)