The Borinqueneers of the Korean War

Kelly Therese Pollock  0:00  
This is Unsung History, the podcast where we discuss people and events in American history that haven't always received a lot of attention. I'm your host, Kelly Therese Pollock. I'll start each episode with a brief introduction to the topic, and then talk to someone who knows a lot more than I do. Be sure to subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app, so you never miss an episode. And please, tell your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, maybe even strangers, to listen too. On this week's episode, we're telling the story of the Borinqueneers in the Korean War. As a result of the December 10, 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish American War, the island of Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States. By the following year, an act of the United States Congress approved the formation of the Puerto Rican Battalion of Volunteer Infantry. To serve as soldiers in the volunteer infantry, the Puerto Ricans needed to take an oath of United States citizenship. In March, 1915, the Puerto Rican Regiment of Infantry fired what some consider to be the first United States shot against German forces during World War I, when they forced the surrender of an armed German supply ship, the Odenwald, which was attempting to leave San Juan Bay without clearance. During World War I, the Puerto Rican soldiers were given support roles, and they served bravely, including in defending the Panama Canal. After the end of World War I, in June of 1920, they were reorganized as the 65th Infantry of the United States Army. With the US entry into World War II, the 65th Infantry Regiment was initially posted to support roles, again defending the Panama Canal. By late 1944, however, their services were needed in Europe, and the 65th Infantry Regiment saw combat in the Maritime Alps, fighting German forces along the border between France and Italy. The 65th Infantry Regiment really rose to prominence in the United States Army in 1950, during Operation PORTREX, a military exercise on the island of Vieques, about eight miles east of Puerto Rico. During the exercise, the 65th Infantry Regiment surprised the army by holding their own against combined forces of well trained Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. With this proof of their abilities, the 65th Infantry Regiment was deployed to Korea later that year. For the 35 years before World War II, Imperial Japan had ruled Korea. After Japan's surrender at the end of World War II,  the United States and the Soviet Union divided the Korean Peninsula, with the Soviet Union occupying the peninsula north of the 38th parallel, and the United States occupying the region south of the 38th parallel. Although the division was meant as a temporary measure, the growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the US resulted in two completely separate regions, with the communist regime in North Korea, and the capitalist Republic of Korea in the south. In June, 1950, the North Korean People's Army with the financial backing of the Soviet Union and China, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. Within days, US President Harry Truman, fearing the spread of communism, had ordered US forces to Korea to fight the invading North Koreans. The US never actually declared war on North Korea, however. In early August, 1950, the 65th Infantry Regiment was ordered overseas, and in the 10 days they were given before setting sail from Puerto Rico, they enlisted over 1800 new recruits. On the long ocean voyage, the men of the 65th adopted their battle name, Borinqueneers, a portmanteau of Borinquen, the Taino word for Puerto Rico, and buccaneer. After landing in Pusan, South Korea in September, the Borinqueneers faced heavy fighting on the battlefields. In November, they were attached to the US Army's Third Infantry Division, their previous opponents in the PORTREX exercises. In December, 1950, the 65th Infantry Regiment protected the withdrawal of US Marines from the ports of Hungnam, in what was later called the greatest evacuation movement by sea in US military history. The efforts of the 65th protected over 100,000 service members as they withdrew. In early 1951, the 65th participated in the recapture of Seoul from the North Koreans, after which South Korea and its allies held on to Seoul for good. General Douglas MacArthur, then in command of the US troops in South Korea, wrote of the 65th, "The Puerto Ricans forming the ranks of the gallant 65th infantry, give daily proof on the battlefields of Korea of their courage, determination, and resolute will to victory, their invincible loyalty to the United States, and their fervent devotion to those immutable principles of human relations, which the Americans of the continent and of Puerto Rico have in common. They're writing a brilliant record of heroism in battle, and I am indeed proud to have them under my command. I wish that we could count on many more like them." After several more successful missions, in September, 1952, the 65th suffered terrible casualties In the Battle of Outpost Kelly, as Chinese forces, fighting in support of the North Koreans, overran the hill and drove off the Borinqueneers. Their new commander, Colonel Chester B. DeGavre, reacted badly to the losses and ordered the men to shave their mustaches, "until they gave proof of their manhood," while also taking away the rations of rice and beans. Even the name Borinqueneers was stripped from their Jeeps.

