Coast Island Defense Task Unit composed of men of the 2d Korean Marine Corps Regiment under the direction of US Marines. In April 1951 Paengyong-do was used as a staging base for a mission to recover wreckage of a downed Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 near the Chongchon River. On 17 April 1951 a USAF Sikorsky H-19 carried a US/South Korean team to the crash site and they photographed the wreck and removed the turbine blades, combustion chamber, exhaust pipe and horizontal stabilizer. The overloaded helicopter then flew the team and samples back to Paengyong-do where they were transferred onto an SA-16 and flown south for evaluation. The USAF established a communications interception site on the island in mid-1951 which was used to intercept Chinese military communications. In December 1951 two Sikorsky H-5s of the USAF 3d Air Rescue Squadron were based on the island and would forward deploy daily to Chodo Airport to operate search and rescue missions before being permanently deployed to Chodo in January 1952. The H-5s were later replaced by the more capable Sikorsky H-19, two of which were based at Chodo and one on Paengyong-do. On 12 November 1952 several aircraft, believed to be Po-2s, bombed the base in a night attack causing minimal damage. In January 2010, an artillery duel between South Korean ships and North Korean land artillery occurred near Baengnyeong. March 2010 Baengnyeong incident The South Korean naval vessel ROKS Cheonan sank near the island on 26 March 2010. The 1,200-ton vessel broke in two pieces, with nearly half the crew dying (mainly in the stern section) and a little more than half surviving (mainly in the bow section). A multinational investigation concluded that a North Korean torpedo struck the ship. References Further reading Malcom and Martz, White Tigers: My Secret War in North Korea, Brassey's. 1996 External links Official site in English Official site (in Korean) 2nd official site (in Korean) "Baekryong, an Island Overlooking Jangsan Cape in North Korea" Islands of Incheon Islands of the Yellow Sea Korean War air bases Ongjin County, Incheon