Samuel Streit Coursen (August 4, 1926 – October 12, 1950) was a 1949 graduate of the United States Military Academy and company commander in the United States Army during the Korean War.
He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 12, 1950.
Youth and education
Samuel S. Coursen was born August 4, 1926, in Madison, New Jersey. His father, Wallace Melville Coursen, was a principal in the New York accounting firm of Haskins & Sells; his mother was the former Kathleen Howell. Coursen graduated in 1945 from the Newark (New Jersey) Academy where he was an accomplished athlete.
He was awarded an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1945 and graduated with the class of 1949.
After graduation, Coursen married Evangeline Joy Sprague of Virginia Beach, Virginia and the daughter of U.S. Navy Captain Albert Sprague, then commander of the Navy Ammunition Depot at Lake Denmark, New Jersey.
Early military career
Coursen was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in the Regular Army upon graduation from West Point. In August 1949, he attended the Officer's Basic Course of the Ground General School at Fort Riley, Kansas. By January 1950, Coursen was going through the Infantry Officer's Basic and Basic Airborne courses at Fort Benning, Georgia. In July 1950, he was en route to Far East Command. Promoted to first lieutenant in the Army of the United States, Coursen took command of a platoon of Company C, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division on October 6, 1950. The 5th Cavalry fought in the Pacific theater during World War II and in the post-war years posted in Japan. The regiment was transferred to Korea in July 1950, weeks after the North Korean invasion that prompted the Korean War.
Events leading to death
As more United Nations Command (UN) forces deployed to South Korea, they slowed the North Korean Korean People's Army (KPA) advance, holding out and maintaining the Pusan Perimeter in the southeast of the country. The Inchon landings on 15 September followed the next day by the UN breakout from the Pusan Perimeter forced the KPA to retreat. It was during this offensive that Coursen took his first combat command.
At the beginning of October the UN began its offensive into North Korea. At Kaesong the 1st Cavalry Division was ready to cross the 38th Parallel into North Korea. The 8th Cavalry Regiment, in the center, was to attack frontally from Kaesong to Kumch'on, north and along the main highway axis. The 5th Cavalry Regiment, Coursen's regiment, on the right, was to move east and then swing west in a circular flanking movement, designed to trap KPA forces south of Kumch'on. In the meantime, the 7th Cavalry Regiment, on the division's left, traversed the Ryesong River; advanced north on the road from Paekch'on to the small town of Hanp'o-ri, north of Kumch'on, where the main Pyongyang road crossed the Ryesong River; and established a blocking position. Defending the Kumch'on area north of Kaesong were the KPA 19th and 27th Divisions. The KPA 43rd Division, to the west, defended the Ryesong River crossing and the coastal area beyond the river.
At 09:00 on October 9, 1950, the 1st Cavalry Division as part of the Eighth United States Army struck out across the 38th Parallel. Initially, the advance was slow. Along the main highway the 8th Cavalry stopped repeatedly and waited for engineer troops to clear mines from the road. Halfway to Kumch'on the twelfth the regiment was halted by a KPA strongpoint, defended by tanks, self-propelled guns, and antiaircraft weapons. In spite of a sixteen-plane air strike and a 155-mm. howitzer barrage, the strongpoint held.
The 5th Cavalry Regiment, which also ran into trouble at the start, failed to cross the parallel until October 10, 1950. The next day the regiment's 1st Battalion encountered a KPA force holding a long ridge with several knobs—Hills 179, 175, and 174—that dominated a pass northeast of Kaesong. The infantrymen drove the defenders from the ridge during the afternoon of October 12, but the fight was fierce.
In the battle for Hill 174, Coursen observed that one of the men of his platoon had entered a well-hidden gun emplacement, thought to be unoccupied, and had been shot. Coursen ran to his aid and without regard for his personal safety, Coursen engaged the KPA in hand-to-hand combat in an effort to protect the wounded soldier until he himself was killed. When his body was recovered after the battle, seven KPA dead were found within the emplacement. Coursen's actions saved the wounded soldier's life and eliminated the main position of the enemy roadblock. For his actions, Lieutenant Coursen was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.