Samuel S. Coursen

On June 15, 1951, it was announced by The Pentagon that Coursen would be awarded the Medal of Honor. On June 21, 1951, Coursen's 14-month-old son, Samuel, Jr., of Morristown, New Jersey, was presented the award in a Pentagon ceremony by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and General of the Army Omar N. Bradley.

He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 12, 1950.

Coursen was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in the Regular Army upon graduation from West Point. In August 1950, 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.

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 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Kaesong. The infantrymen drove the defenders from the ridge during the afternoon of October 12, but the fight was fierce.

After much fighting, the 1st Cavalry Division captured Kumch'on on October 14, 1950. With US I Corps soldiers moving through the KPA's principal fortified positions between the 38th Parallel and Pyongyang, the North Korean capital city, KPA front lines as such ceased to exist. On October 19, Company F, 5th Cavalry, entered Pyongyang, followed shortly thereafter by the Republic of Korea Army 1st Division elements from the northeast. One of Company F's platoon commanders was one of Coursen's West Point roommates, Lieutenant John F. Forrest. The next morning, October 20, 1950, the 1st Division reached the heart of the city and took the strongly fortified administrative center without difficulty. The entire city was secured by 10:00 that day.

Place and date: Near Kaesong, Korea, October 12, 1950

Coursen's West Point class of 1949 was greatly affected by the Korean War. Many of them were newly commissioned lieutenants serving as platoon commanders. Thirty of them would die in combat during the war.

He was awarded an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in 1945 and graduated with the class of 1949.

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, 15 miles (24 km) 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, 6 miles (9.7 km) 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.

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.

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.

Entered service at: Madison, N.J. Born: August 4, 1926 Madison, N.J.