HEROES OF THE MEDAL OF HONOR BALDOMERO LOPEZ

During the daring landings at Inchon in 1950, this first lieutenant sacrificed his life to save his US Marine comrades

- WORDS MICHAEL E HASKEW

As explosions ripped the calm, smoke drifted across the sky, and the landing craft churned toward the beach at Inchon, South Korea. On board, First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez, leading 3rd Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, barely knew the men under his charge.

Lopez had joined Able Company only hours prior to Operation Chromite, reporting to Captain John R Stevens at Pusan. Although these US Marines had seen combat earlier during the Korean War (1950–53), the upcoming landings at Inchon in September 1950 were daunting. There was concern surrounding the element of surprise as General Douglas MacArthur’s high-stakes gamble to reverse the misfortunes of United Nations forces in Korea depended on the swiftness and audacity of its execution.

In the weeks leading up to Inchon, defeat had followed defeat for the United Nations forces in Korea. The communist Korean People’s Army had swept across the 38th parallel in June, forcing the UN command to retreat, and now General Walton Walker’s Eighth Army and the rest of the battered UN forces defended the Pusan Perimeter, their backs to the sea.

MacArthur, commanding all UN forces in Korea, opted for a daring amphibious mission, landing the US 1st Marine Division and the US Army’s 7th Infantry Division at Inchon in the northwest of the Korean peninsula and just 25 miles (40km) from the South Korean capital Seoul. If successful, the landings would threaten the communist supply lines and potentially cut off the invaders, trapping them in the south to be hammered into possible surrender.

Failure, however, would mean unmitigated disaster. Complicating MacArthur’s calculated risk were the tides at Inchon, varying some 36ft (11m), swift currents and, of course, the possibility that the North Koreans were ready and waiting to devastate the landings with concentrated fire.