During his search for a suitable landing site, Clark also attempted to establish radio contact with the recon teams. It was then that he received devastating news. Of the nine teams sent out, all but two men from one team had been captured or killed. Their radios also picked up North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) broadcasts that cited Sams by his name and rank and gave some details of the operation – information that could only have been provided by captured members of the recon teams. Despite the increased danger, the team decided to continue with the mission.

Clark finally found a promising landing site south of Wonsan, near the small village of Chilbo-ri. Final arrangements were quickly made. The Wallace L. Lind would take them to Chilbo-ri, where they would transfer to a whaleboat. Once the whaleboat neared the shore, the team would transfer to a black, four-man rubber raft that the whaleboat towed and paddle onto the beach. There they would rendezvous with the two surviving agents.

The captain of the Lind recommended that the entire mission be scrapped. He felt that if they continued their chances of survival were nil. But Sams insisted that one more try must be made.

On the night of March 12, the team left the island, boarded the Lind, and headed south. After the destroyer got into position beyond radar range about 20 miles off the coast, the team transferred to the whaleboat. As the team approached the coast, one of the Korean agents on the whaleboat established radio contact with the agents on the mainland who gave landing instructions. But Clark and the others became suspicious when the agents on the mainland proved unable to give the correct responses to code words transmitted from the whaleboat. The decision was quickly made to abort the landing that evening and return to the Lind. The team subsequently learned from a radio message sent by the two surviving agents that they had been in contact with communist troops using one of the captured walkie-talkies. Had the Operation Sams team continued ashore, they would have landed in a trap.

The team now had to make the toughest decision of the mission. The captain of the Lind recommended that the entire mission be scrapped. He felt that if they continued their chances of survival were nil. But Sams insisted that one more try must be made. Clark, Youn, and Ko also volunteered to make another attempt.

The next night, the Lind once again got into position 20 miles opposite Chilbo-ri and once again the Operation Sams team embarked for shore. As the whaleboat approached the coast, the men could see the lights of a truck convoy heading down the coastal highway toward their landing site; the convoy was also spotted by naval aircraft flying a night mission. Suddenly the ground shook with the sounds of explosions as the airplanes bombed and strafed the convoy. The possibility of encountering dispersed communist troops who had abandoned their trucks, in addition to avoiding the regular patrols, added yet another complication to the mission. As the team paddled the rubber raft toward shore, Sams later noted, “it was with some trepidation that we finally approached the beach.” This time they were successful in establishing contact with the two agents and, upon receiving final instructions, safely beached.

The team linked up with their two agents and a small group of other Korean CIA agents. Sams was taken to a cave located a few yards from the village. There he began interrogating agents who worked as hospital staffers and had seen the patients suspected of carrying bubonic plague. Meanwhile, Clark, Youn, and some of the other agents silently ambushed and eliminated a North Korean patrol in the village. Sams was then able to conduct examinations of patients in Chilbo-ri. He discovered that the village itself had been turned into a makeshift hospital whose medical support service ranged from primitive to non-existent.

Sams had hoped to spend two additional days in the area, visiting other villages in order to gather as much information as possible. But the agents based in North Korea dissuaded him, stating that the risk of discovery and capture was far too great. Nonetheless, Sams was able to confirm epidemics of typhus, typhoid, and smallpox. And most importantly, he determined that there was no evidence of bubonic plague. As it turned out, the “Black Death” plague was actually a virulent form of smallpox known as hemorrhagic smallpox. The reason it was mistaken for bubonic plague was because it also causes the body to turn black as the victim nears death. Though circumstances prevented him from bringing back a body for further lab study, Sams later said, “I felt confident in my clinical diagnosis of the cases.”

Sams was able to determine that because of North Korean inability to control the epidemics, the North Korean prewar population of 11 million had shrunk to about 3 million people.

The team successfully returned to the Lind the following evening. After they reboarded the ship, Sams radioed a brief message to headquarters in Tokyo summarizing his findings. Upon his return to Tokyo, Sams submitted a full report of his mission. In addition to an official announcement released to the international press, Sams presented his medical findings to a special United Nations commission and other public forums. Though the communists would continue their propaganda campaign with additional charges, the Operation Sams mission had effectively destroyed the accusations’ credibility. And because Sams had proved that bubonic plague was not in the theater, U.N. forces could continue operations without the risk of encountering that deadly disease.

In the following weeks, through his own findings and additional confirmed reports, Sams was able to determine that because of North Korean inability to control the epidemics, the North Korean prewar population of 11 million had shrunk to about 3 million people.

The success of the mission resulted in decorations for Clark, Youn, and Sams. As it turned out, Operation Sams was Clark’s last mission in Korea. He soon left the theater on a new assignment. In recognition of his efforts on the mission, he was awarded the Navy Cross. Clark retired from the Navy in 1966 with the rank of commander and died in 1998 at the age of 86. Youn was awarded his third Silver Star. He went on to participate in more special operations missions in Korea. In 1970, he retired from the service due to wounds suffered in the war and moved to the United States. Sams was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Sams returned to the United States in 1951 and retired from the Army in 1955. He died in 1994 at the age of 92, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Va.