| This information was taken verbatim from page five of the Spring 2001 edition of The Commemorator,
newsletter of the U.S. Korea 2000 Foundation, 4600 Duke Street, Suite 416, Alexandria, VA 22304-2517. Credit
for the availability of the information goes entirely to the U.S. Korea 2000 Foundation. KATUSAs saved
American Lives!
It’s time their sacrifice is acknowledged!
Too few Americans, and sadly, too few
Korean War veterans know of the blood shed by those Korean nationals who were assigned to US units during
the Korean War. The United States chose to meet maintaining our front line strength by using KATUSAs instead
of US soldiers. This was done for several reasons: (a) all available US manpower was needed to build our
NATO Forces because the US feared Soviet aggression in Europe, (b) in an effort to reduce US casualties in
Korea for fear of losing public support and (c) we misjudged the ferocious nature of the war. In simple
truth, every KATUSA killed, wounded, captured or missing would have meant that a US soldier would have been
killed, wounded, captured or missing! Thus when we are considering our Korean War casualties, this nation
ought to add the KATUSAs to the total—for in their place would have been an American. Between 16% to 24%
of our front line Infantry strength in US units were KATUSAs. The best available data suggests that their
casualty rate not only equaled US casualty rates, but exceeded them by 10% in several of our Infantry
Divisions. The KATUSAs were many times in the forefront of heavy engagements. Using the median of 20% and
evaluating a US rifle squad, that meant that between 2 to 3 were KATUSAs. Extrapolating casualties, using as
a basis US casualties and factoring 5% for the KATUSAs higher ratio, the following results:
| |
KIA |
WIA |
MIA |
POW |
TOTAL |
| KATUSA |
7,140 |
21,630 |
1,718 |
1,512 |
32,000 |
| US |
33,741 |
103,284 |
8,064 |
7,286 |
152,375 |
Not counted in the foregoing are the losses from the Korean Service Corps (KSC). Had there not been the
KSC, the US would have had to deploy seven each additional Transportation, QM, Engineer Battalions with the
attended losses that would have resulted within these battalions. |
