Hero Card 241, Card Pack 21 [pending]
Photo credit: U.S. Navy NH 48364 (digitally restored) via Naval History and Heritage Command, public domain

Hometown: Briarcliff Manor, NY
Branch: U.S. Navy
Unit: Helicopter Utility Squadron ONE, USS Princeton (CV 37)
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal
Date of Sacrifice: October 16, 1951 - KIA in a North Korean POW Camp
Age: 27
Conflict: Korean War, 1950-1953

John “Jack” Koelsch’s father, Henry Augustus Koelsch Jr., was a prominent international banker for National City Bank of New York. This caused the family to split time between London, England—where Jack was born on December 22, 1923—and their home in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Briarcliff Manor is a suburban village north of New York City, on the eastern shore of the Hudson River.

Despite their moves, Henry and Beulah (Hubbard) Koelsch ensured that their three sons, Peter, Philip, and John received a good education. As a young boy, Jack attended Scarborough School in Briar Cliff Manor, then Westminster School in London. He attended Choate School, an exclusive college preparatory institution in Wallingford, Connecticut, from 1938-1941, then studied at Princeton University in New Jersey.

With the United States fully involved in World War II (1939-1945), Koelsch enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as an Aviation Cadet on September 14, 1942. He was commissioned as an Ensign in October 1944 after completing flight training and earning his naval aviator wings.

His training assignments included Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia. In the final months of the war, Koelsch served in the Pacific Theater as a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber pilot.

After the war, Koelsch was promoted to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) on August 1, 1946. He returned to Princeton University under the College Training Program, Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Unit and completed his English degree. He had plans to attend to law school, but another threat of war would call him to serve his country.

On June 25, 1950, 75,000 soldiers from the pro-Communist North Korean People’s Army invaded the Western-backed Republic of (South) Korea. Prospects of a third World War seemed very real. The United States hoped to avoid a wider conflict with Soviet Russia and Communist China.

On the Korean peninsula, the first military engagement of what would be called “The Cold War” had begun. America once again prepared for a conflict—now with the prospect of nuclear war—on the other side of the globe.

In August 1950, LTJG Koelsch reported to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Miramar, California and was assigned as Assistant Operations Officer of Helicopter Utility Squadron ONE and Officer in Charge of Helicopter Squadron ONE, Detachment EIGHT. Instead of torpedo bomber planes, Koelsch was retrained to fly Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopters and conduct downed aviator rescues.

He’d remain in the U.S. until October, when he joined the coincidentally-named USS Princeton (CV 37) as Officer in Charge of the Helicopter Detachment and Cold Weather Officer.

While assigned to the Princeton, LTJG Koelsch rescued at least two crew members. He also is credited with designing a floating sling hoist to help with operations during Korea’s brutal winter.

According to the Pensacola News:

When Jack’s tour of duty on the Princeton came to an end, he refused to rotate home and instead volunteered to transfer to another ship and remain on station. In a letter home he wrote that his country needed him right where he was, not behind a desk in Washington, rightly believing that his hard-learned lessons and skills were needed most to save downed airmen.

On July 3, 1951, LTJG Koelsch received word of a Marine fighter pilot shot down behind enemy lines, deep in the mountains of North Korea. Despite bad weather and with nighttime closing in, he and his crewmate, Petty Officer 3rd Class George Neal of Springfield, Ohio, volunteered to attempt a rescue of the downed pilot—Marine Captain James Wilkins (Worcester, Massachusetts).

His helicopter was unarmed, and he had no fighter escort. Koelsch was forced to fly below cloud cover and be fully exposed to enemy ground fire. From the ground, Capt. Wilkins watched Koelsch navigate through all obstacles in the rescue attempt. In what Wilkins later referred to as “the greatest display of guts I’ve ever seen,” Koelsch’s actions would make him the first helicopter pilot to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, John Kelvin Koelsch (NSN: 0-424476), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Helicopter Utility Squadron ONE (HU-1) attached to the U.S.S. Princeton, in action near Wonsan, North Korea, on 3 July 1951.

Although darkness was rapidly approaching when information was received that a marine aviator had been shot down and was trapped by the enemy in mountainous terrain deep in hostile territory, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Koelsch voluntarily flew a helicopter to the reported position of the downed airman in an attempt to effect a rescue. With an almost solid overcast concealing everything below the mountain peaks, he descended in his unarmed and vulnerable aircraft without the accompanying fighter escort to an extremely low altitude beneath the cloud level and began a systematic search.

Despite the increasingly intense enemy fire, which struck his helicopter on one occasion, he persisted in his mission until he succeeded in locating the downed pilot, who was suffering from serious burns on the arms and legs. While the victim was being hoisted into the aircraft, it was struck again by an accurate burst of hostile fire and crashed on the side of the mountain.

Quickly extricating his crewmen and the aviator from the wreckage, Lieutenant, Junior Grade Koelsch led them from the vicinity in an effort to escape from hostile troops, evading the enemy forces for nine days and rendering such medical attention as possible to his severely burned companion until all were captured.

Up to the time of his death while still a captive of the enemy, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Koelsch steadfastly refused to aid his captors in any manner and served to inspire his fellow prisoners by his fortitude and consideration for others. His great personal valor and heroic spirit of self-sacrifice throughout sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

On October 16, 1951, LTJG John Kelvin Koelsch died at age 27 of malnutrition and dysentery while held captive in a North Korean Prisoner of War camp. During his time in captivity, Koelsch refused to give any information or aid to the North Korean enemy.

Captured, denied medical attention, beaten, tortured, and starved, Capt. Wilkins and AM3 Neal survived the war and captivity and were eventually returned home.

LTJG Koelsch’s remains were eventually returned to the United States, and he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 30, Grave 1123-RH).

On June 8, 1965, the U.S. Navy christened a destroyer escort ship the USS Koelsch (DE-1049) in his honor.