In October, 1952, the 65th was ordered to defend UN Outpost Hill 391, nicknamed Jackson Heights, in honor of Captain George Jackson. Dozens of soldiers in the 65th, ,demoralized by their punishments and facing what seemed like a suicide mission, refused their orders, and retreated from Hill 391. That December, 91 of them were convicted in mass courts martial, dishonorably discharged, and sentenced to one to 16 years of hard labor and confinement. After public pressure, the men, nearly all of whom had received ratings of at least good or satisfactory service prior to the retreat, were eventually granted clemency or full pardons. In April of 2016, the 65th Infantry Regiment received the Congressional Gold Medal, the first regiment from the Korean War to be awarded the medal. Their citation read in part, "The service of the men of the 65th Infantry Regiment is emblematic of the contributions to the armed forces that have been made by hundreds of 1000s of brave and patriotic United States citizens from Puerto Rico over generations, from  World War I to the most recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq." Joining me now, to help us learn more about the 65th Infantry Regiment is writer Talia Aikens-Nunez, author of the young adult book, "Men of the 65th: The Borinqueneers of the Korean War."

Hi, Talia, thanks so much for joining me today.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  11:14  
Thank you so much for having me. 

Kelly Therese Pollock  11:16  
Yes, I am so excited to learn about this piece of history that I knew nothing about. Want to start by asking how you got interested in it and decided to write this book?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  11:28  
Yeah. So about 10 years ago, I was at a family gathering with my husband's family. And I while we were there, I was talking to his grandfather, who showed me this medal. It was actually a replica of the Congressional Gold Medal that the Borinqueneers were given in around 2013. And so I asked him like, well, "Who are these men? Who was this? What was this unit?" And then he started to tell me the history of the unit. And of course, like most people, I then went to Google and like, was trying to find a book. Like, I wanted to find a book for myself a book for my kids, like, you know, the fact that my husband's grandfather was part of this really important piece of American history, I, of course, wanted to make sure my kids knew all about it. And then, of course, I couldn't find anything. And so then I remember on the ride home, my husband was like, "Well, I guess you have to write it now." And so I did.

Kelly Therese Pollock  12:30  
I love that. So this is, you say, you know, the Korean War is kind of the the forgotten war in American history in many ways. And this infantry is kind of a forgotten infantry. But the military tends to have a ton of documentation about what's going on. So what are the sources, the way that we know this history? Like, what what were you able to dig into to recover this?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  12:55  
My, the most valuable research tool for me was the Veterans History Project through the Library of Congress Congress. So I actually watched, because like, so of course, I read, you know, memoirs of generals and military historians. But that gives you kind of, like, logistics and like where things were, at what time vary like, black and white, but I wanted to kind of get that, that like water color, like fill in of what happened in this part of history. So then I just listened to like, oh, gosh, countless hours of veterans' stories about their time, you know, with World War I, World War II. Actually, there's no, there weren't any World War I recordings. I had some written documentation on World War I. And then World War II, I had a lot of oral history accounts, as well as the Korean War.

Kelly Therese Pollock  13:52  
So as you're thinking about writing this book, you've written other kids' books that were, you know, were a little bit different than this one. As you're thinking about writing this book, and the publisher says it's, you know, six to 12th grade or so, how do you think about framing a book like that, and figuring out like, the right tone, the right level of detail for that kind of audience?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  14:17  
Honestly, trial and error. It's like, I did so many drafts for this book. And I also use my own kids to even like, gauge different because especially when you're talking about the military, there are so many layers on it and specific terms. There was a lot of back and forth trying to strike the right balance between, "Okay, I'm gonna teach you this about history, and at the same time, I really don't want you to have to like go back to the glossary every two seconds." So, so it really just went we just, you know, Lerner, they have great editors. And so we just went back and forth a lot.

