A.
Yes. Its commander, whose name I can't recall, was the one who had developed
the searchlights. He was killed on the near bank by sporadic small arms fire from
across the river. The other engineer group commander was from the Class of
1937, Colonel Leigh Fairbanks. His unit may have been the 8224th Engineer
Group, but I don't recall precisely.
Both colonels were good officers and very fine commanders. This caused me some
embarrassment because, even though I was acting in the capacity of a brigadier
general as corps engineer, I was only a lieutenant colonel. Moreover, I had
previously served under Fairbanks. However, we got along fine; he bore me no
resentment. The other colonel, the one who was killed, also took the rank problem
in good grace.
General MacArthur wanted the bridge in place by September 25th. He wanted to
ride into Seoul to celebrate the date SyngmanRhee had become president of Korea.
MacArthur wanted to show that we had established a solid link betweenInchon and
Seoul. He wanted to drive into Seoul with Syngman Rhee sitting beside him.
We had a great deal of difficulty meeting MacArthur's timetable. A squall blew
up some 12 hours before MacArthur was due to cross which knocked out part of
the bridge. Since there were no spare parts, we had to straighten out pieces of the
bent bridging in the forges we had set up. We made the deadline with less than an
hour to spare. MacArthur landed at Kimpo Airfield and rode across the bridge in
a jeep. Looking at the bridge, one would have thought it had been in place for a
long time and not for less than an hour. I recall writing to my wife that we
encountered so many difficulties getting the bridge in place I wished MacArthur
could really walk on water. MacArthur, with Rhee beside him, rode over the
bridge without incident.
Q ..
Was Seoul solidly in American hands by then?
A ..
Seoul was in American hands, but not solidly. The marine division crossed the
Han west of the city limits and the 7th Division occupied the hills northeast of
Seoul. Except for a few pockets of resistance, the enemy had been pretty well
cleared out. The small pockets of enemy left behind were not organized and fired
mostly in self-defense: the sporadic small arms fire did not interfere with the
ceremony which MacArthur and Rhee had later that day.
Q ..
We've about reached the end of the first phase of the war in Korea. Before we
move into another phase, would you comment on the caliber of your engineer
troops?
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