OPERATION CRABAPPLE
On March 21, 1948 the Department of the Army directed the Far East Command to perform a Top Secret study, designated "Operation Crabapple". This study was to prepare a plan which would detail all of the activities necessary to complete the removal of all U.S. combat troops from South Korea beginning August 15, 1948 and completing those actions by December 15, 1948. This plan was to detail all the logistics of the removal, including what and/or how much equipment and material was to be transferred to the South Korean Government for use by the South Korean Army and the South Korean Constabulary. At that time, the XXIV Corps was located in Korea along with Corps support units, the 6th and 7th Infantry Division were assigned for duty in South Korea and had been there since the end of the war, when they were sent there to receive the surrender of all Japanese forces in Korea south of the 38th parallel. The final plan called for the transfer the 7th Infantry Division to Japan to replace the 11th Airborne Division, which was responsible for the occupation of the northernmost part of Japan. Their headquarters was in Sendai in northern Honshu. The 11th Airborne began leaving for its home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky in December 1948, traveling by ship through the Panama Canal, debarking in New Orleans and traveling by train from there to Fort Campbell. Simultaneously, the 7th Infantry began moving from South Korea to Japan. At the same time, the 6th Infantry Division and supporting units were designated as the 5th Regimental Combat Team and the 6th Infantry Division was officially deactivated. The 5th Regimental Combat Team was to be gone from South Korea by the end of June 1949 and moved to their home base on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The originals of the following 17 documents shown below are located in the National Archives and Records Administration facility located in College Park, Maryland, designated NARA II to distinguish it from the facility located in Washington D.C. (NARA I).
