[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 74 (Friday, May 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           KOREAN WAR HEROISM

  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, with the approach of 
Memorial Day, it is my privilege to call the attention of this body to 
one of the greatest, yet least known, acts of sustained heroism in the 
history of the United States. It occurred 50 years ago in the sixth 
month of the Korean war.
  In December of 1950 American forces accomplished the unbelievable 
evacuation of 100,000 Allied troops from the port city of Hungnam in 
North Korea, barely hours ahead of the charging forces of our two 
newest enemies, North Korea and Communist China. At the same time our 
American soldiers, sailors, and marines, managed to evacuate another 
100,000 persons, all North Korean civilian refugees who were fleeing 
their own harsh dictatorship and the ruthless Chinese army whose 
leaders had threatened to cut off their heads because some had been 
aiding our United Nations forces.
  One of the most heroic acts in the evacuation of Hungnam is the 
virtually unknown story of a small American merchant marine freighter, 
the S.S. Meredith Victory. With space for only twelve passengers, the 
ship loaded and rescued 14,000 North Koreans--the innocent people of 
our enemy--old men, young mothers with their babies on their backs and 
at their breasts, children carrying children. Their rescue was 
accomplished during one danger-filled voyage of three days and three 
nights in bitter winter cold that ended in safety and freedom on 
Christmas Day. The United States Government, through its Maritime 
Administration, has called it ``the greatest rescue operation by a 
single ship in the history of mankind.''
  The Korean war has been called ``America's forgotten war,'' and the 
evacuation of Hungnam has been called ``the forgotten battle in the 
forgotten war.'' I submit, that the heroic story of the men of the S.S. 
Meredith Victory is ``the forgotten rescue.''
  Fortunately, this story is now being brought to the attention of the 
American people in a new book ``Ship of Miracles'' by Bill Gilbert, a 
former reporter for the Washington Post who served in the U.S. Air 
Force during and after the Korean war. The foreword to his book is 
written by General Alexander M. Haig Jr. whose career included serving 
as White House chief of staff, NATO commander, and Secretary of State. 
Appropriately, however, General Haig served in Korea during the war and 
was directly involved in the rescue of our troops and the refugees from 
Hungnam. The book was released by Triumph Books of Chicago.
  General Haig states in his foreword, ``The story of Hungnam and the 
Meredith Victory is a brilliant yet relatively unknown chapter in 
American history that can now take its place, during this fiftieth 
anniversary of the Korean war, among such legendary names as Bunker 
Hill, Midway, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This book 
did not just deserve to be written--it needed to be written.''
  The men of the Meredith Victory, led by their captain, Leonard LaRue 
of Philadelphia, emerge as the heroes of this amazing story. Every one 
of the 14,000 refugees aboard that ship survived, plus five babies born 
enroute to safety with no doctors to help. There was no food for the 
refugees, no water, no sanitation facilities, no interpreters, and no 
protection against the enemy. The men of the Meredith Victory 
accomplished their rescue while sailing through one of the heaviest-
laid mine fields in the history of naval warfare with no mine 
detectors. They had no anti-aircraft guns in case of an air attack. 
Radio contact with other ships was forbidden for security reasons. To 
add to the prolonged tension, the ship was carrying a large supply of 
jet fuel.

  The Meredith Victory arrived at Pusan on the southern tip of the 
Korean Peninsula on Christmas eve but was not allowed to land because 
the port was already overflowing with refugees and rescued American 
troops. Captain LaRue wrote later of ``these people aboard who, like 
the Holy Family many centuries before, were themselves refugees from a 
tyrannical force.'' The ship did land safely on Christmas Day on Koje-
Do island, fifty miles southwest of Pusan.
  One of the Navy officers who participated in the Hungnam evacuation 
was the late Admiral Arleigh Burke who became Chief of Naval 
Operations. He later said, ``As a result of the extraordinary efforts 
of the men of the Meredith Victory, many people are now free who 
otherwise might well be under the Communist yoke. Many unknown Koreans 
owe the future freedom of their children to the efforts of these men.''
  Larry King, the talk show host, said `` `Ship of Miracles' will make 
you proud to be an American.''
  The book has already won its first award. Mr. Gilbert has been 
awarded the Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History 
Prize, awarded annually by the New York Council of the Navy League. The 
Council's president, Rear Admiral Robert A. Ravitz (USNR, ret.), said 
Mr. Gilbert was selected ``because his book tells a story of American 
heroism and humanitarianism which has gone overlooked for 50 years and 
should be told and made a shining part of our military history.''
  Admiral Ravitz added, ``At a time when we are reading other stories 
about what American forces did or didn't do in Korea and elsewhere, Mr. 
Gilbert has made a valuable contribution to American history of 
revealing this story of both the bravery and the goodness of America's 
men in time of war.''
  For these reasons, our nation owes a debt to Bill Gilbert on this 
Memorial Day for writing a book which reminds the American people of 
that forgotten war and of an heroic incident in that war by the brave 
men of the S.S. Meredith Victory.

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