Kelly Therese Pollock  14:53  
And as you were working with your kids figuring this out, like what what are the kinds of things you know, the that you've learned about it, you know. Like, were there things that they were like, "Whoa, this is way over our head, or this is way too simple." What did that process look like? I'm imagining doing that with my own kids. 

Talia Aikens-Nunez  15:10  
Yeah, yeah, no, it was. It was like, you know, like, even just like, terms like a squad versus a unit versus like. And so like, those types of things, I could tell like, you know, your own kids, so you can tell when they kind of glaze over and so you're like, okay, encircle here. And so it was kind of a process of that, as well as even just reading it out loud to myself, and thinking about, you know, trying to frame putting myself back into, like, early teenagehood. Like, would I understand this? And so it just, it's a long process, though. It was a lot of reading, rereading, editing, re editing. And I hope I struck, got the right balance, but you know, there's always that chance.

Kelly Therese Pollock  15:56  
I mean, the fun thing about reading a young adult nonfiction book as an adult is that, you know, there are plenty of books that I wish had those, you know, like, the timeline at the end of what happened and the glossary and the, you know, I admit, I did not understand infantry versus unit versus et cetera, until I read your book and went, "Oh, thank you for explaining that." So,

Talia Aikens-Nunez  16:17  
Ya know, there were actually several people that said that even just like when it comes to different people in the military, like enlisted men, versus noncommissioned officers versus what, what are commissioned officers, like, you know, all those different ranks within the military people like, "Oh, you really, now I get it when I hear a story on the news.

Kelly Therese Pollock  16:38  
Yeah, no, that's great. So let's talk a little bit about this is a very unusual infantry in the history of the United States military, and especially this time period, we're talking about the early 1950s. The military is starting to think more about race, is starting to think about desegregation, but it's not really there yet. So talk to me a little bit about the unusual racial makeup of this infantry.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  17:09  
Yeah, so the 65th Infantry Regiment was the only Latino segregated unit in military history in the army. And because of that, during World War I and World War II, they were relegated to mostly support roles. So they didn't really get to experience combat. They were highly trained, because they were trained with the other parts of the military. But they weren't actually they really were doing, you know, supply runs and, and different things like that, rather than actual combat. But what that ended up doing was by the time they went to the Korean War, they already a lot of the men that went there, because it fell right on the heels of war, World War II, were World War II vets. So they had that experience. And they then were able to kind of support some of the younger enlisted men in the 65th, to help kind of give them on the job training also.

Kelly Therese Pollock  18:09  
And so by the time we're talking about, of course, Puerto Ricans were United States citizens, but this infantry actually dates back prior to that, prior to the time that all Puerto Ricans had United States citizenship. Can you talk a little bit about that? That early history?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  18:27  
Yeah. So okay, so the regimen was created in the late 1990s. And that was after the Spanish American War. So that's when Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States. And so during a period that was probably about was at 20 to 40 years, I can actually give you the exact dates, but around that time, that they could become US citizens if they served in the military, but more they were not already automatically given citizenship. It wasn't until later was the Jones-Shafroth Act that they that Puerto Ricans became US citizens. But part of what people like kind of sometimes glossed over in history is part of that reason is so that they can be drafted. So and at that time, that's how a lot of people entered the military was via the draft. So it wasn't like this, I hate to  call like, a handout or anything, like it was really it was the US did that specifically for that reason.

