DMZ Flashpoints: The 1976 DMZ Axe Murder Incident

29 years ago today, Operation Paul Bunyan was launched in response to the brutal axe murders of two US Army officers stationed on the Korean demilitarized zone at Panmunjom.

The two officers, CPT Arthur Bonifas commander of the security company at the JSA and his executive officer 1LT Mark Barrett on August 18, 1976 led a 5 man Korean Service Corps detail along with a six UNC soldier guard force to trim a tree that was obscuring the view of a guard shack located at the Bridge of No Return.

Here is an account of the incident from the book Hazardous Duty:

At 10:30 that morning, the KSC workers set up two ladders and started pruning branches. Five minutes later, a North Korean truck rolled up and disgorged two North Korean officers and nine enlisted men. The senior Communist officer was First Lieutenant Pak Chol, a veteran JSA guard known to have provoked scuffles with UNC personnel in the past. He asked Captain Kim what work was in progress and was told that the KSC team was only pruning branches. Lieutenant Pak muttered, “That is good.”

In their normally officious manner, the North Koreans began to coach the South Korean workers on the proper method of branch pruning. This was an obvious attempt to usurp the authority of the American officers, so Captain Bonifas told the men to simply get on with their work. Twenty minutes passed, and then, for no reason, Lieutenant Pak marched up to Captain Bonifas and ordered him to halt the trimming.

Bonifas refused, adding that his men would complete their job and leave. Lieutenant Pak shouted that anymore branch trimming would bring “serious trouble.” Captain Bonifas and Lieutenant Barrett had heard such threats before. They ignored the Communists. Still strutting and shouting, Lieutenant Pak sent away for reinforcements. Ten more Communist guards arrived by truck, and six more came trotting up from nearby guard posts. There were now thirty North Koreans surrounding the thirteen UNC soldiers and five KSC workmen. Lieutenant Pak was screaming now that any additional trimming would mean “death.”

The UNC Quick Reaction Force was monitoring the situation by radio and photographing the scene with a telephoto surveillance camera.

Captain Bonifas turned his back on the angry Communist officer to make sure the workers continued the pruning. He did not see Lieutenant Pak remove his watch, wrap it in a handkerchief and stick it into the pocket of his trousers. Nor did he see the other North Korean officer rolling up the sleeves of his jacket. An American NCO strode forward to warn Captain Bonifas.

At that moment, Lieutenant Pak screamed, “Chookyo!” Kill!

North Koreans Attack the Tree Trimming Detail

What proceeded to happen after that is the North Korean soldiers attacked the two American officers with their own axes and mattocks. The two officers were bludgeoned to death and the attack was only stopped when the driver of a two and half ton army vehicle drove at the attackers and over the mutilated body of CPT Bonifas dispersing the attackers. The North Koreans then quickly proceeded to run back across the Bridge of No Return. Overall two US officers were killed, 4 US soldiers injured, and 4 ROK Army soldiers were injured in the melee.

The North Koreans at the time had been committing a series of aggressive attacks on US and ROK soldiers. The North Koreans were trying to provoke a war by creating a US backlash. In 1976 the US had by then down sized the US commitment of soldiers to defend Korea by withdrawing the 7th Infantry Division leaving only the 2nd Infantry Division which remains today to help protect Korea. Plus the US was just coming out of the humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam that had greatly sapped the morale of the military and the American public. All during this time the North Koreans had undergone a large build up of forces themselves to the point where they had a two to one advantage over the UNC forces.

Kim Il Sung felt he could militarily defeat the UNC Army at this time, but he needed the UNC to attack him first to secure the backing of world opinion. If the US conducted a bombing campaign or any other direct show of force on the North Koreans war would of broke out and Kim Il Sung could blame the Americans for it and legitimize his invasion.

Kim Il Sung got his response from America which demonstrated America’s resolve in protecting Korea’s freedom with Operation Paul Bunyan.

Something substantial had to be done in response to the North Korean aggression but war was something the US did not want to be responsible for starting. However, if the North Koreans wanted war the US was making preparations for it. All the forces in Korea went to the highest state of alert DEFCON-3. Soldiers in the both the US and ROK Armies moved North to their battle positions, extra naval power was brought in, SR-71 flights were increased over North Korea to monitor troop movements, and F-111 bombers capable of dropping nuclear munitions were flown overnight from the United States to Korea.

