DMZ Flashpoints: The 1967 Camp Walley Barracks Bombing

Between 1966-1970 what became known as the “DMZ War” raged which saw soldiers stationed on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in regular contact with North Korean infiltrators probing US military defenses as well as trying to enter the country in order to establish a communist insurgency in the South. However sometimes the infiltration by the North Koreans was for the single minded purpose of killing Americans and that is exactly what happened on May 22, 1967 at an isolated American installation on the DMZ known as Camp Walley.  Camp Walley was an extremely small camp located adjacent to the north side of the Imjim River and short distance from the DMZ. The camp housed one company of infantrymen from A/1-23 Infantry Regiment.  The camp was basically just a small collection of quonset huts to house the men in between their guard shifts and patrol duty along the DMZ. Here is an image of what the small camp looked like:

Picture of Camp Walley via the Imjim Scouts website.

At dusk on May 21, 1967 a North Korean sapper unit infiltrated through the American patrolled area of the DMZ. The sapper team was carrying explosives that were intended to be used for the express purpose of bombing an American barracks. Prior infiltrations with the purpose of killing American soldiers had centered around small arms ambushes near the DMZ. This attack was going to be different and intended to send a message to the Americans that not even in their barracks away from the frontlines were they safe.  The North Korean sappers infiltrated 6 kilometers behind the American lines before coming upon Camp Walley. The North Koreans were so skilled at infiltration that they were actually able to creep around the camp and look into the different buildings and determine which ones had the most people in it before blowing them up. Unfortunately for the men of 1st Platoon, A Company, 1-23 Infantry Regiment, their barracks were chosen by the North Koreans to be the one that was blown up. The saboteurs set their explosives on two different barracks and fled.  At dawn the explosives went off destroying the two buildings.  Here is how the May 24, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes reported the bombing:

This image of the barracks bombing was provided courtesy of Jim Skiff who was a lieutenant assigned to the unit:

More pictures of the bombing can be seen on the Imjim Scouts website.

The blast from the bombing shook the entire camp and immediately alerted everyone that the base was under attack. Some of the Alpha company’s men began to sift through the rubble to find survivors while the Company Commander Captain Duncan personally led the sweep into the surrounding countryside to find the infiltrators. Unfortunately the search team came up empty and were not able to find them; they had long since fled the scene.  The bombing killed two soldiers and wounded 17 others. The soldiers killed were SP4 Carl R. Mueller from Texas and PVT Baron J. Smith from Washington State who were killed in their beds while sleeping. However, looking at the damage it is amazing that only two soldiers were killed in the bombing.

The North Korean sappers that conducted the operation were quite skilled according to Major Roger Donlon who was the first US Medal of Honor recipient in the Vietnam War who happened to be stationed on the DMZ at the time::

WITH THE U.S. 2ND INF. DIV., Korea TV Maj. Roger Donlon looked with both bitterness and admiration at the mangled and blasted remains of what had been two large barracks.

It had been a fast, neat job of sabotage and killing this Donlon had to admit. The North Korean commando team came in after dusk and went out before dawn, May 22, 1967. They had done their work with lethal efficiency and two American soldiers were dead in a heap of shattered rubble.

“At first,” said Donlon, “you admire a professional job. Then it makes you mad.”

The death and sabotage was one of the first sights to greet Donlon when he came into the U.S. 2nd Inf. Div. in May, a major for only two months.

You could spot him as a soldier anywhere. The close-cropped blond hair, the steady blue eyes, the set and determined features, the erect posture it’s all there, to mark Donlon’s profession and trade.

But when Donlon came to Korea, he did not wear two distinctive marks of the career he chose several years ago. He left his green beret back in Vietnam when he left in 1964 as a severely-wounded casualty. And the blue, white-starred ribbon that marks him as a Medal of Honor winner is not worn on his plain, no-frills uniform. An all-business soldier, Donlon only wears his Combat Infantryman Badge.