Kelly Therese Pollock  19:36  
So I one of the things that I think is so interesting about this particular story is that it's a sort of meta story of colonialism. And so there's the United States taking over Puerto Rico and these people then becoming part of the United States military. And then there's this further story in Korea. It's really a colonial fight right between you know, Soviet controlled North Korea and United States controlled South Korea. So can you talk a little bit about that, and the the sort of intersecting things that are going on here?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  20:12  
Yeah, I tried to give a backdrop, especially like World War II really sets it up. And so you know, and that's when the, you know, the arbitrary line is drawn in Korea. And that's when you know, the Soviets, I  won't say gained power, but they were able to essentially gain power in North Korea, and the United States was supportive of South Korea. And so you already had this kind of this Cold War like theme that starts really at, you know, at the end of World War II, and then really plays out in the Korean War, especially when then you have the Chinese join the North Koreans because the Soviets actually didn't send troops. They sent weapons and military things like that. But it was really the Chinese when they came into the war, because they came in with large numbers. I mean, there was a huge Chinese buildup and offensive, and it really, then that's when the lines really start to become very clear and drawn. And then at the same time, then you have MacArthur in the military kind of ramping up that type of rhetoric of kind of us versus them. And it's interesting that there was then sort of the de escalation after of course, when when MacArthur's fired, and just maintaining the status quo, but it really sets up then the next what, several decades of that type of line.

Kelly Therese Pollock  21:50  
Yeah, it really feels like a proxy war for the war that the Soviets and the United States were not actually fighting the hot war they were not fighting. Exactly. So I want to talk some then about their, you know, the, the soldiers are coming from Puerto Rico, which has a very specific geography and climate, and they're going to another island, but with a totally different geography, climate that they need to quickly adapt to, and be able to fight within. Could you talk a little bit about what what the life on the ground was like for soldiers in the Korean War.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  22:27  
So the the, the part of that I tried to explain in the book also is just like, the vast climate difference from South to North Korea, and how that changes the way the war looks. So and also, just to add another layer, which I don't think a lot of people know, when they went first, when they went on the ship to Korea, they didn't know where they were going. Nobody told them, they couldn't be told where they're going. So they're on a boat, they have no clue where they're going. They're in summer clothes, like these are men that you know, 80 degrees is 70 is chilly to them, you know, like 80 degrees is like the norm. And, and then they are brought to Korea. And essentially, like in the book, I taught that all their their first order was go north. That was it, just go north,that way. Go that way. And so they had to you know, their commanders them, they had to figure out okay, what does this mean? They're sent to this, like rickety trains that like were loud and chugging and squeaking. So it's not like they had an element of surprise, like, they were kind of like sitting ducks as they're, like, charging north. But then as they charge north, they're really successful. So they keep going north keep going north cross the 38th parallel, they're in North Korea. It's freezing. And so they're and then also on top of it at that time, winter arrived by November. So it's like, you know, 20 degrees to then the wind chill of negative 20. They're going up mountains, the US, just the way that infantry is done, it's usually from higher points so you can see where maybe the enemy might be approaching. So as we all know, you go up higher, it gets colder. And so they're in like, summer clothes fighting. They're taking towels to wrap to make like scarves and mittens. They use some of their like, heat their tent stoves to heat the tent areas. They weren't even given like the proper sleeping bags. And so they kind of they had to make do a lot of makeshift, there actually many, many articles that the military ran at the time of heat gadgets that they made to essentially tell other people in the military about, "Hey, this is how you can keep warm too." One person I interviewed, his name is Celestino Cordova, he he talked about just like standing up and just jumping continuously jumping just to try to get warm because body to a certain temperature so that he could like function and move his fingers and, and things like that. So they were given this like impossible task, and triumphed.

Kelly Therese Pollock  22:37  
And so you just mentioned mountains too, the hilly, mountainous terrain seems so important to the the kind of war that they're fighting in the I mean, it really becomes like a war of inches. Right and say, you move forward a few inches back a few inches, you know. So can you talk a little bit about the the terrain as well?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  25:32  
Yeah, so actually, there's a part of the book that I talk about when they start to the men start to experience their biggest losses. So this is well into the Korean War. So one of their orders was to go on to this hill and take it, keep the hill. But because of the terrain, so like I was talking about infantry, the modern infantry, they're like, they're supposed to dig in. So you're supposed to create emplacements and encampments like in the hill, so that you have like, some cover some way to be hidden some way to also rotate like with another person, so maybe one person's like resting while the other person might be watching and things like that. But a lot of these mountains didn't have that. They were just a rock, just a solid rock. So no way to dig in. But of course, the you know, Chinese and the North Koreans knew this. So they would let them set up and essentially they were like sitting ducks. Because they knew, "Oh, yeah, they're gonna be out, exposed, and and that that's part of why they started to experience some of those losses.

