ON 15 SEPTEMBER 1950, soldiers of the 10th Battalion Combat Team (Motorized) boarded a transport ship at Manila Bay to begin their four-day voyage to the Korean War.

 

Aboard the transport were some 1,400 officers and men of the Philippine Army, many of them combat veterans of the campaign against the communist Huks. This battle hardened battalion was typical of all five BCTs comprising the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea or PEFTOK.

 

All the PEFTOK BCTs were combat experienced units consisting of soldiers who had seen years of fighting. Many of the men had fought against the Imperial Japanese Army from 1942 to 1945.

 

Five Philippine Army BCTs with a total strength of 7,420 officers and men served in Korea from 1950 to 1955 as PEFTOK. Taken together, these BCTs constituted the Regimental Combat Team promised by the Philippines in August 1950 to the United Nations war effort. 

 

PEFTOK consisted of the 10th Battalion Combat Team (Motorized); 20th Battalion Combat Team (Motorized); 19th Battalion Combat Team (Motorized); 14th Battalion Combat Team and 2nd Battalion Combat Team

 

These BCTs acquitted themselves well in battle. Not one PEFTOK battalion was defeated or made incapable of combat as a result of enemy action despite many hard fought battles. PEFTOK consistently defeated its main enemy, the “Chinese People’s Volunteer Army," in actions for hills, cities and towns along the 38th Parallel dividing North and South Korea.

 

The combat savvy of the PEFTOK BCTs kept its casualties low, and enabled our boys to win in combat despite Chinese tactical skill and numerical superiority. 

 

In three years of combat in the Korean War, Filipinos showed the Free World the sterling qualities of patriotism, courage, professionalism and a steadfast dedication to duty that made Filipinos of  their generation—the generation that helped destroy the Empire of Japan in World War II—one of the greatest in our history. 

 

To learn more about PEFTOK, visit its website at www.peftok.blogspot.com.

 

PEFTOK's email is peftokwarriors@gmail.com