The Korean War began with North Korea's invasion of the South and drew the United States and its United Nations allies into three years of fighting against North Korean and, later, Communist Chinese forces.
For the Marine Corps it was a defining conflict that spanned the full range of warfare. The Marines first plugged the crumbling Pusan Perimeter as a "fire brigade," then executed the war's masterstroke at Inchon, the last great opposed amphibious landing in the World War II style, and recaptured Seoul. Driven into the mountains of the north, the 1st Marine Division fought its epic breakout from the Chosin Reservoir against overwhelming Chinese forces in subzero cold. As the front stabilized near the 38th Parallel, the war settled into grinding positional combat, the counteroffensives of 1951, the drive to the Punchbowl, and the costly outpost battles along the Jamestown Line that continued until the armistice. Korea reshaped and revitalized the postwar Corps.
Engagements in this conflict (17)
Record no. 878