The Central Intelligence Agency sponsored a variety of activities during the Korean War, among which were behind-the-lines maritime operations. Yong Do Island, connected by a rugged isthmus to Pusan, served as the base for those operations, which were carried out by well-trained Korean guerrillas. The four principal American advisers responsible for the training and operational planning of those special missions were ‘Dutch Kramer, Tom Curtis, George Atcheson and Joe Pagnella. All of them had been processed through the CIA’s front organization, Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK), headquartered at Tongnae, a village near Pusan, on the peninsula’s southeast coast.

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JACK’s first commander was Army Colonel Albert R. Haney, until he was succeeded by a decorated 82nd Airborne Division veteran, Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort. They oversaw planning and support for the agency’s sea, air and ground operations, to include insertion and extraction of agents, coastal and demolition raids, and support for the Far East Air Force’s Escape & Evasion Program.

One of JACK’s projects, code-named Blossom, had as its objective the planting of anti-Communist personnel in the North who would blossom as pro-democracy advocates after the South won the war. Most of those political infiltrators did not survive.

A big, tough Marine, Major Vincent R. Dutch Kramer had served in the Pacific and with U.S. Naval Group, China, during World War II. As the Group’s Camp 3 commander, he supervised the training of Nationalist Chinese guerrillas, then took the field with them for raids and ambushes against the Japanese.

Equally large and tough was Lieutenant Tom Curtis. A 15-year Marine veteran, he had served with the Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet’s secret Scout-Observer Group, before joining the Office of Strategic Services. He earned Bronze and Silver Stars for sabotage and guerrilla missions in Greece and China.

An Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) 3 officer, Lieutenant George Atcheson was in Japan heading up a 10-man detachment when the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950. He subsequently participated in seaborne raids and recons with Amphibious Group 1’s Special Operations Group. Atcheson had led the first attempted UDT raid of the war on August 5, when he and other Team 3 men paddled rubber boats into Yosu from the high-speed destroyer transport Diachenko (APD-123), but had to abort the mission under heavy enemy fire.

A veteran of two combat jumps in Korea, swarthy, powerful Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Pag Pagnella came to the island via the 187th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Airborne Regimental Combat Team. He later recalled his first meeting with Colonel Vandervoort who, upon seeing Sergeant Pagnella and other noncoms with him, exclaimed, Now I’ve got me some sergeants!

Kramer was in charge of Yong Do operations. His Korean counterpart was Major Han Chul-Min, who had recruited several hundred South Koreans and disaffected North Koreans to be trained for clandestine missions. Working together with Kramer, Atcheson and Pagnella, Han selected 40 men to become members of the Special Mission Group (SMG), which would be trained for prisoner snatches, ship-launched and -supported ambushes and the destruction of North Korean coastal railroad tracks and bridges. Assisted by Sergeant Pagnella, Lieutenant Atcheson was senior adviser and trainer for the SMG, whose Korean officer in charge was a Mr. O Pak, a former river pirate. Described by Pagnella as a stately, middle-aged man with a light build, stringy mustache and beard and hair curling from beneath his Marine-emblemed fatigue hat, O Pak was a master of kendo and an accomplished boxer who taught even Pagnella a thing or two during martial arts training.

Atcheson handled all rubber boat training and amphibious raiding instruction, including swimming and demolitions. Pagnella served as weapons instructor, on everything from M-1 rifles to .50-caliber machine guns and 57mm recoilless rifles. He also trained SMG personnel in the use of hand grenades, mines, booby traps and instinctive fire. He later built a 1,000-inch range, a 250-yard rifle range and a parachute landing fall platform on the rocky terrain of Yong Do with the help and support of Atcheson and the SMG personnel, 25 of whom became airborne qualified. An expert pistol shot, Lieutenant Curtis gave separate classes in the .45 automatic and added his knowledge and expertise to unarmed combat instruction and classes in guerrilla warfare. Majors Kramer and Han, plus his staff, consulted on the entire training program, which included foreign weapons (Chinese and Russian), first aid, map reading, patrolling, ambushes, small-unit operations and mortars.

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