The Second Korean War?

Yesterday I ran into a man that was retired from The United States Army and was a veteran of the 7th Infantry Division campaign in Korea of 1968-1969. He was not affilaited with the Desert Dragons but that got me to thinking about how I found out about this weird part of history.

Prior to my joining the 8th Battalion 40th Armor they used to wear 7th Infantry Division Patches and were to my knowledege never called up to go to Korea but still wore that patch. They switched to the 63rd Division patch sometime in the 1980s.

We had a cook that wore a 2nd Infantry Division Combat patch, worn on the opposite shoulder of your current unit, and I asked how it was possible he was old enough to have it. He went on to explain it was for the Second Korean War not the first and that it was a common question.

In 1968 the North Koreans started a series of attacks on the DMZ to add pressure to the United States already bogged down in Vietnam with the Tet Offensive at the time. In the end LBJ backed down but did call 100,000 reservists, mainly Air Force, up to bolster Asia as a whole with around 7000 going to Korea.

So the Vietnam War really was a two campaign conflict just the second did not get that much media coverage.