This massive show of force by the United States had the desired effect of causing the North Koreans to take a defensive posture. SR-71 reconnaissance photos showed the entire North Korean country preparing for invasion. This had to have a psychological effect on the North Koreans because they had always trained and prepared for an offensive against the South Koreans and now here they were back on their heels.

With the military build up complete something had to be done about that tree. That tree stood as a challenge to all free men. It was decided that the tree must go. Here is more from the book Hazardous Duty:

Every operation needs a name and General Stilwell’s was appropriate: Operation PAUL BUNYAN. The key elements were surprise, speed of execution and withdrawal, and avoidance of direct engagement with North Korean troops. Our forces would include soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division, as well as ROK Special Forces and Recon troopers of the 1st ROK Division. Altogether, a force of 813 men would be involved. Task Force VIERRA (named for Lieutenant Colonel Victor Vierra, commander of the USASG) would conduct the actual tree cutting. The unit would include sixty American and ROK guards, divided in two platoons, armed with sidearms and pickax handles. The ROK men were Special Forces; each man was a Black Belt in TaeKwonDo. They would guard two eight-man engineer teams who would actually cut down the tree with chain saws. A truck-borne ROK reconnaissance company, armed with M-16 rifles, mortars, and machine guns, would be prominently deployed just outside the JSA: crack South Korean troops defending their own soil. They would be beefed up with American tube-launched optically tracked wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank-missile teams.

Vierra’s troops were backed up by other elements of the division, including a reinforced composite rifle company from the 9th Infantry Regiment, which would be orbiting aboard twenty Huey helicopters a few hundred meters south of the DMZ, supported by twelve AH-1G Cobra gunships. Tank-busting F-4 Phantoms would be prowling at a slightly higher orbit. F-111 medium strategic bombers would orbit still higher, and be clearly visible to North Korean radar.

To complete the demonstration of firepower, three batteries of American 105mm howitzers were to be moved across the Freedom Bridge north of the Imjin River. Another three batteries of ROK heavy artillery would be positioned just south of the river in clear view of North Korean positions. The gunners, Stilwell said, would have “rounds in the tube and hands on the lanyards.”

Operation PAUL BUNYAN was scheduled to begin at exactly 0700, the morning of Saturday, August 21, 1976.

At that precise moment, a massive flight of B-52 bombers from Guam would be moving ominously north up the Yellow Sea on a vector directly to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. In the Sea of Japan, Task Force 77.4’s aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Midway, would launch forty combat aircraft that would vector north above international waters.

The ROK Army Tae Kwon Do black belts were specifically selected by South Korean president Park Chung Hee himself to deal with any possible North Korean interference in the tree cutting.

UNC Soldiers Trim Tree Near the Bridge of No Return

A total of 13 chainsaws wielded by soldiers from the 2nd Engineer Battalion were used to cut down the tree. The first branch of the tree was cut at 07:18 and the entire tree cutting was complete by 07:45. Saving face is a very important social factor in Asia and after the tree cutting all that remained was the stump to remind the North Koreans of the extreme loss of face that had just received by the US and ROK soldiers.

In fact days later the North Koreans would offer a statement of regret for the incident and a plan was worked out to remove four North Koreans guard points south of the Military Demarcation Line. The massive US and ROK show of force had made the North Koreans back down, make concessions, and lose face. This was definitely not the result Kim Il Sung had expected.

Today where the stump once stood is marked with a plaque and the part of the tree that was cut down was once housed in the 2ID Engineer Brigade headquarters which this summer has deactivated and the tree was planned to be moved to either the Ft. Leonardwood Engineer Museum or the 2ID Museum on Camp Red Cloud.

Though today tensions may not run as high as they were on the DMZ in 1976, however the Panmunjom Axe Murder Incident should still serve as a reminder of the nature of the North Korean regime and the commitment of the United States military and the ROK Army to protect freedom and democracy on the Korean peninsula. The sacrifice by CPT Bonifas and 1LT Barrett is just another example that freedom is in fact not free, especially here in Korea.
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For more on Operation Paul Bunyan check out the following books: