Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1953: Two Clovis men were among prisoners of war on their way home after a truce had been signed in Korea.
• Cpl. Dan McKinney was captured by Chinese troops on April 23, 1951.
"The Chinese wiped us out that night," McKinney said when he addressed airmen at Cannon Air Force Base more than 60 years later.
"They over-ran us, and to this day I suffer from what's called survivor's guilt. Out of 200 (U.S. Army) men, when that night was over there were 26 men alive, and out of those 26, 13 were captured."
Senior Airman Jette Carr reported McKinney's story for a publication of Air Force Special Operations Command.
• Lt. Col. Thomas Harrison suffered life-threatening injuries when his plane was shot down over Korea on May 21, 1951.
North Korean doctors amputated one of Harrison's legs after his capture. He then survived a 140-mile forced winter march, on crutches, to a POW camp.
"Despite a deteriorating physical condition resulting from the unskilled amputation of one injured leg, six primitive operations on the remaining one, inhumanly brutal beatings, long periods of sadistic torture and ruthless incessant interrogations, Col. Harrison remained resolutely steadfast in his refusal to divulge security information to the enemy," military records show.
He received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal in 1955.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Contact him at:
