Major General William Frishe Dean (1899 - 1981)

William Frishe Dean, Sr. (August 1, 1899–August 24, 1981) was a Major General in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 20 and 21, 1950. Dean was the highest ranking American officer captured during the Korean War.
A member of ROTC in 1920, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the California Army National Guard in 1921, Dean graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1922. He was tendered a Regular Army commission on October 18, 1923. Promoted to brigadier general in 1942 and then to major general in 1943, Dean served first as assistant division commander and later as division commander of the 44th Infantry Division.
In 1944, while serving in southern Germany and Austria, his troops captured 30,000 prisoners and helped force the surrender of the German 19th Army. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions.
In October 1947, he became the military governor of South Korea. He took command of the 7th Infantry Division in 1948 and moved it from Korea to Japan. After serving as Eighth U.S. Army chief of staff, he took command of the 24th Infantry Division, then headquartered at Kokura on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, in October 1949.
When the Korean War began in June 1950, the 24th Infantry Division was the first American ground combat unit to be committed. General Dean arrived in Korea on July 3, 1950. He established his headquarters at Taejon, Korea.
His orders were to fight a delaying action against the advancing North Korean People's Army. Although he planned to withdraw from Taejon, he was asked by General Walton H. Walker, the U.S. Eighth Army Commander, to hold the city until July 20, 1950, in order to buy time to deploy other American units from Japan. His regiments had been decimated in earlier fighting, but Dean personally led tank-killer teams armed with the newly-arrived 3.5-inch rocket launchers to destroy the attacking North Korean T-34 tanks. He gained acclaim by such exploits as attacking and destroying an enemy tank armed with only a hand grenade.
The T-34 tank knocked out by General Dean in the Battle of Taejon in July 1950 was still there in 1977 as a memorial to him and the twenty-five-day battle.
On July 20, as his division fell back from Taejon, General Dean became separated from his men. Alone, he hid in woods during the day and traveled at night for over a month. On August 25, 1950, he was captured. He remained a prisoner of war of the North Koreans until his release on September 4, 1953.
In 1951, Congress voted General Dean the Medal of Honor for his actions during the defense of Taejon. The Medal was presented by President Truman on January 9, 1951 to his wife Mildred Dean, son William Dean Jr. and daughter Marjorie June Dean. Dean himself was still reported missing in action in Korea.
General Dean had no contact with the outside world until he was interviewed on December 18, 1951 by an Australian, Wilfred Burchett, who was a correspondent for Le Soir, a Belgian newspaper. This was the first time anyone had any idea he was still alive.
Dean, the highest ranking prisoner of war in the conflict, later said he had tried to commit suicide because he feared he "might squeal when they started to drive splinters under my fingernails." He had knowledge of the proposed landing at Inchon, and was worried that he might break under interrogation. He was not physically tortured, as he had feared, but was subjected to repeated interrogations that lasted up to 72 hours. He talked about inconsequential matters, later telling a Pentagon committee that, "I was trying to divert them from really starting those oriental tortures." During his third interrogation, he was prevented from committing suicide, and the interrogations stopped.
General Dean was given a hero's welcome upon his return to the United States in 1953 and showered with military and civilian honors. Dean, however, insisted he was no hero but "just a dogface soldier."
Three months after his return from Korea, Major General Dean was assigned as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Sixth Army at the Presidio of San Francisco in California, where he retired. When he retired from active duty on October 31, 1955, he was, inconsistent with U.S. Army regulation, awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for his front line service in World War II and Korea, an award he particularly cherished.
After his retirement, Dean sponsored chess tournaments in northern California and donated the General William Dean chess trophy to commemorate the general's learning to play chess while a prisoner of war in Korea.
Dean died at age 82 and was buried in San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, California.
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Major General, U.S. Army, commanding general, 24th Infantry Division. Place and date: Taejon, Korea, 20 and July 21, 1950. Entered service at: California. Born: August 1, 1899, Carlyle, Ill. G.O. No.: 7, February 16, 1951.
Maj. Gen. Dean distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the repeated risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. In command of a unit suddenly relieved from occupation duties in Japan and as yet untried in combat, faced with a ruthless and determined enemy, highly trained and overwhelmingly superior in numbers, he felt it his duty to take action which to a man of his military experience and knowledge was clearly apt to result in his death. He personally and alone attacked an enemy tank while armed only with a hand grenade. He also directed the fire of his tanks from an exposed position with neither cover nor concealment while under observed artillery and small-arms fire. When the town of Taejon was finally overrun he refused to insure his own safety by leaving with the leading elements but remained behind organizing his retreating forces, directing stragglers, and was last seen assisting the wounded to a place of safety. These actions indicate that Maj. Gen. Dean felt it necessary to sustain the courage and resolution of his troops by examples of excessive gallantry committed always at the threatened portions of his frontlines. The magnificent response of his unit to this willing and cheerful sacrifice, made with full knowledge of its certain cost, is history. The success of this phase of the campaign is in large measure due to Maj. Gen. Dean's heroic leadership, courageous and loyal devotion to his men, and his complete disregard for personal safety.