GI Flashbacks: The 1982 Defection of PFC Joseph White

I already posted this at Marmot's hole:

"I was in the ROK in 1982 and in the Army. As I recall it was classic case of the a soldier told he couldn’t see his ‘yobo’ (not used in the Korean sense, with the GIs it was a kept woman).

He was shacked up with a girl from one of the clubs. Had trouble with his 1st SGT and had his pass pulled.

I have seen many a fellow do really stupid things when facing separation from their girl friend.

The dating a north korean agent sounds like urban myth stuff."

I'm sure you, GI Korea, have seen lots of this too. A common, while sad, tale of a young soldier who messes his life up because of the ville.

Rich,

Some people that I know that served in Korea in the early 80's told me the same thing but I have never read anything that proves that. I think it is just an urban legend that was passed around to discourage soldiers from defecting.

I was Division CQ the evening PFC White was captured. I was ordered to hand deliver the news of his capture to three Battalion HQs, my own, the 122nd Signal Bn at Camp casey Korea. The message that went out to our division commanders that morning was "US soldier captured by North Korean infiltrators on DML" It is my understanding that IR photography confirms White being lead away from Oulette at gunpoint, and the lock was shot off his gaurdpost from outside, not inside as otherwise claimed.

PFC is a POW and should be treated as such. The fact he had a pass pulled (who didn't) and he didn't get along famously with his sergeabt (who did) and that he had scores of propganda leaflets (who didn't) in his footlocker – are all red herrings by a government who is perfectly happy leaving a man behind. They didn't want to start a war, period. Now I say we bring White home. If he died, it was while in North korean custody…but his death, like his capture has most likely been greatly exagerated.

SOUND OFF 2nd D !! Leave No man behind !!

Pfc White defected plain and simple. I was stationed their in 82. From the land of the morning calm. To fishheads and rice 24/7. Have a nice life.

I was stationed at Camp Howze (Bongilchon) from Feb '83- Feb '84, by that time PFC White's "defection" was talked about very little. In fact, the "tree trimming incident" of years prior was talked about 100 times more often than White. For about 8 months of my year there, I was the bases' C.C.I., working out of the base dispensery and had a close working relationship with all of the "working" girls, mamasans', and bar owners in the 'ville. At that time there was anywhere from 110 to 150 working girls in Bongilchon on any given week (including "yobo's"), and I did my best to keep track of them. As for the theory that white's yobo was a North Korean spy, I have to laugh. What a waste of time for an intel agency to have a spy posing as a working girl in a town where officers were prohibited from "partaking" in the women there. A very small number of NCO's on that base had access to sensitive intel, and even fewer numbers of privates. I can say that a lot of the girls did pump me rigorously, but not for information 😯 .

GI Korea

"passed around to discourage soldiers from defecting"

I was there the night it happened,to your quote,maybe urban ledgend,maybe not,young and dumb as he might have been,and there were many,you'd have to have your head up your ass before you got to the turtle farm to believe the propaganda,Me thinks it was the furry end of a tube that got him to chogie,I also heard he fell out and Top was on his ass to,but that furry end of a tube got him to cut a chogie more than Top

J. Moore's right,he did shoot the lock,he did yell out in Korean so they wouldn't wax his ass.

And yes,the Wild bunch was A-1/31st

Regiment was the Polar Bears

Just as is Cobra is C-1/9th

KEEP UP THE FIRE!

Does anyone remember see the video after his defection or the propaganda leaflets with his picture? Well anyway it appears that the morning that he defected the NK waited until sunrise or close to it to film him still inside of the dmz(foggy that morning) saying that he wanted to defect and that the US should get out of south korea. It seems like to me he was coached on what to say. Now on the propaganda leaflet, the picture taken of him and the two NK girls was shot from a high angle suggesting just as the leaflet, propaganda. I believe he wanted to return home but NK would not let him so they did away with him.

I was at the DMZ (III Marine Div) and Panmunjom in March of '83. During a briefing by an Army officer there we were told that PFC White had been denied the opportunity to see his Korean girlfriend (nothing mentioned about all the spy stuff) and became embittered and angry and that this is the working theory about why he defected. I believe this is why he did this desperate but stupid thing. During isolation, longing can become powerful and surreal. Too bad he couldn't keep his head rational.

