Burdens of Honor

Sergeant Eddie J. Conlin's Korean War Experience

May 24, 2024

Eddie Conlin was born with a smile and an adoring disposition, always wanting to help others. In 8th grade, when his parents divorced, he dropped out of school to help support his mother and younger siblings. In 1942, after turning 18, he registered for the draft and though many of the young men from the neighborhood were called, Eddie never was. He chose to use those years to continue to support his family while his brothers and sisters continued their schooling, securing a good job with a local manufacturing company.1

Edward John Conlin. Circa 1948. Eddie was born 7 Sep 1924. He did register for WW2 draft, but was not called up. He voluntarily joined the army in 1948. Photo from an undated and unnamed newspaper clipping provided by Robyn Rice Conlin.

Those traits, along with his undeniable good looks, are likely what won over a gal from the neighborhood named Mary Joyce Corbo. She was almost eighteen to Eddie’s 24, but with persistence and charm, Eddie won the permission of her parents to take their youngest daughter on a date. If he’d have thought he’d fall in love with her, he may not have even asked her out, since just a month before he had proudly joined the Army and knew a deployment was imminent. Of course fate had something else in mind and before the two had a chance to marry, Eddie was shipped to Okinawa, Japan to be part of the occupation army. He carried a wallet-size photo of Mary Joyce with him.

World War II had ended three years prior, but the U.S. was leading the occupation and rehabilitation of the Japanese state. The Army was involved in aiding with political, economic, and social reforms, most of which were welcomed by the Japanese people.2 For a U.S. soldier in Japan at this time, tensions were minimal and in fact, the peace-keeping presence, along with the rebuilding and humanitarian efforts were welcomed. Unfortunately, though, General MacArthur’s focus on rebuilding had left his troops “poorly equipped, and poorly trained.”3 At the conclusion of the costly second world war, military budgets were slashed and any remaining funds were put towards the rehabilitation efforts. In practical terms this meant that new combat equipment was not being manufactured, nor were the new soldiers undergoing any type of infantry training.

Eddie had been in Okinawa for about a year when North Korea, armed with new weapons from Russia (and eventually foot soldiers from China), invaded South Korea. The newly formed United Nations (U.N.) condemned the act and vowed to fight the communist threat with an Army of soldiers from various U.N. countries including the United States. The fact that the U.N. Army was composed of poorly trained soldiers and outdated combat equipment was not lost to the U.N. leaders. Instead, buoyed by the epic win of the Allies against Germany and Japan a few years earlier, the U.N. whole-heartedly – and quite arrogantly – believed that the mere presence of allied troops in South Korea would send the North Koreans back to their side of the border.4

To that end, Eddie’s division was dispatched to South Korea to help defend against the communist invasion from the North. The reality of being ill-equipped and inadequately prepared for what they were about to encounter didn’t quite register with the men, Eddie included. On the contrary, he and his fellow infantrymen gleefully left Japan for Korea with a sense of bravado, anxious to “kick some Korean ass.” By the time they arrived, the North Korean Army had gained significant ground since their invasion a month prior. The enemy had captured South Korea’s capital and pushed down through most of the country. The U.N. troops were tasked with defending the only territory remaining in their control: the shrinking perimeter around Pusan – which by now was just a small pocket of land in the southeast corner of South Korea. If the allies were to win the war against communism, maintaining the Pusan Perimeter was imperative.

The first phase of the Korean War showing the Korean People’s Army attack situation map. The green area in the southeast corner was all that was left in control of the United Nations Army. Image source: Wikipedia Creative Commons.

If ever there was a literal example of “trial by fire” this was it. The overwhelming enemy force and superior weaponry became apparent almost immediately to all those with boots on the ground. There was no time for training. No briefings. Instead, almost immediately upon arriving, Eddie and the men of Company C were sent to the front line. Between July and early September, Eddie and his fellow soldiers endured the chaos of relentless attacks, their numbers dwindling with each passing day. By early September the situation had become unsustainable. The soldiers were being told that maintaining the Pusan border was of utmost importance in the war against communism; yet increasingly more troops were being diverted away from the border to prepare for a new operation being planned by General MacArthur.

