The JSA axe murders ( AKA tree trimming incident ) took place on 18 August 1976 . One American was killed outright and one died of wounds on the medivac chopper. The Allies responded with a massive show of force code-named Paul Bunyan and cut the tree .

Axe murder incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1Lt. Barrett was missing for 90 minutes . During that time , Allied guards " ... observed KPA guards at KPA#8 [ post ] exhibiting strange behavior...." involving passing an axe from individual to individual. 1Lt Barrett died enroute to Seoul .

North Korean Invasion Tunnels:

Demilitarized Zone


1974 Nov 15 : Shallow tunnel which extended 1,000 meters into South Korea. Details included " ...electric power... lighting , weapons storage ,and a narrow gauge railway with carts ".

1975 March 19 : Deep tunnel near Chorwon ( central invasion corrider during the 1950 invasion ) . 170 feet deep , 2,300 meters long , "... of which 1,000 meters extended into the ( Allied ] side of the truce zone ".

1978 Oct 17 : Deep tunnel , oriented on Freedom Bridge , 26 miles from Seoul ( the Western corridor during the 1950 invasion ). The tunnel was in the 2nd ROK Recon Company sector directly adjacent to the US 2nd ID battalion sector of the DMZ & also near the JSA . The tunnel was 2 meters high & 2 meters wide and extended hundreds of yards into South Korea. The tunnel is now a tourist destination.

Background Information
The Association of the US Army published an annual " Green Book " during the late 1970's and early 1980's . Situation summaries from each of the major Army commands : Europe , Korea , Forscom , Tradoc , etc , were included . The Korea summaries would be a good open source of further background information. The Infantry Center at Ft Benning published an open source (FOUO , IIRC ) opposing forces manual based upon the NKPA in the early 1980's, another good source .
In depth discussion of details from those open sources are a story for another day.

Suffice it to say that North Korea was clearly preparing for another conventional invasion. This time they planned to employ special Light Infantry Brigades to penetrate into and behind Allied defenses prior to a massive assault across the DMZ . The conventional attack would involve both Sovieticon-style massed arty and an armored & motorized force which included more tanks and other fighting vehicles than were used by all sides in the 1973 Mid-East War.
Information
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