gray06 Nov-Dec 2009_Gray01_Jan-Feb 2005.qxd.qxd - Korean War ...

Walking History Comes to
Langley AFB
By: Cecilia Corujo-Butler
The audience in the CTIG learned more than they would from a history book. They
now understood the negative role of a large ego in leadership and the ramifications
of not having the Headquarters Intelligence match the intelligence on the ground.
30
On 21 October, a kind of walking
history came to Langley Air
Force Base (AFB) in Hampton,
Virginia. The Combat Targeting
Intelligence Group (CTIG), recently
renamed from the 480th Intelligence Group,
hosted a Professional Development for its
airmen and Department of Defense civilians.
The topic was a most uncommon one:
the Korean War, as told by acclaimed author
David Halberstam in The Coldest Winter.
I, Cecilia Corujo-Butler, Science
Applications International Corporation
(SAIC) analyst, working at the CTIG, chose
this topic because it interested me. I had
heard of WWI, WWII, the Civil War, the
Vietnam War…. but what was the Korean
War?
Truthfully, I knew little of it. It was a
journey of learning that brought me in contact
with the friendly gentlemen of the
Hampton Chapter of the Korean War
Veterans Association (KWVA).
I had breakfast with a veteran named Leo
Ruffing, who made the stories I had read
about come alive; he was sitting in front of
me, telling HIS story. He and the head of the
chapter, Clyde Laudermilk, invited me to
their group’s monthly meeting and breakfast.
It was surreal really – by being in their
company, it was as if I was transported to a
place and time that I had no part of.
I had read the book and studied it thoroughly;
I knew battle dates and casualty
tolls; I knew of ammunition shortages and
heroic tales… but this was real. It was alive
in their minds and it became alive in mine,
too. I invited any Korean War veteran who
was interested to come to our Professional
Development, telling them that I believed
everyone has a story.
To my delight and surprise, nine veterans
were able to attend. LtCol Price of the CTIG
wholeheartedly welcomed the group of distinguished
veterans. Airmen and civilians
alike filed into the conference room as I prepared
for the book review presentation.
There was a curious buzz in the air as
people wondered what all of these elderly
men, decked out in their military ribbons,
were doing there. The room was packed
with attentive faces and inquisitive eyes. I
launched into the narrative of the Korean
War. A Colonel had once told me that to give
a briefing you “Learn the Story and Tell the
Story.” And that is what I did.
I rattled on about the Naktong Bulge and
the fierce fight to keep the American soldiers
from being pushed off the peninsula at the
Pusan Perimeter. I catalogued all the naysayers
of the controversial Inchon Landing and
General MacArthur’s brazen tactical move
that turned the tide of the early conflict. I
described how plans were being made for a
parade back in U.S. Headquarters Tokyo, all
while U.S. troops, dressed in summer uniforms,
plunged toward the Yalu River in
what would be the coldest winter in Korea in
100 years.
I built them up to the Chinese intervention
and told of the odd Chinese tactic of
communicating via musical instruments,
which sounded to the GIs like strange, eerie,
Asian bagpipes. I talked of the UN and
South Korean forces fighting side by side
with us as a disconnected leadership pushed
an exhausted, unprepared force further
north, into an opening landscape.
There were heroic chronicles of U.S.
Soldiers and Marines like General Walker,
General Matt Ridgeway and General O.P.
Smith, and then there were less glorious
accounts of egomania in our own leadership,
with General MacArthur and General
Almond.
The veterans were gracious and open,
interspersing their accounts at perfect
moments within the discussion. Leo communicated
the woeful state of preparedness
of the soldiers coming out of Tokyo – sharing
a quote he had read, that at the time of
our entrance into the war, “The only thing
the soldiers were trained in was a frontal
assault on a Geisha girl.” This got quite a
chuckle in the audience.
William (Bill) Dill talked of his fighting
at the Chosin Breakout – a remarkable
moment of extraordinary bravery on the part
of ordinary men. The Korean War veterans
indeed made the story come alive.
The audience in the CTIG learned more
than they would from a history book. They
now understood the negative role of a large
ego in leadership and the ramifications of
not having the Headquarters Intelligence
match the intelligence on the ground.
Following the presentation, the airmen
and civilians spoke of the democratization of
South Korea and the dismal state of North
Korea following the war. For all of us in that
November – December 2009
The Graybeards