I am not a Conspiracy Theorists but………..

I came to Korea for the 2nd time in 1982 and ended up in the 2nd Inf Division, 1/9th Infantry Alpha Company ..However, I was originally signed to Brigade HQ in Camp Howze(I believe it was the 3rd Brigade) but ended up being reassigned to Alpha Comapny 1/9th Infantry (Camp Liberty Bell) after an “Incident” in Yongi-Go involving too much alcohol and MP’s..(This incident assisted my decision in not re-enlisting….After losing a rank and leaving service in 1983 I ended up going to college and earning a Masters Degree. That night of drinking, in retrospect was the best decision I ever made, despite losing a stripe and and getting fined..No regrets…

Anyway, I concur with most of what folks have said reg the strange story of PFC White..However, I think there could be some merit to the NK spy theory.

First let me digress…When I got to Korea (2nd time) in the fall of 82, it was 3 weeks after White had crossed over. I ran into my squad Leader from Ft. Carson who had been assigned to a platoon in the same company as White….The rumor regarding a female NK spy, I realize sounds far fetched. However, I was told that this supposed NK Contact was not in the GI Ville of Bonglichon as many have suggested..Instead, it was in the “Not so GI” City of Moon-San, which I believe was 15 miles from Bonglichon/Camp Howze. Also, I understand that the woman he was seeing was not a gal of the Ville but was someone who was considered a College student and hung out at the Korean Cafe’s in Moonsan where he would find many eager students interested n learning conversational english…I also heard that White did not spend a great deal of time in the GI Ville (Except for the occasional “quickie”), but instead hung out in Korean establishments..

This might seem like heresay, but the folks who told me this had no reason to lie and were not trying to promote a NK Spy conspiracy at the time. I believe White received assistance crossing the Boarder..

I would love to hear any feedback..esp from Soldiers who served in DMZ

It’s interesting hearing all these comments. Sometimes I wonder about the truth. My mother and Joe’s mother have been friends since grade school and I had known him and his family since I was born. Joe’s brother David is schizophrenic. I wonder if Joe was also mentally ill. I do want to believe CQ82. It doesn’t seem right that someone who was angry about not seeing his girlfriend would cross a line that would prevent him from ever seeing her again. It doesn’t make sense. I was there when the family received a phone call from the president. They were told nothing further would be done to avoid an international incident. It has been so hard on his family.

I found this post, comments, and other articles on the Internet regarding this case to be highly interesting.

What I think remains, however, is a lack of closure, and possibly there will never be one, as:
a) we simply do not know the true facts of this soldier’s death and,
b) we only have theories regarding his motivation for defecting to North Korea.

I remember reading about this in the NY Times in Sept 1982. I went active-duty nine months later, and found myself in South Korea in the summer of 1985. By that time this case had apparently been abandoned in most people’s thoughts, and while I do remember it being discussed briefly, a lot of questions remain unanswered.

There is another link in which Joseph White’s squad leader has come forward and given a brief testimony regarding White’s character; that contribution includes valuable details of patrols in which the squad leader and Private White participated. This remains, of course, to be
verified, but I have no doubt in the squad leader’s testimony (it seems a very insightful, if unofficial, read). I, for one, would like to learn more. For example, if White was considered a risk to his unit (instances in which White allegedly banged his rifle on a tree during a patrol, allowing a North Korean soldier to escape into the night; on another occasion he was observed giving hand signals across the DMZ; on another White’s patrol partner was relieved and White’s weapon seized by his NCO). Why was White not relieved of duty? Why was he not simply evaluated to determine his ability to continue on duty?

I’m also a little interested in the U.S. government’s position on this. Has it just been completely abandoned? There have certainly been U.S. repatriation missions in the years since, to recover and return the remains of our service members who were KIA/MIA during the Korean War.

In addition, I’m also wondering if White’s Korean “girlfriend” was ever identified and questioned. Having been stationed in Korea on and off over the past 30 years, I know that if you have a Korean girlfriend, you’re also likely to have other Korean friends; friends of the girlfriend, other friends you pick up along the way, your buddy’s girlfriend, etc, who mostly tend to hang out together. Surely the girlfriend and/or other Koreans who knew White heard about what happened. Did none of them ever come forward with information?

