Founding Years
Shortly after Korea was liberated from the Empire of Japan on August 15, 1945, a former merchant mariner and independence activist Sohn Won-yil led to form the Maritime Affairs Association. The Maritime Affairs Association evolved in the Marine Defense Group on November 11, 1945 (later became Navy Foundation Day), and some 70 people proceeded to the former Imperial Japanese Navy's Chinkai Naval Station at Jinhae to establish a coast guard academy. Later the name of Marine Defense Group was changed to the Korean Coast Guard. The Korean Coast Guard was officially recognized by the US military government in 1946. Meanwhile the military government provided limited assistance through U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard personnel then in Korea. After the new Republic of Korea government was established on August 15, 1948, the Korean Coast Guard was formally renamed the Republic of Korea Navy, and Sohn became the first Chief of Naval Operations of the ROK Navy on September 5, 1948.
In October 1949, the ROK Navy purchased a 600-ton submarine chaser, the former USS PC-823 on the American civil market with funds raised among its personnel. She was renamed as ROKS Baekdusan (PC 701) and became "the first significant warship of the newly independent nation" (Later on the first night of the Korean War, she sank a 1,000-ton North Korean freighter loaded with 600 troops toward the vital South Korean port of Busan.).
On April 15, 1949, the Republic of Korea Marine Corps (ROKMC) was founded in Deoksan airfield in Jinhae. The Marine Corps carried out Suppression Operations against communist elements in Jinju and Jeju-do.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Republic Of Korea Navy
Famous quotes containing the words founding and/or years:
“The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“The unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with them.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)