‘Historic return’

Audie Murphy is an American actor who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery in the United States, he is also an American war hero. He engaged in fierce battle against German troops at battlegrounds in France in 1944. Jumping onto a burning tank destroyer, he fired a .50 caliber machine gun, killing a number of German soldiers. He received the highest military Medal of Honor for this heroic act. After dismissal from the military, he became an actor and starred in movies including the one about his own war experience. Audie Murphy was a member of the U.S. Army’s Third Infantry Division.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, it staged Operation “Impact and Fear,” whose combat scenes were broadcast live on TV all over the nation. Images of U.S. sliders who are occupying Baghdad amid sandstorms in the desert left deep impression on American people. The troops that took the lead in the operation were soldiers of the U.S. Army Third Infantry Division.

The U.S. Army Third Infantry Division was established in 1917. The division made a lot of important contributions at battlefields in France and Italy during World War I and II. The division also participated in the Korean War from October 1950 and generated significant wartime accomplishments. The Third Infantry Division is coming to South Korea again. The first tank brigade under the Third Infantry Division, which is stationed in Port Stewart in the U.S. state of Georgia, will be taking rotation duty in South Korea for nine months from this spring. It is the division’s redeployment on the Korean Peninsula for the first time in 64 years since it left the peninsula in October 1954.

The U.S. Army Third Infantry Division reminds Koreans of Heungnam Retreat during the Korean War. When mobilized during the Korean War, the Third Infantry Division was deployed at frontlines in the east. When the South Korean troops and U.N. troops were blockaded due to the Chinese military’s participation in eastern frontlines in December 1950, U.S. Gen. Douglas Macarthur ordered Heungnam Retreat. The Third Infantry Division was tasked with countering offense by the Chinese military, and successfully completed the Heungnam Retreat operation in December 24. The division also defeated the Chinese military that were mobilized in massive numbers at Hyeon-ri Battle in Gangwon Province in May 1951. Heungnam Retreat and Hyeon-ri Battle became important milestones that enabled the allied forces to overcome the deployment of massive Chinese troops and gain ground to reverse the situation in the war. In the process, more than 10,000 soldiers under the division were killed or injured in action at Jangjinho Battle and Wonsan Landing. The U.S. Army calls the redeployment of the Third Infantry Division to South Korea “historic return.”