Despite American success in preventing the conquest of South Korea by communist North Korea, the Korean War of 1950-1953 did not satisfy Americans who expected the kind of total victory they had experienced in WW II. In Korea, the U.S. limited itself to conventional weapons. Even after communist China entered the war, Americans put China off-limits to conventional bombing as well as nuclear bombing. Operating within these limits, the U.S. Air Force helped to repel 2 invasions of South Korea while securing control of the skies so decisively that other U.N. forces could fight without fear of air attack.

Book 1

When North Korea attacked the South on June 25, 1950, United States forces in East Asia were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, whose largest ground force was Eighth US Army. This army fought a tenacious defense of South Korea, counterattacked north to the Yalu River with the separate X Corps, before falling back in the face of massive Chinese intervention, conducted a war of movement, and settled into a bloody two-year long period of static warfare. This title examines the combat mission, organization, and evolution of the Eighth US Army in Korea and its 300,000 US ground forces through highly detailed orders of battle, tables of organization and equipment, and examinations of crucial aspects such as doctrine, training, and tactics.

The Red Dragons of the 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion was never relieved from combat duty. For 1007 consecutive days the battalion ..".moved along the entire width of the battle line, emplacing where the fighting was heaviest, inflicting tremendous casualties...and redeploying when a relative lull occurred to yet another sector where the savage battle flared anew." Thus read one of the battalion's two Presidential Unit Citations. The story of this battalion has never been documented. Based on personal interviews and original, long-forgotten and unpublished records, Red Dragons puts the reader in the trenches on Korean mountainsides in every kind of weather and every kind of action. To left and right the reader finds soldiers who fought the "Forgotten War" with little reward and by their courage and sacrifice held the line behind which America gathered strength for its ultimate victory in half a century of Cold War. Walter J. Eldredge is a 1968 graduate of MIT and retired from ExxonMobil Corporation. Walt is an experienced backpacker and sailor. He and his wife Peggy live in Baton Rouge, LA where they are active volunteers with many community organizations and participating in the lives of their five adult children. Walt's father was a mortar company commander with the red Dragons. Walt says of his work with veterans, "I have shared in the memories of ordinary men who drove themselves to extraordinary limits. I have been able to make those memories available to their families and friends who often have no idea of what these men achieved or what they endured. Many have told me that my work 'broke the ice' for discussions that otherwise would not have taken place. Many of my closest friends are men who fought alongside my father before I was born."