Life April 9 1951 Page 29/30/31

LIFE

Vol. 30, No. 15 April 9, 1951

AIRBORNE AND ARMOR LINK UP IN KOREA 

PHOTOGRAPHED FOR LIFE BY JOHN DOMINIS AND JOE SCHERSCHEL 

Though Seoul had fallen, the Chinese were pulling back out of range, and Operation Killer had turned into a slow, not too profitable chase. In Tokyo, in Seoul and at the Eighth Army command post the planners were working over a new operation which might panic the Reds or chew them up or possibly trap them. It was a high-speed precision maneuver: an airborne regiment was to drop 25 miles northwest of Seoul; an armored column was to link up with them there.

The preparations were completed in the week before Easter. In Seoul the Sixth Armored Battalion marshaled its tanks to lead the ground attack. In Japan transport planes were loaded with combat-packed cargo and flown to Taegu. There the 187th Airborne Infantry, brought out of the front lines, waited. On Good Friday the paratroopers silently boarded the waiting planes (above). The tank engines in Seoul turned over. The planes took off, the tanks moved out-all bound for the rice fields and a junction of dirt roads near Munsan. According to plan, the airborne got there first . 

BEFORE TAKE-OFF men let some of 100-lb. load rest on the ground. Each jumper carries main chute on back, emergency chute on chest. They weigh 40 pounds. Other equipment weighs about 60 pounds. 

AT THE DROP ZONE rations and ammunition come down to troops. Big white chutes (background) carried heavier equipment. The striped pole (foreground) is aiming stake for guns already in action. 

250-LB. GROSS WEIGHT, a trooper barely able, to lift himself, is pushed into door of plane at Taegu. 

THE AIRDROP: "IS EVERYBODY HAPPY?" 

At 9 in the morning, with the sun sweeping the mists from the drop zone near Munsan, the paratroopers jumped. Only three hours before they had stumbled under the weight of their gear across the Taegu airstrip, each carrying his assigned weapon, ammunition, rations, clothes and what blankets he thought he might need. 

There had been a wait on the ground, then a circling of planes at the rendezvous and then the 165-mile flight north-a silent flight with each man sweating out the jump in his own way (below). The tension broke as the crew chief bellowed, "Four minutes!" and the jumpmaster ordered, "Stand up and hook up." Each man attached his static line to the plane. "Are you happy?" screamed the jumpmaster. Back came "No’s" "Yeah’s" "Let’s get the hell out of here."  The plane was 800 feet up. The green light went on and 42 men shuffled to the rear doors of the plane and disappeared. 

Other planes dropped big 4.2 mortars, machine guns, 105-mm howitzers and even jeeps. There was little opposition on the drop zone, and soon patrols were probing the surrounding hills. But the paratroopers were too lightly equipped to hold off the heavy Red attacks which could come that night. They could be in trouble unless the tanks and big guns, already on their way from Seoul, arrived before dark. 

SWEATING OUT the jump in the plane are Paratroopers Hoyt Henry (left), Arthur Higas (right). 

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STEPPING INTO SPACE, the last paratrooper of the 142 aboard plane starts his drop. Below him are the rice fields and dikes which form the drop zone and the narrow dirt road which twists and bends on its way back to Seoul. At upper left is an empty C-119 trailing the static lines of the men who have already jumped. 

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ANOTHER FIRST FOR “LIFE” GENERAL BRADLEY TELLS HIS STORY FOR THE FIRST TIME ANYWHERE. SEE PAGE 82 FOR PART 1