South Korea and the Gulf crisis

In mid-October 1991, Colonel Choi Myong-ku received the King Abdul Aziz Medal from the Saudi Arabian government for his role in leading a South Korean military medical team serving with the multinational forces fighting in the Gulf War. The despatch of the 154-member medical team was the first occasion for the South Korean military to serve in a war zone overseas since the last of the South Korean Tiger Division’ had been withdrawn from South Vietnam in April 1973. The medical team’s activities were limited, however, by the speed of the collapse of the Iraqi forces after the land war began in the last week of February 1991, but they did treat over 1,600 casualties before they were finally withdrawn in early April.