At the time of White’s defection, North Korea already held in captivity a total of four former US servicemen (Charles Robert Jenkins, James Joseph Dresnok, Larry Allen Abshier, and Jerry Parrish). All of these men had defected in the early 1960s and would have been in or approaching their 40s at the time that White crossed over. All four had been sustained by the North Korean government for roughly 20 years; all had been at least semi-integrated into the North Korean culture, language, and way of life, if not fully assimilated. Only Jenkins, who has since been repatriated to Japan, and Dresnok, who remains in North Korea, are still alive. Yet, neither of these two men have offered knowledge of White’s circumstances, his whereabouts in North Korea, or his fate. None of them have ever alluded to the event whereby White defected (Mr. Jenkins claims he saw “something” about it on state television). Why is that? The four men who crossed in the 1960s were kept together; not in the same quarters, but in the same general location in the capital of Pyongyang. They were found wives, given a means of subsistence, and were used by the state for propaganda purposes; films, anti-US speech, teaching English, things of that nature. None of the four disappeared (nor were they killed) despite resisting as a group (they approached the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang and requested asylum but were denied and returned into the hands of the North Korean government). We should try to understand what made Joseph White’s situation different.

If White’s death were truly accidental, then I believe he would have at least been given a decent burial somewhere, if the decision had indeed been made by North Korea’s government not to return his body to U.S. authorities. Confronted with the possibility of accidental drowning, I also find it hard to believe that the body was never recovered. Then I must surmise that his death was not accidental, but rather deliberate, with the story of “accidental” presented as cover. Does no one but myself find it difficult, even for a Stalinist state such as North Korea, to not provide a decent explanation for White’s family, but would instead permit a humble (and rather hollow) letter to be written and delivered by one of his North Korean “friends”?

And what about these last shreds of evidence regarding the final days of White’s life? There were two reported letters after White’s disappearance, one which came from White to his mother, requesting a dictionary and other things; and then the final letter from the North Korean person which advised the family of his death. Where are these letters and what do they tell us?

There are a few articles on the Internet which describe this incident, but beyond that there is very little information, and the articles themselves tend to repeat the same story.

Admittedly there are some who have a negative view of White, and I do not deny, condone, nor condemn any of what they’ve written. At the same time, neither do I deny, condemn, or condone the beliefs or actions of White. In a true democracy you do not necessarily have to agree with another’s beliefs, but you do have to tolerate their right to an opinion. Is there a possibility that White was humiliated, ostracized, or otherwise treated as an outcast? It has already been stated that he failed a PT test, and that he did not have very good athletic ability. Could peer pressure, combined with his mediocre performance as a soldier, plus the denied request to see his “girlfriend”, and the reported issues he had with his unit leadership, have contributed to White’s state of mind in the days prior to, and the actual night, that he went over? I have to say that someone who shoots the lock off a gate on the DMZ in order to desert to the other side is certainly not acting rationally.

White’s performance, beliefs, respect or lack of respect by his peers probably doesn’t really matter anymore.

What should matter, in the final analysis, is that a nation lost a soldier, a soldier lost his life, and a mother lost a son. There is really very little compensation in any of what I’ve read so far to close this case out.

30 years ago was a long time ago and so many articles of “War” were almost broken at the time of his going AWOL, and it was AWOL, that remembering that fact is not difficult. The N.K’s were pissed because of a new attack chopper and a new fighter jet were being deployed to the tense northern region. His defection was followed by a bombardment of leaflets being dropped into our camp (Casey), with a picture of his smiling face with 1 or 2 sluts beside him. His unit must of been the biggest on the ROK because an entire Division apparently knew him personally. We were not under threat of Courts Martial to keep the photo, but some of the guys did so some one should still have one. As for his drowning, what happend to his remains?

As far as post defection (Time spent in NK) It is very interesting, as indicated in a previous post, that the four defectors from the 1960’s were “utilized” by the NK Government but PFC White was not (other than his appearance on Propaganda Leaflet(s) shortly after his defection). It makes me wonder if he was not used because NK did not find him to be a “credible” defector or maybe because they had ended their plans to continue using the American Defectors as they once had. However, some of the films/other propaganda that the American Defectors had appeared in, I believe, were made in the early 1980’s which would cast doubt on the theory that the NK Propaganda Ministry had stopped using the Americans as Propaganda tools…After thinking about it a bit, my guess is that the “not so charming” PFC White probably discouraged the NK Propaganda Machine from using him.

