Records Show Ex-GI Couldn’t Have Witnessed No Gun Ri
By Charles J. Hanley/AP

One of the Korean War veterans who described the U.S. Army killing of refugees at No Gun Ri says he now recognizes he could not have been at the scene and instead learned of it second-hand from soldiers who were there.

Wartime documents found in government archives by The Associated Press show that the ex-soldier, Edward L. Daily, 69, of Clarksville, Tennessee was in another unit elsewhere in Korea when 7th Cavalry Regiment companies fired on the South Korean civilians in late July 1950.

His credibility had come under fire in recent news reports, seven months after an AP article cited Daily among a dozen ex-soldiers supporting the allegations of two dozen survivors that U.S. troops killed a large number of refugees at No Gun Ri, a hamlet in central South Korea.

“I have to agree with your records. I can’t dispute them,” Daily said in an AP interview after reviewing the relevant documents. Asked whether he agreed the records showed he could not have been at No Gun Ri, he replied simply, “Yes.”

His accounts of what happened at No Gun Ri, given to the AP in 1998 and other news organizations later, may have stemmed from years of veterans’ reunions and hearing from men who participated in or witnessed the killings, Daily said.

“I still feel as though I was at No Gun Ri,” he said, his voice haggard and slow. “I did not intend to be deceptive.”

The archival documents show that Daily did join a 7th Cavalry combat unit in March 1951, months after No Gun Ri. In fact, he is a past president of the 7th U.S. Cavalry Association—a veterans’ group—and has written two published histories of the regiment in Korea, in which he mentions himself as a front-line soldier, both in 1950 and 1951.

In recent years, Daily has been a Veterans Administration hospital outpatient under treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder—that is, psychological problems related to his wartime experiences.

Last September’s AP report prompted the U.S. and South Korean governments to launch investigations. Thus far, Defense Department investigators have interviewed more than 100 veterans and others, including Daily, and senior Pentagon officials told The New York Times on May 12 they had determined that U.S. troops killed a large number of civilians at No Gun Ri. A source close to the South Korean investigation said it had reached a similar conclusion.

Defense Secretary William Cohen later said no conclusions could be reached until a final report, which is not expected for several months.

The shootings occurred at a time when American commanders, in retreat before the North Korean army, feared that enemy infiltrators were disguised among such refugee groups.

The Korean survivors say about 300 villagers, mostly women and children, were killed by U.S. ground troops under and around the No Gun Ri railroad trestle, and about 100 in an earlier U.S. air attack. Veterans generallq spoke of 100, 200 or “hundreds” killed.

Daily was the seventh of nine veterans quoted in the original AP story.

His description of what happened at No Gun Ri was generally consistent with that of other veterans and Korean survivors. He was one of 10 who have told the AP that orders were issued at the scene to fire on refugees. Daily also spoke of still hearing, a half-century later, “the little kids screaming” from under the trestle.

His accounts became more prominent in other news organizations’ reports following up on the AP story.

While investigating the No Gun Ri allegations in 1998, AP was referred to Daily by another veteran because of his detailed knowledge of the 1^st Cavalry Division’s operations in the Korean War. On the 7th Cavalry Association’s roster of veterans, Daily had long been listed as a member of the regiment’s H Company in July 1950.

But reports earlier this month on a privately owned veterans’ website, “Stripes.com,” and in U.S. News and World Report magazine noted that a sketchy reconstructed Army personnel record said he actually belonged to another 1st Cavalry Division unit at the time, the 27th Ordnance Maintenance Co.

The record had to be reconstructed because a 1973 fire destroyed millions of Army personnel files, including Daily’s.

In their original AP interviews, some 7th Cavalry veterans referred to Daily’s presence at No Gun Ri; one described Daily’s machine-gun position at the trestle. But veterans recently have told reporters their “recollections” of Daily may have stemmed from conversations with him at reunions.

Executive Editor Jonathan Wolman issued a statement on May 15 saying the AP “stands behind its carefully researched report,” which won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

He noted that Daily was first mentioned in the 56th paragraph of the AP report, and “the tale of No Gun Ri does not fall on the words of Mr. Daily.”

Last week, Wolman said: “While we remain confident of the central findings of our coverage, AP is dismayed that Ed Daily cannot authenticate his account of the events at No Gun Ri.

“Mr. Daily is obviously haunted by his service in the Korean War even as he struggles to understand and explain the version of events he provided to AP, to the Army and to other news organizations.”