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Herman G. Felhoelter, the U.S Army chaplain who was killed in the massacre.
Herman G. Felhoelter, the U.S Army chaplain who was killed in the massacre.

The Chaplain–Medic massacre was a war crime that took place in the Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tunam, South Korea. Thirty unarmed, critically wounded United States Army soldiers and an unarmed chaplain were killed by members of the North Korean army during the Battle of Taejon.

Operating at the Kum River during the Battle of Taejon, troops of the U.S. Army's 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, were cut off from resupply by a roadblock established by North Korean troops of the NK 3rd Division. The roadblock proved difficult to break, and forced U.S. troops to move through nearby mountains to evacuate their wounded.

Thirty critically wounded U.S. troops were stranded at the top of a mountain. Attended to by only two non-combatants, a chaplain and a medic, the wounded were discovered by a North Korean patrol. Though the medic was able to escape, the North Koreans executed the unarmed chaplain as he prayed over the wounded, then killed the rest of them. The massacre was one of several incidents that led U.S. commanders to establish a commission in July to look into war crimes during the war. (Full article...)