I was at “Camp Kitty hawk” and recorded the defector that addressed the North Korean government while in Combat Fatigue dress – and have a leaflet that was dropped. Following is the EXACT language on the leaflet:

“Dear Old Fellow Friends – I have been leading a contented life under the warm care of the DPRK. I have become very fond of a life in the capital seeing the sights and visiting the institutions of culture. My seeking a political assylum is a very right conduct. Joseph White, former american GI, PFC, in the 3rd squad, 3rd pltn, A Co, Ist Bn, 31st Inf Reg of the 2nd Inf Div stationed in S Korea.”

Below is an excerpt from a Time-Life article that summarizes the event based on eye-witness accounts; I did not read anywhere that White dragged his duffle bag and was chased and almost caught at the DMZ fence, but that would add some detail that is possibly missing.

We are talking serious fog-of-war here in that over 30 years have passed since this unfortunate event occurred.

If the gentleman in possession of the nK leaflet would be kind enough to scan a copy of it to my e-mail account, that would be appreciated:
joseph underscore wa at hotmail.com.

“PFC White was on duty at Guard Post Ouellette, but his mind was elsewhere. He complained to his squad leader, Sgt. Howard Todd, about being denied the opportunity to visit his South Korean girlfriend, who happened to be in the hospital. Sgt. Todd advised White to keep cool, that he might receive a pass in a week. Sgt. Todd left his position soon afterwards and so did White, ostensibly to get a blanket.

A few minutes later, PFC David Chapman, White’s roommate, saw someone signaling with a red-lensed flashlight near a locked gate. Chapman screamed out a challenge and White identified himself. “White, what are you doing down there?” Chapman yelled. A shot rang out and Chapman reacted by diving into nearby sandbags. “What the hell are you doing down there?” Chapman repeated. White replied that his M-16 accidentally discharged. Chapman stood up and ran towards the gate—first hearing and then seeing White running down the hill towards North Korea”.

“I am coming. Help me. Help me, North Korea,” White shouted in elementary Korean. A guard hit the post’s alert button, and the stunned squad looked on as White carefully picked his way across the heavily mined DMZ. The unit’s chaplain, a Catholic priest, shouted at White, pleading with him to return. Shortly after dawn the chaplain watched helplessly as six or eight North Korean soldiers grabbed White and manhandled him into a bunker and out of sight.

Terry Edge wrote:

We . . . watched the North Korea TV shows of PFC White at banquets with the North Korean leaders the rest of our time on the DMZ. I was there when it happened!

You were you able to watch North Korean TV? North Korea uses the PAL video standard and South Korea (and the US) use the NTSC video standard. Back then, TVs of one standard couldn’t properly display a broadcast from the other standard. With specialized equipment, a TV studio could convert a PAL signal and re-broadcast it in NTSC, but South Korean TV never showed North Korean TV shows back then.

So I’m curious as to how you were able to watch North Korean TV.

The below is from former Army SGT Charles Jenkins, who defected in 1965 and was repatriated to Japan in 2006, from his autobiography (Chapter 6, pp. 115-116):

“People always ask me about Joseph White, the U.S. Army private who walked across the DMZ in 1982, the first GI to do so since I did. But I never met White…except for watching the press conference he did in Pyongyang shortly after he crossed on TV. He was wearing his uniform and gave some predictable words of praise to Kim Il-sung and the paradise he had created in North Korea.

I never heard from him or saw him again. On April 15, 1984,
though, we were having a holiday party, as always, for the cadres
(April 15 is Kim Il-sung’s birthday), and I said to one of them,
‘Why don’t you bring White here?’ But this cadre—a guy we called the One-Hour Cadre since he never overstayed his welcome, unlike all the others—just said, ‘Uh-uh. We can’t use White’. He said that White had had some sort of accident or stroke and was now paralyzed. And that was the end of that…”.