Kelly Therese Pollock  26:40  
So the, this regimen gets a lot of praise for being really brave for being just in really great soldiers. As you mentioned, they were really well trained before they got to Korea. But then there is this this moment in the Korean War, where there's, you know, it's one of these terrible situations where it's kind of no win and they're retreating. And they end up en masse being court martialed. Can you talk a little bit about that, because it's really this kind of shocking, you know, example of of racism, of course, because it's, you know, that this is not unusual for retreat to happen and for, you know, during retreat for things to go a little bit awry. So can you talk a little bit about the the circumstances and what what happened there?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  27:28  
Yeah, so the military learned a lot of things during World War II, and one of them was that soldiers can get like battle fatigue. So you know, fighting continuously on end is not good for the soldier. So then the military started to try to fix that. And they added what they call a rotation policy. And so after a certain period of time, you would rotate out, so there was rotation policy being in the war. So being in the frontlines after a certain period of time, you can rotate to backline. And then also, if you're active combat for a certain period of time, you would rotate back home back to the United States, and then have somebody else come. One of the unintended consequences with that rotation policy was that after hours, quizzes were dragged on for years, after a certain period of time, all of those people that had all of that extensive training, World War II experience were rotated out. And so then you brought in a bunch of new young, you know, energetic soldiers, but they didn't have the experience that the older ones did, and they didn't have any of the older ones there to kind of guide them because of that rotation policy. So that rotation policy then sets up the time you're talking about about like the court martial. So there were two of these hills, one of which was, like I was explaining before about being just like a solid rock. And so they had losses on those. So like I said, like the, the Chinese and the North Koreans were essentially just killing them, I could just see them and just just kill them en masse because they couldn't dig in. And so then what that caused was, you know, men to bring men down to the medic. So this this main area where the biggest part of the court martials happened, it was in front of the main line of resistance. So it wasn't like they had, they could just go straight down the hill, bring somebody down and then go back up to fighting. It was it was about 200 yards in front of the main line where you had the medics and all those types of things. And so when they started to bring men down and men were coming back down the hill, they received orders that they had to go back up and continue to fight. And, you know, mind you, there were these two hills back to back and back to back months, October, November, where of course they remember all of the things that happened from the previous time when the enemy was picking them off, and they could, you know, their fellow soldier was dying next to them. And also just for context, Puerto Rico's not the biggest island. So a lot of these guys knew each other from home. And so you know, you're seeing somebody potentially, you went to middle school with who dies right next to you, you know, like, there's a element of trauma and shock that happens. And so when some of the men went back down the hill, they refused to fight. And so they were court martialed, fast forward, a month, went after the 65th is out of their two months, 65th is out of there. Another unit was up there, they refused to fight. They were white, and they weren't court martialed. So it's those types of in the book, I really tried to explain that the difference in the treatment, and that's, that's where, like, we need to, and this is the, you know, this is more commentary. But this is the part that we need to remember in history, so we don't repeat it.

Kelly Therese Pollock  31:08  
Yeah, and of course, we should mention then that they were they were later pardoned.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  31:13  
They're all exonerated, and they all receive. So at the time, it was much more shocking, because then their wages were taken, there were there were two years of hard labor, all of these things, and a lot of the men just didn't realize what was going on. Like, I was just saving a guy who lost a leg, and I brought him down the hill. And now you're telling me, I'm a coward. And so there was a lot of shock that happened. And then, so what ended up happening was then they started writing letters back home to family, and to the government in Puerto Rico. And then so the government of Puerto Rico and their families got involved. And eventually they were all then, of course, pardoned and some received their wages back.

