Background
When the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, I was a student at the Seoul National University. Since my father was a high-ranking Public Prosecutor in the Sygman Rhee's government, our family fled Seoul before the invading North Korean troops reached the city. In August, 1950 the main contingents of the US Eighth Army were deployed along the Pusan perimeter and Taegu where our family took refuge became the center of headquarters activities.

In lieu of military service, I started to work at the National Police Headquarters. In mid-August, 1950 a group of American officers came to the police headquarters and asked for some assistance in organizing the Korean contingent of counter-intelligence operations. This visiting group was from 201 CIC Detachment, US Army 1st Corps.

Attached to 201st CIC
My superior at the police headquarters asked me to assist them and I became associated with the 201 CIC Detachment commanded by Louis A. Shone (?), Major-Artillery. The initial components of 201 CIC were mostly from occupation troops in Japan which included several Japanese-Americans (Fujii, Suehiro, Nishi). I vaguely remember (as I am 81 years old) hearing that the 201st CIC as a part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Occupation Force was headquartered in Nara, Japan.

I stayed with 201 CIC Detachment as the head of Korean Investigation Unit throughout the Korean War: advanced all the way to Pyongyang, Shinanju, and scouted as far as Sunchon.

Postwar
I came to the US in 1954 to study and received degrees from Ohio University (BA), University of Kentucky (MA) and NYU (MA), and worked for Equitable Life Assurance Society in New York from 1961. In 200l, I retired from AXA-Equitable as Vice President-Senior Adviser to CEO and directors of AXA-Japan and AXA-Korea. My wife (Joan Heikkila) and I currently live in Sacramento, California moving here in November, 2001 (after 9-11).

Seeking Comrades
In the twilight of my life, I wish to make a try for the last time to locate an official record of my unit for which I dedicated my best three years of my life. Incidentally, it is my understanding that now "CIC" is called "MI" (Military Intelligence).

Yul Rhee
Sacramento, CA