My comments: if Pfc White had indeed suffered some type of seizure and was even semi-paralyzed by April 1984, then it is rather implausible that he would have swam out into the middle of a river over a year later. His death, then, could not have been a swimming accident as reported by letter to his parents.

That’s an interesting input, Tod. Could you expand a little on what made you feel he was “always a nut”. Or share more about what constant trouble he was in at Ft Riley? The excerpt below indicates he left of his own accord and wasn’t dismissed (I’m not challenging your version, just saying there is another side of it that has been presented):

From a Time magazine article circa Nov 1982:

‘Turned down by West Point, Joe enrolled in Missouri’s Kemper Military School and College, where he was regarded as a loner. A fair student but a poor athlete, he dropped out and enlisted in the Army after deciding Kemper was full of “losers”.’
Source: http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/life/905W-000-020.html

I was in Korea in 78-80, and spent a fair amount of time in Ouelette. In 1988, while attending MI OBC, the LTC (Retired) teaching us Counter Intel had been one of the investigating officers. He said the same thing: White was a screwup who was pissed at his 1st Sergeant for pulling his pass, and that most of his squad couldn’t stand the little goof (not his words). He actually had a copy of the leaflet Wayne referred to above (15 March 2013), and we commented that “Dear Old Fellow Friends” wasn’t something a native English speaker would use. (BTW, it sounds just fine in DPRK Korean – I was a 98G2LKP.) According to the LTC, White defected on his own, got disoriented, dropped the CEOI and GSR manuals he was carrying, and deliberately ran into NK while yelling for help. He also contended that after the NK’s “used him up” (his words), they tossed him into a coal mine and he “disappeared” from poor nutrition and overwork. This was in 1988, remember, when he said this.

(AP) WASHINGTON – Emails an American soldier reportedly sent to his parents before he was captured by the Taliban three years ago suggest he was disillusioned and considering deserting.

Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was “ashamed to even be American” and was disgusted with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and with the Army, according to emails quoted in Rolling Stone magazine.

Bergdahl, a 26-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bowe-bergdahl-us-soldier-held-by-taliban-was-ashamed-to-be-american-emails-show/

Ugh I f**king hate twitter, what a miserable excuse for an information platform. Retired can you just give us the jist of it because I’m not digging through the million half-coherent tweets on that link. Reading on Twitter’s like seriously listening to a drunk at 2:45am. 😕

I was there in 1984, I was the medic on GPO during the summer. Our team came down with an unknown illness and GPO was quarantined.

I too went to the gate and was let out by the armed soldier. I am working through it now after 30 years, but I know I am a patriot and just needed space.

I jogged with my locked and loaded 45 strapped on. I did not go far, and do not remember much else, who would want to.

That soldier let me out, why he knew what might happen to me. I was only the messenger Chief and other decided to quarantine us until lab work was done and mediation was administered.

Good thing I did not get lost, as the MDL is a stones throw.

I think is parents should know my experience, and that I think he like just needed a breath and took a wrong turn.

There is no fence one outside the gates.

I was there in 1982 at Camp Kitty hawk, now called Bonifas, named after the officer killed during the Axe murders. After receiving the call Joey White defected to NK, We went on Alert, QRF was ready and a couple Patrols were initiated on the MDL, looking for this knucklehead. Never found him, but they found some maps with detailed routes into NK from the OP. His Family was un-believing that their, American Pie eating, Baseball loving boy defected. I figured he was a disgruntled boy with a screwed up head. His intentions were to go to NK. Why? Who knows. A few months later, maybe a half a year, Leaflets covered JSA. Propaganda leaflets of Joey white with two NK women and a Black car, stating, “This is what you’ll have if you defect to NK.” The NKPA used him till he was exhausted, then we heard no more of the Whiskey Lima, (Worthless), Joey White.

I was there in 1982,I was in my yobo’s hootch across from the 7 up club with my yobo when a korean girl came in crying saying that pfc white was captured. I spent many nights in the club and clubs all over the western corridor and never had a korean girl even speak about north korea.

I know this thread has been quite for many years, but for those of you interested in the leaflet sent showing PFC White and a copy of his “Dear Old Fellow Friends” letter, the article in this link has photos of both: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/12/721_279549.html