Donlon, the first soldier to win America’s highest award in the Vietnam War, is now in Korea. But the infiltration, terrorism and sudden death Donlon knew in another land are still part of his life. As a Special Forces man, he appraised the bombing with a coldly professional eye. As an American and a soldier, he felt grief and anger.

Where once the enemy was a stealthy little man named Charlie, who wore black pajamas and fought from waist-deep paddy slime, now Donlon must deal with an expertly silent intruder named Joe. Joe breaches barbed wire and creeps over dead, winter-browned farmland to blast sleeping men and attack frontline guard posts along the 18-mile sector of the Demilitarized Zone manned by Americans.

Joe deserves a very respectful kind of enmity and Donlon knows it. But Donlon feels that Joe has a long way to go before he can match the Vietnamese farmer who turns into a death-dealing guerrilla at dusk.

“They (the North Koreans) are well trained, and no doubt they’re very professional. But they’re not as good as the Viet Cong not yet. If you look at that one incident, yes, they did a job. They’re just not as tough and smart as Charlie, though. And there’s not as many of them, thank God.” [Stars & Stripes]

The fact that the North Korean sappers received recognition from someone of Major Donlon’s stature gives a good indication of how skilled the North Korean infiltrators were at the time, especially to pull off something like this so far from the DMZ.  The below tactical map shows how Camp Walley was located 6 kilometers away from the DMZ:

Really when you think about it, the fact that the North Korean infiltrators were able to cross mine fields, get through fencing, and evade hundreds of soldiers on patrol is really quite remarkable. The Google Earth image below gives an even better idea of the conditions and the type of terrain the saboteurs had to cross in order to accomplish their mission:

As Major Donlon indicated, you have to respect the enemy’s capabilities, but you can hate them for doing what they did. The bombing ended up not having the effect the North Koreans had intended. Instead of increasing fear in US troops it actually motivated them because of the cowardice of the attack. The bombing just made the soldiers serving on the DMZ more motivated to confront the North Korean threat and increased their vigilance while patrolling the DMZ. It was quite clear now that stopping infiltrations could literally mean the difference between life and death for the soldiers off duty in the rear.

Another unanticipated result of the barracks bombing was that units stationed even further in the rear then Camp Walley were ordered to conduct regular patrolling outside the camps. Units stationed at US military installations in Dongducheon and in Uijongbu were ordered to conduct regular patrols around their installations in search of North Korean infiltrators. These increased patrols created more difficulty for North Korean infiltrators to move around the countryside undetected as well as creating difficulty for spies to gather intelligence around American military installations. Instead of creating fear, the bombing simply strengthened the resolve of American units to confront the North Korean threat.

After the bombing the USFK Commander General Charles Bonesteel recognized the survivors of the attack with Purple Hearts. Here is how the May 30, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes reported this event:

Here is a list of the 17 soldiers presented Purple Hearts by General Bonesteel:

• SSG Jose Ruiz-Rodriguez
• SPC Erskine Clifford
• PFC Billy Lee
• PFC Arvie Cothren
• PFC Clifford Butler
• PFC Michael Key
• PFC Raul Gallardo
• PVT Danny Howarth
• PVT Curtis Flewellen
• PVT William Butzin
• PVT Thomas Lawrence
• PFC Stanley Isaac
• PFC Joseph Kinchen
• SSG Thomas Anderson
• SPC Nathaniel Conley
• PFC Thomas Rush
• PVT Gerald Conley

As far as Camp Walley today, next to nothing remains of the installation:

In the above picture you can make out the remains of what could have been buildings on the side of the hill. Camp Walley and the bombing that happened there is largely forgotten by everyone except for the people that served there.  The Korean War may have been known as the “Forgotten War”, but the “DMZ War” should been known as the “Really Forgotten War” since so few people know about this period in US military history.  Fortunately the 2nd Infantry Division is beginning to embrace this part of the unit’s history and remembering the soldiers who served during the DMZ War.  Maybe there should be a memorial of some kind to honor the victims of this cowardly bombing attack as well?

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