Photo In Uniform |
Service Details |
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Last Rank
Lieutenant Colonel
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Last Service Branch
Infantry
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Last Primary MOS
2162-Operations & Training Staff Officer (G3 A3 S3)
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Primary Unit
1950-1950, 2162, 7th Infantry Division
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Service Years
1940 - 1950
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Last Photo |
Personal Details
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Home State
California | |
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Year of Birth 1908 |
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This Fallen Army Profile is not currently maintained by any Member.
If you would like to take responsibility for researching and maintaining this Fallen profile please click
HERE
This Remembrance Profile was originally created by SSG Robert Tate - Deceased
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Casualty Info
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Home Town Oakland |
Last Address Oakland, Alameda, California
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Casualty Date Sep 21, 1950 |
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Cause KIA-Killed in Action |
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire |
Location Korea, South |
Conflict Korean War |
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1944-1945, 1542, 10th Mountain Division (LI)
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1944-1945, 1542, HHC, 1st Battalion, 86th Infantry
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1950-1950, 2162, X Corps
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1950-1950, 2162, 7th Infantry Division
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Reflections on LTC Hampton's
US Army Service
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TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT INFLUENCED HIS/HER DECISION TO JOIN THE ARMY?
The following is an after action debriefing of M/Sgt Johnson on what happened the day LtCol Henry J Hampton was killed around Suwon, South Korea.
I COULD NOT DOWNLOAD THE REPORT IN THIS SECTION.
Instead I had to download the 4 Pages of the After Action Debriefing in the picture section.
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TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH HE/SHE TOOK IN HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE. WHERE DID THEY GO FOR BASIC TRAINING AND WHAT UNITS, BASES OR SQUADRONS WERE THEY ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS HIS/HER REASON FOR LEAVING?
Lieutenant Colonel Hampton was a veteran of World War II. In Korea, he was a member of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 7th Infantry Division. On September 21, 1950, after landing at Inchon in support of the U.S. Marines, he was ambushed near Suwon, South Korea. For his leadership and valor, Lieutenant Colonel Hampton was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Order of the British Empire, the Korean War Service Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
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FROM THEIR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY PERSONAL MEMORIES, YOU MAY BE AWARE OF, WHICH IMPACTED HIM/HER THE MOST.
Troops of the 85th and 87th Regiments relieve the 86th, which now moves behind the lines to Lucca. There the 86th prepares for the coming attack on Riva Ridge. Although 30% of the 1st Bn 86th�??s assault force for this operation have not trained at Camp Hale, the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Henry J. Hampton decides that �??There will be no hand picking of men for the assault.�?? Instead, each platoon trains as a unit in rough terrain around Lucca. Hampton concludes that �??This increased the morale and spirit of the men, as they all now considered themselves mountaineers.�??
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OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES HE/SHE RECEIVED, WHICH WERE THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO HIM/HER AND WHY?
Securing the Southern Flank As the 1st Marine Division fought its way along the Inchon-Seoul highway and into Yongdungpo, the 7th Division protected its right flank and engaged and cut off enemy units moving toward the battle area from the south. An extensive minefield delayed the 32nd Regiment on the 20th as it attacked toward Anyang-ni where it was to cut the Seoul-Suwon highway. Exploding mines damaged three tanks of A Company, 73rd Tank Battalion, and completely blocked the narrow dirt road the column was following. Colonel Beauchamp, the regimental commander, had a narrow escape. A mine destroyed his jeep, killing the driver and wounding the radio operator a few minutes after he had left it. Engineer troops removed more than 150 mines from this field. During the day, the regiment captured T'ongdok Mountain and part of Copper Mine Hill. On the 21st, the 32nd Infantry seized the rest of Copper Mine Hill. It also captured the high ground two miles south of Yongdungpo and Hill 300, the high ground immediately northeast of Anyang-ni.
