What is a plan for a memorial for the South Korean retreat, 1950:
“Soon after the lieutenant announced the Communist breakthrough, mortars started bursting around our billet [housing]. Filing into separate jeeps, we rushed toward the big bridge across the Han River, the only escape route. As we raced through the rainy darkness a sheet of orange flame tore the sky. “Good God, there goes the bridge,” said the lieutenant. We were trapped. The Han River lay between us and safety to the South and the only bridge had been dynamited. It was obvious now that if we were not captured, we would have to abandon our equipment and wade or ferry across the river. When we reached the riverbank, we found masses of refugees and South Korean soldiers in a panicky press. Some of the soldiers were firing at people in boats and rafts in an attempt to force them to come to our side of the river. Other soldiers were defeating their own aims by rushing aboard any available craft in such numbers that they swamped the tiny boats. It was only by holding back the rush at rifle point that we got our band across the river. We were harassed all the while by steady but inaccurate rifle fire. Once across the river, there was nothing to do but walk across the mountain trail toward Suwon. Our single file of soldiers was soon joined by a huge stream of refugees, a ragamuffin army of tattered soldiers, old men, diplomats, children and a woman war correspondent.”
(Source: Marguerite Higgins. War in Korea. Garden City: Doubleday, 1951: 25-26)