A Death in Korea: And the Search for Answers

By Steve Crews

This is a true story that is both tragic and bizarre. Its tragic because a young twenty-two-year-old serviceman, married and with an infant son back home, died in Korea during the Korean War. Its bizarre because a fellow serviceman with whom hed been stationed at two different locations was one of the witnesses at the shooting that took his life. Then that witness later married the mans widow and adopted his son. Even though they had a church wedding, nobody from either family showed up. Very unusual.

Exactly twenty years to the day after the young serviceman died in Korea, his twenty-year-old son had a near-death experience in Vietnam. The son grew up not knowing his biological fathers name, his branch of service, how, when, or where he died, or what he looked like, until he was almost fifty-eight years old. Then fate stepped in and provided him with a reason to investigate into the past. What he found out will astound you as much as it did him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466970458

Steve Crews

Steve Crews is the author of SURVIVING BIEN HOA and A DEATH IN KOREA AND THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS. All of his books can be ordered online at www.trafford.com or email [e-mail]. They are also available at major online book retailers. He was an Air Force “brat” for the first eighteen years of his life before his own twenty-two year Air Force career began. He is a graduate of Los Angeles City College (Business), Community College of the Air Force (Instructional Technology) and the University of the Philippines (Social Sciences). After a lifetime of travelling in eight countries and all 50 states, he now lives in Mississippi.

Book preview

Copyright 2012 Steve Crews.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 97 8-1-4 669-7 04 6-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-7045-8 (e)

Trafford rev. 03/04/2013

Image596.PNG www.trafford.com

North America & international

toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

phone: [phone] ♦ fax: [phone]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

About The Author

Also by Steve Crews:

Surviving Bien Hoa

You may not have been responsible for your heritage, but you are responsible for your future.

- Zig Ziglar

One cannot change yesterday, but only make the most of today, and look with hope toward tomorrow.

- James Barrie

PREFACE

When a man goes off to war and dies, leaving behind a young wife and infant son, that fits the definition of a tragedy: a disaster-ous event, calamity; misfortune.

If one of the witnesses to the tragic event happens to be a friend, and that friend later marries the young widow of the deceased and adopts her son, and nobody from either of their families attends their church wedding that is held near the home of one of the families, that fits the definition of bizarre: strikingly out of the ordinary.

This is a true story that is both tragic and bizarre. The last time I read something that had both qualities, it was a play written by William Shakespeare. As someone once said, the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Fate somehow played a role in my being able to find out some important facts that made this incredible story possible to tell. A fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri on July 12, 1973 damaged, but didn’t destroy, the records pertaining to the official investigation into the tragedy that took a young man’s life on July 8, 1952 in Korea during the Korean War. Without those records, there would be no story.

Some dictionaries describe fate as being: the determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do; an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end. Fate surely had a hand in this story, in more ways than one.

CHAPTER ONE

TRAGIC NEWS

From June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, American armed forces in Korea suffered more than 54,000 killed and over 105,000 wounded. Not all of those casualties were from enemy action. For example, U.S. Army Medical Corps records show that in one of their hospitals in 1952, out of the 83 patients in that hospital, 59 had been wounded by the enemy. The other 24 were being treated for accidental gunshot wounds. Most of those were self-inflicted.

In both World Wars I and II, many casualties incurred in military service were from various types of accidents. There were training accidents such as when a paratrooper’s parachute failed to open, or aircraft that crashed due to mechanical problems or pilot error during take-offs or landings. There were accidents caused by the poor handling of munitions, and many were caused by personal weapons such as rifles and pistols not being handled properly.

General George Patton died shortly after the end of World War II in a traffic accident between his staff car and a large U.S. Army truck. General Walton Walker died in a vehicle accident also, during the Korean War. Men of all ranks and in virtually all wars have died accidently. The Korean War was no different. The sad thing is, many of those military accidents were easily preventable.

Sadder still is the fact that many service members took their own lives during and after the wars they were in. It’s still a problem today. The stress of combat and troubled personal relationships have taken a heavy toll over the years. Multiple overseas deployments into combat areas only increases the stress that is already there.

Some military service-related accidents may have actually been suicides and what may have appeared to have been a suicide, may actually have been an accident. It’s not always easy to distinguish one from the other in each and every case, as the investigation into the death of an Air Force NCO (Non-Commission-ed Officer) in Korea in 1952 would demonstrate. As part of the investigation paperwork noted, Whether the fatal injury was intentionally inflicted is subject to some doubt.

On July 9, 1952, a Western Union telegram was sent to the residence of Stephen and Minnie King in Muncie, Indiana. They were the grandparents of Staff Sergeant Grover Gene McGuire. His mother, Connie King McGuire, had died from TB (Tuberculosis) in 1933 when he was only three years old. She was the daughter of Stephen and Minnie King. The Kings raised their daughter’s two sons, Gene, and his older brother, Marvin.

A similar telegram was sent to Mrs. McGuire’s address in Highlands, New Jersey. She, her husband and infant son lived there before Staff Sergeant McGuire shipped out to Korea. She didn’t receive it because she and her baby were in New York, visiting her family. The Kings would contact her there about the telegram they had received.

The U.S. military continued to notify the next of kin of deceased military members by telegram until the mid-1960s during the war in Vietnam. Telegrams were also used to notify family members that their loved ones were wounded, missing in action, or were taken prisoner.

The King’s telegram contained the following message:

It is with deep regret that I officially inform you of the death of your grandson, Staff Sergeant Grover G. McGuire. He died on the USS Repose hospital ship on 8 July 1952 as the result of a skull fracture caused by accidental gunshot wound. A letter containing further details will be forwarded to you at the earliest possible date. Please accept my sincere sympathy in this hour of grief.

The telegram had come from Major General John H. McCormick, Director of Military Personnel Headquarters, United States Air Force.

Staff Sergeant McGuire’s commanding officer sent Mrs. McGuire a letter dated 10 July 1952. It was addressed to her home at 30 Navesink Avenue in Highlands, New Jersey.

Dear Mrs. McGuire,

Please accept my sincere condolence in the tragic loss of your husband, Grover, who died on a nearby Naval Hospital ship on Tuesday as a result of an accidental gunshot wound.

Grover and another airman were visiting Tuesday afternoon in the home of a Korean friend when the tragedy occurred. The airman related that Grover pulled his gun from its holster and while apparently clearing the weapon of ammunition, accidently shot himself. A thorough investigation has been made and it has been accer-tained that the circumstances surrounding your husband’s death were entirely accidental.

While no human word can assuage your grief, please be assured that the thoughts of all of us here at the Group are with you, and that it is our earnest desire to be of every possible help to you.

Your