A good soldier follows orders, often without insight to the bigger picture. In this case, the bigger picture was bleak for Eddie’s division because as it turned out, those remaining behind to defend the Pusan border were being sacrificed for the good of a larger strategy.

“I had to sacrifice [an] entire company . . . I had to buy time for the other units . . . It was a terrible, terrible moment and a brutal decision. It was the hardest decision I ever made. Almost no one [sic] survived.”5
– Colonel Paul Freeman

With no updated or functioning heavy artillery the troops struggled to maintain the perimeter. They fought during the night and trudged through the muck during the day. There was no sleeping. There was no time for building friendships with other infantry men because they were killed too quickly to even get a name. The blood and brutality were made worse by the terrain and the rainy weather. By the time early September came along, it looked like the end was coming quickly for the South. “The North Koreans had rapidly encircled and started shrinking the men down. By midnight there was almost nothing left of the company.”6 One unit commander later told the Washington Post, “I lost a hell of a lot of people who I wouldn’t have had we been better equipped and better prepared. We had machine guns that didn’t work. We had radios that didn’t work...New people coming in would have no infantry training whatsoever, yet they were called on to act as infantrymen in a very brutal war.”7

The battle for the Pusan border started 4 August 1950 and ended 18 September 1950. Eddie almost made it to the end. On September 9th — two days after his 26th birthday — he and the soldiers all around him were shot by the advancing Korean People’s Army. Just after Eddie was shot on the shores of the Naktong River, the fatally wounded soldier next to him pulled a letter from his jacket and made Eddie promise to get it home to his sweetheart on his behalf. Eddie assured him he would and tucked the letter into his own pocket. The soldier died before Eddie could get his name. It was only moments later when he heard the enemy troops coming over the embankment bayonetting the few remaining survivors. Lying as still as he could in the boggy rice paddy, a thrust of a bayonet barely missed Eddie. Then he passed out.

**Men of the 5th fire a .30 caliber machine gun at the Communist-led North Koreans across the Naktong River, north of Taegu. 18 Sep 1950. Korea. This image is considered public domain.**

Days later, when Eddie was eventually discovered, he lay along the shoreline of the river, surrounded by fallen fellow-soldiers, immersed in the thick mud of a rice paddy, his watch shattered, and his arm grievously injured. He was dragged out unconscious and remained in that state until he awoke in a hospital bed several days later. Sadly, the letter he had promised to deliver to the unnamed soldier’s sweetheart was nowhere to be found.

In comparison to the United States Marines, Navy and Air Force, the U.S. Army took the biggest hit in casualties. Of the 4,600 U.S. soldiers that were killed in the battle, 85% were Army soldiers – Eddie’s comrades. He was among the few survivors, but too wounded to continue fighting, so after 47 days of combat, and a week in a field hospital, Eddie was evacuated from South Korea to the United States. About a month later, Eddie was back in his hometown, filing for a marriage license and marrying Mary Joyce.

**Eddie and Mary Joyce Corbo married on 28 October 1950. Photo courtesy of Lisa Conlin Fischbach.**

The chaos of war and the weight of the unfulfilled promise occasionally wore on Eddie, but not knowing the name of the fallen soldier became a continuous, albeit quiet, burden. Eddie may never have realized that it was this burden that fueled his kindness and dedication to helping others. His career in night club management found him connecting with people in circumstances both favorable and otherwise. He fiercely protected the bullied and gently mentored the troubled. He made sure the underprivileged kids from the neighborhood had Christmas gifts. He indulged his wife and with loving military particularity, helped raise his children.

Above all, Eddie made sure to learn the names of everyone who crossed his path, honoring each one as if to ease the weight of that single, unknown name.

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