Kelly Therese Pollock  31:56  
And so you mentioned at the beginning that eventually they get this Congressional Medal of Honor. So can you talk a little bit about that that, of course, happened much, much later. I and it's it's one of these moments that I think is happening a little bit more now that we're finally recognizing things that happened in the past things that we need to celebrate. So can you talk a little bit about that?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  32:20  
Yeah, sure. So there was a campaign from like, the early 2010s, to get to get the men awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for the, all the work that they, you know, did, and especially in the Korean War, the triumphs that they experienced, they actually were a main part. So there was a point when the Chinese first got into the war. And they actually surrounded one of the marine groups. And so the 65th was instrumental in actually creating a line through kind of the Chinese, so that they can bring the Marines out to retreat. And they were actually the ones that brought everybody out on that retreat, and did a huge coordination of removal of supplies, and things like that, from the last one there that blew everything up before they left. But that's just an outline with one of those heroic stories of the 65th. So there are many stories like that. And so eventually, you know, they, of course, compile a lot of this. And that's when they approached, you know, Congress and the time President Obama, about the Congressional Gold Medal, which, of course, is only awarded to, you know, to not that many groups, but a lot of the notable ones that we know of in history. And it was so special. Also, this was such a, maybe weird today, but it was a bipartisan effort. You had, you know, at the time Speaker Ryan, really championing this, you had other people, other Republicans in Congress really supporting this, as well as Democrats. And so then it created then they were, that's, you'll see in the book, there's quotes by Ryan and Obama. It was just across the spectrum and, and it was noted that it was time for them to receive recognition.

Kelly Therese Pollock  34:16  
So I think this would be an excellent book for a lot of middle school, high school classrooms to have on hand. Certainly, my my own kids who are elementary and middle school aged or you know, quite interested in really any sort of military history. It's the kind of thing that draws them in. So can you tell listeners how they how they can get a copy or encourage their schools to get a copy?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  34:39  
Yeah, so there are a couple of ways so if you want to do like a bulk order, of course, you can reach out to me or Lerner to do like a larger school order. But then of course, the book is available on all of the you know, platforms of course, Lerners, Lerners website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target. You could get it pretty much anywhere online.  And, yeah.

Kelly Therese Pollock  35:02  
So could you talk a little bit about the other sorts of books that you've written.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  35:10  
Oh, yeah. So I, I like to write multicultural stories. And so I've done everything from fiction, you know, fun Halloween stories to other picture books. And so I really just like writing in kind of the children's multicultural book space.

Kelly Therese Pollock  35:30  
Is there anything else that you wanted to make sure we talked about?

Talia Aikens-Nunez  35:33  
So another thing I'm working on, so I'm actually working on a screenplay, because I feel like there are other groups in history that have had the honor of not only books, but also a movie. And so I hope that some point in time that there is like a movie about these men so they can really get their, you know, flowers.

Kelly Therese Pollock  35:54  
Can you talk a little bit about the process of writing a screenplay? How that how that's different, obviously, than writing a kid's book.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  36:00  
It's so different. Well, so the thing is, with a book is that you're writing to give the visual and so the thing with the screenplay is you're writing to give the story. Like it's, it's, it's the other way around, because you have the visual, so you need to fill in the part so so they're very, they're actually very opposite. So it's a much slower because I'm, like, I know how to write books. This is a foreign process for me. So this one is taking a little longer.

Kelly Therese Pollock  36:00  
Well, that's exciting. I think it would make an excellent movie and I hope it is successful. Talia thank you so much for speaking with me. It's a great book. It's really fun to learn this part of history and I really appreciate you speaking with me.

Talia Aikens-Nunez  36:43  
Thank you so much for having me I really appreciate it.

Teddy  37:38  
Thanks for listening to Unsung History. Please subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app. You can find the sources used for this episode and a full episode transcript @UnsungHistorypodcast.com. To the best of our knowledge, all audio and images used by Unsung History are in the public domain or are used with permission. You can find us on Twitter or Instagram @Unsung__History, or on Facebook @UnsungHistorypodcast. To contact us with questions, corrections, praise, or episode suggestions, please email Kelly@UnsungHistorypodcast.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate, review, and tell everyone you know. Bye!

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