First to Korea

COLOMBIA First to Korea

For the first time in 127 years, Colombian troops marched off last week to fight on foreign soil.* At a field Mass under the colonnade of the national Capitol in Bogota, President Laureano Gomez presented battle colors to the Batalion Colombia, a 1,082-man combat team of volunteers for the war in Korea. Colombia is the 15th nation to send ground troops to Korea, the first Latin American country to join in the fighting.

Commanded by Lieut. Colonel Jaime Polania Puyo, a veteran of 22 years in the Colombian army, the battalion has been training for four months in mountain country around Bogota to get ready for Korea's rugged terrain. The troops are equipped with U.S. Army uniforms and materiel (paid for with Colombian cash), and have been checked out on North American infantry weapons by twelve Spanish-speaking U.S. Army noncoms.

This week the volunteers were packing up for embarcation at Buenaventura. Their next important stop: Japan, where they will get final training before joining the United Nations line in Korea.

* The last foreign engagement: Dec. 9, 1824, when a Colombian contingent helped defeat the Spanish army at Ayacucho, Peru, and crack the power of Spain in the New World.

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