US vet detained in NKorea oversaw guerrilla group
Source: AP
An 85-year-old U.S. veteran being held in North Korea spent his war years there in one of the Army's first special forces unit, helping a clandestine group of Korean partisans who were fighting and spying well behind enemy lines.
Now South Koreans who served with Merrill Newman, who is beginning his sixth week in detention, say their unit was perhaps the most hated and feared by the North and his association with them may be the reason he's being held.
"Why did he go to North Korea?" asked Park Boo Seo, a former member of unit known in Korea as Kuwol, which is still loathed in Pyongyang and glorified in Seoul for the damage it inflicted on the North during the war. "The North Koreans still gnash their teeth at the Kuwol unit."
Some of those guerrillas, interviewed this week by The Associated Press, remember Newman as a handsome, thin American lieutenant who got them rice, clothes and weapons during the later stages of the 1950-53 war, but largely left the fighting to them.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Detained-US-vet-in-NKorea-oversaw-guerrilla-group-5029684.php
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I have a 25 year old default judgment against me in the amount of about $150 in a local court in a German city.
I didn't enter Germany again until a few years ago, but was wondering whether they would haul me off at the Frankfurt airport.
This guy was a special forces operative in a war that has not ended, and thought it would be okay to drop by and say "Howdy!"?
There are great veteran's tours of, for example, Vietnam. But that is over and the hatchet buried.
This guy, of all people, cannot fail to have appreciated the substantial risk he was taking. With his heart condition, maybe he wanted to end his days there.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I would discount that bit.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I would imagine they have a pretty good idea who anyone on one of these friendship tours is.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Gougelmann was one of the main authors of the Phoenix program.
He moved to Vietnam but, inexplicably left his family in Vietnam, even when it was collapsing and the CIA was pulling out all of its people.
He more or less lost his mind and returned on the last flight into Vietnam and tried to hide with his family which stunned his friends who told me he was a 6'2" lanky red head with a bad limp who was easily the most recognized American to ever visit Vietnam. He would have been in the top 3 or 4 "Most Wanted" list by the Communists.
"The PRU director was named Tucker Gougelmann. He was a big man, six feet two or so, and a former Marine. He had been wounded on Guadalcanal during World War II, so seriously that the doctors debated amputating his leg. Tucker kept them from doing it, however, and he still had both his legs, although he walked with a bad limp
He was captured and tortured (and right wing nut jobs would get on the House floor years after and rail about the Vietnamese who tortured a CIA agent even though he was no longer in the CIA and made his trip against all orders and advice).
The government and his friends must have paid a special bribe because on the very first Orderly Departure Flight from Vietnam his 16 year old daughter was on the flight (at the time I had no idea who he was or her connection to him). The rest of the family would follow later.
I was terrified of what would happen to an extremely attractive teenage girl alone in a hotel room in Bangkok and so took her home the first night so my wife could take care of her. The next day I took her to stay with an American/Vietnamese family that were close friends as she spoke no English.
From his Wiki page:
Before he left Bangkok to try to retrieve his family, Gougelmann had asked a friend of his to promise him that if anything happened to him, she would continue to struggle to get his family out of Vietnam and to America so that they would be safe and have a better life than if they stayed in Vietnam. His youngest son, Edward, had not even been born until after Tucker's abduction.
Gougelmann's friend kept her promise and by working vigorously and relentlessly, taking such extreme steps as contacting the CIA Director, the White House, Congress, and other high-ranking government offices, she managed to get Gougelmann's entire Vietnamese family visas to come to the United States. She had fulfilled her promise.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I'd never heard of him, thanks for the info.
echo7108
(1 post)Tuck was like a father figure to me during 1971 and 1972. He helped me keep my morals in place during a time that my team mates were becoming zombies. When I was wounded and my best friend was killed he flew out to the hospital ship I was on and made arrangements for me to go to Japan for 2 years to get my head straight before going back to the states. That was in November 1972 and he was as sharp as ever. So he was not crazy or stupid. Like he use to always say, "things are never as they appear". There's more to this story the your reading here. Oh, the Russians were the one's that tortured him.
olddad56
(5,732 posts)felt some remorse for his role in the whole deal, and wanted to make peace with himself before he passed away.
Maybe,maybe not. I don't know, but this story is getting more curious all of the time.
Or maybe he wanted to watch Dennis Rodman play basketball with their leader.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)He lost a lot of comrades there and maybe wanted to join them. Some kind of survivor guilt.