Support Force 21 at Changbong-ni — North of “Massacre Valley”

People who have read my Korean War novel War Remains have often asked me, “why did you choose this particular battle? I never heard of it.” Well, that’s one of the reasons.

Unless you are well-read and up on your history of Korean War, you’ve probably never heard of the battle which took place here on February 11-13, 1951. And that was why I chose this battle to open my novel because I wanted people to remember that the US lost a lot of men during those three days:

38^th Infantry Regiment: 462 KIA; 15^th FA Battalion: 208 KIA and the 503^rd FA Battalion: 56 KIA.

Support Force 21 was comprised of these units which was in support of the ROK 8^th Division (which suffered many casualties; some estimates as high as 10,000 men).

This is a photo of Changbong-ni where my novel begins. It was here, where the Support Force was dug in.