[ WP ] Alternate history wiki entries

**The Axe Murder Incident** 
 
 The axe murder incident was the killing of a United States Army officer by North Korean soldiers on August 18, 1976, in the Joint Security Area ( JSA ) located in the Korean Demilitarized Zone ( DMZ ). The U.S. officer had been part of a work party cutting down a tree in the JSA. 
 
 Three days later, the U.S. and South Korea launched Operation Paul Bunyan, an operation that combined a return to cut down the tree with a show of force to intimidate North Korea into backing down. 
 
 The incident is also known as the hatchet incident and the poplar tree incident and `` The Tree Trimming Incident'' because the object of the conflict was a poplar tree standing in the JSA. 
 
 **The Incident** 
 
 On August 18, 1976, a group of five Korean Service Corps ( KSC ) personnel escorted by a UNC security team consisting of Joint Security Force ( JSF ) Company Commander Captain Arthur Bonifas, his South Korean ( ROK ) Army counterpart, Captain Kim, the platoon leader of the current platoon in the area ( 1LT Mark Barrett ), and 11 enlisted personnel, both American and South Korean, went into the JSA to trim the tree as previously scheduled. 
 
 The two captains did not wear side arms, as members of the Joint Security Area were limited to only five armed officers and 30 armed enlisted personnel at a time. The KSC workers had the axes they brought to prune the tree branches. The tree had been scheduled to be trimmed seven days earlier, but rain had forced the work to be rescheduled. 
 
 After trimming began, about 15 North Korean soldiers appeared, commanded by Senior Lt. Pak Chul, whom the UNC soldiers had previously nicknamed `` Lt. Bulldog'' due to a history of confrontations. Pak and his subordinates appeared to observe the trimming without concern for approximately 15 minutes, until he abruptly told the UNC to cease the activity stating the tree could not be trimmed `` because Kim Il Sung personally planted it and nourished it and it's growing under his supervision.'' Capt. Bonifas ordered the detail to continue, and turned his back on Lt. Pak Chul. 
 
 **Attack** 
 
 After being ignored by Capt. Bonifas, Pak sent a runner across the [ Bridge of No Return ] ( http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_No_Return ). Within minutes a North Korean guard truck crossed the bridge and approximately 20 more North Korean guards disembarked carrying crowbars and clubs. Pak again demanded that the tree trimming stop, and when Capt. Bonifas again turned his back on him, Pak removed his watch, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, placed it in his pocket, and then shouted `` Kill the bastards!''. Using axes dropped by the tree-trimmers, the KPA forces attacked the two U.S. soldiers, Capt. Bonifas and Lt. Barrett, and wounded all but one of the UNC guards. 
 
 While Capt. Bonifas was knocked to the ground by Pak and then bludgeoned to death by at least five North Koreans, Lt. Barrett jumped a low wall which led into a 4.5-metre ( 15 ft ) deep tree-filled depression, just across the road from the tree. The depression was not visible from the road because of the dense grass and small trees. The entire fight lasted for only about 20–30 seconds before the UNC Force managed to disperse the North Korean guards and place Capt. Bonifas' body in their truck. However, there was no sign of Lt. Barrett. 
 
 They did, however, observe the North Korean guards grab ( by the heels ) approximately five members of their own force and drag them back across the bridge. They also observed the North Korean guards along the road exhibiting strange behavior, in that one guard would take an axe and go down into the depression for a couple of minutes and then come back up and hand the axe to another guard who would repeat the process. 
 
 This went on for approximately 90 minutes until the UNC guards were informed that Lt. Barrett was missing, at which time they informed their superiors about the KPA activity in the depression. A search and rescue squad was quickly dispatched and found Lt. Barrett had been attacked with the axe by the North Koreans. Lt. Barrett was recovered and transferred to a hospital in Seoul via an aid station at Camp Greaves, where he was examined and found to have sustained no injuries during the attack. Fearing that they had recovered the wrong individual and that the real Lt. Barrett was still unaccounted for, medical personnel on site radioed to his search and rescue squad to confirm the coordinates where the individual had been recovered. After some time, it was conclusively affirmed that the individual was indeed Lt. Barrett, and that he had sustained a full 90-minute assault from the North Koreans without a single identifying injury. 
 
 **Operation Paul Bunyan** 
 
 In response to the `` axe murder incident'', the UN Command determined that instead of trimming the branches that obscured visibility, they would cut down the tree with the aid of overwhelming force. The parameters of the operation were decided in the White House, where President Gerald Ford had held crisis talks. Ford and his advisors were concerned about making a show of strength to chasten North Korea. The operation, named after mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan, was conceived as a US/South Korean show of force, but was also carefully managed to prevent further escalation. It was planned over two days by General Richard G. Stilwell and his staff at the UNC headquarters in Seoul. 
 
 Operation Paul Bunyan was carried out on August 21 at 7 AM, three days after the killings. A convoy of 23 American and South Korean vehicles ( `` Task Force Vierra'', named after Lieutenant Colonel Victor S. Vierra, commander of the United States Army Support Group ) drove into the JSA without warning to the North Koreans, who had one observation post manned at that hour. In the vehicles were two eight-man teams of military engineers ( from the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division ) equipped with chain-saws to cut down the tree. 
 
 These teams were accompanied by two 30-man security platoons from the Joint Security Force, who were armed with pistols and axe handles. The 2nd Platoon would secure the northern entrance to the JSA via the Bridge of No Return, while the 3rd Platoon would secure the southern edge of the area. 
 
 Concurrently, a team from B Company, commanded by Captain Walter Seifried, had activated the detonation systems for the charges on Freedom Bridge and had the 165mm main gun of the [ M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle ] ( http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M728_Combat_Engineer_Vehicle ) aimed mid-span to ensure that the bridge would fall should the order be given for its destruction. Also B Company, supporting E Company ( Bridge ), were building M4T6 rafts on the Imjin River should the situation require emergency evacuation by that route. 
 
 In addition, a 64-man South Korean special forces company accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in Tae Kwon Do, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms, and handing out M-16 rifles and M-79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below. 
 
 Several of the special forces men also had Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge. 
 
 A U.S. infantry company in 20 utility helicopters and 7 Cobra attack helicopters circled behind them. Behind these helicopters, B-52 Stratofortresses escorted by U.S. F-4 Phantom IIs from Kunsan Air Base and South Korean F-5 Freedom Fighters were visible flying across the sky at high altitude. At Taegu Air Base, F-111 bombers of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home Air Force Base, were stationed. The aircraft carrier Midway task force had also been moved to a station just offshore. 
 
 In addition, near the edges of the DMZ, many more heavily armed U.S. and South Korean infantry, artillery including the Second Battalion, 71st Air Defense Regiment armed with HAWK missiles, and armor were waiting to back up the special operations team. Bases near the DMZ were prepared for demolition in the case of a military response. The defense condition ( DEFCON ) was elevated on order of Gen. Stillwell, as recounted in Colonel De LaTeur's research paper later. In addition, 12,000 additional troops were ordered to Korea, including 1,800 Marines from Okinawa. During the operation, nuclear-capable strategic bombers circled over the JSA. 
 
 According to an intelligence analyst monitoring the North Korea tactical radio net, the accumulation of force `` blew their... minds''. 
 
 **Edit: OH GOD YOU SAID ONE PARAGRAPH. This is more like 27? Feel free to ignore it! **