The 7th Division Reconnaissance Company arrived at Anyang-ni at 1430. When darkness fell, the 3rd Battalion, 32nd Infantry held blocking positions astride the Suwon highway two miles south of Anyang-ni. The 1st Battalion held the road east and the high ground northeast of the town, and elements of the regimental combat team established contact northward at Toksan-ni with the 2nd Battalion, where the latter had captured a considerable quantity of ordnance and medical supplies.
After arriving at Anyang-ni with the Reconnaissance Company, Maj. Irwin A. Edwards, Assistant G-2, 7th Division, received radio orders from the division to turn south to Suwon and secure the airfield below the town. Approximately at 1600, 2nd Lt. Jesse F. Van Sant, commanding a tank platoon, took the point with his tanks and, followed by the Reconnaissance Company and Major Edwards, started toward Suwon. Naval aircraft bombed Suwon just before they arrived there at 1800, destroying a large wooden structure on top of the ancient great stone wall at its East Gate. Debris from this structure blocked the gateway and forced the company to turn aside to find another entrance into the town. At this point, Lt. Col. Henry Hampton, 7th Division G-3, arrived from Anyang-ni with a platoon of B Company, 18th Engineer Combat Battalion, and joined the group.
Hampton and Edwards, with two enlisted men, led the column through the streets. Near the center of Suwon, the four men surprised two North Korean officers in the act of trying to escape in an American jeep. Edwards shot the driver. The other officer, a major in the North Korean 105th Armored Division, surrendered. The armored column engaged in some street fighting with scattered groups of enemy soldiers, capturing thirty-seven North Koreans. Three miles south of Suwon, the column went into a perimeter defense astride the highway. Being without maps, it had unwittingly passed the airfield a mile back up the road.
About 2100, a full moon rose and Maj. Gen. David G. Barr, having lost radio contact with the Reconnaissance Company, decided to send an armored force toward Suwon to find it. Colonel Hampton and the platoon of engineers had already loaded into a truck and gone ahead. Task Force Hannum, named after its commander, Lt. Col. Calvin S. Hannum, commanded the 73rd Tank Battalion. The 73rd started from Anyang-ni at 2125. It was a motorized force, comprised of: B Company, 73rd Tank Battalion; the battalion Advance Command Group; K Company, 32nd Infantry; C Battery, 48th Field Artillery Battalion; and a medical detachment. The force hurried south in the moonlight with all possible speed. Lt. Col. John W. Paddock, 7th Division G-2, accompanied it. On the way to Suwon, Colonel Paddock established radio contact with Major Edwards and asked for guides to direct him and his force into the perimeter.
Hannum's armored column reached Suwon near midnight. They found the East Gate blocked, and turned aside to enter the town from another point through the ancient stone wall that girded the town on that side. Inside the town, an enemy tank hidden behind a building opened fire on the leading American tank, knocking it out with one shot and killing Capt. Harold R. Beavers, the B Company tank commander who was inside it. In the fight that flared in the next few minutes, other American tanks destroyed the Russian T34, but a second enemy tank escaped. Hannum's force tried to follow it, but became lost at the edge of town. Hannum decided to wait for daylight rather than to risk another enemy tank ambush in the darkness.
Meanwhile, Edwards' party in its perimeter south of Suwon heard the sound of tanks northward. Lieutenant Van Sant thought their clatter sounded like T34's, but the others discounted his comments and hastened preparations to send a party to meet Hannum. Major Edwards put a Korean civilian and eight men from the Reconnaissance Company into two jeeps. Colonel Hampton said he would go along and possibly continue on to rejoin the 7th Division headquarters at Anyang-ni. The party started with Edwards driving the first of four jeeps. A mile northward, Edwards saw four tanks approaching in the moonlight. He flicked his lights in a recognition signal for what he thought was Hannum's lead tank. The tank stopped. Then suddenly its machine guns started firing, and it came on toward the halted vehicles. The men jumped from the jeeps and scrambled into the ditches. Colonel Hampton, however, started toward the tank waving his arms, evidently still thinking them friendly. Machinegun fire cut him down and the oncoming tank crunched into Edwards' jeep. Edwards escaped and rejoined the Reconnaissance Company the next morning.
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