Ernest Zinke wrote on 2000-11-22 10:58:31.0
Comments: Pusan Harbor, South Korea
In the Korean war I was stationed aboard the Mt. McKinley, the flagship for Amphibious Forces Pacific. The North Koreans had decided to occupy all of Korea in defiance of the World War II peace accords. General MacArthur had landed at Inchon and fought his way down to Pusan at the south end of the Korean Peninsula. We landed at the Pusan Harbor while it was occupied, and stayed there while it was liberated.
The Rues Orphanage
We were docked at Pusan. Several sailors, returning from a night on the town, were met by a little boy who said, Sirs, Im hungry! They took him aboard, fed him, put him to bed and brought him to breakfast the next morning. He was a little orphan boy who had been cared for by an army unit, but it had shipped out. Now he was aboard ship, so what should be done with him? The crew named him Jimmie and kept him on the ship for several weeks, even when we sailed for Inchon Harbor. He became very popular with the crew. At night when the crew watched movies Jimmie would always be the one to say, Attention on deck! whenever the admiral came down to see the movies. Then he would climb up on the Admirals lap and watch the movies from this perch. Various crewmen were assigned to watch him, but one day he disappeared and the crew found him in the engine room. We knew we had to get him off the ship. I knew about an orphanage which had been established by Dr. George Rue and his wife, Grace.Rue. I suggested that possibility.
Dr. Rue was a Loma Linda graduate and had done missionary service in a mission hospital just outside Seoul, Korea for many years. The communists had moved in and taken over the hospital. Dr. Rue had stayed in Korea and set up an office in Pusan during the communist occupation. When the communists were driven out, the Rues moved back into the hospital. Grace Rue started the orphanage in the basement.
The next time we landed at Inchon I was given a jeep, a Marine driver, some groceries and Jimmie. A line officer from the ships staff named Don Seaman was a friend of mine and he went with me. We took Jimmie to the orphanage. I found Grace Rue in her office in the basement. I told her I had Jimmie and some supplies. She wanted the supplies put in the store room. Don and I carried the supplies in there and Don saw how little there was in the supply room. When he comment to Grace about this she told him, Ive never had to put these kids to bed hungry yet. Don was impressed. We left.
A month or so later, here came a big box addressed to Amphibious Forces Pacific as a high priority item. The admirals staff opened it and found it was filled with food concentrates, vitamins, etc. The officer said that it looked like Don Seaman, who was now on the staff of Navy Intelligence in Washington D.C., had sent this to me.
I got another jeep and driver, and went ashore with this big box to take it to the Rues orphanage. After we got on the road we came to a roadblock with a customs office. They stopped us and wanted us to pay duty on the box of supplies. They wouldnt let us go through. I went back to the Marine security people in that area and told them the story. They sent a second jeep with an armed guard and they told the custom agent, Were going through. There was no further argument. After we were through, the armed guard left, but we were in the clear.
We went to the orphanage and made the delivery. We saw Jimmie and he had fit right in. Grace Rue was very appreciative. She told us more about her work there. We returned to the ship, but stayed in touch with the Rues by phone and through occasional visits.
One time the Mount McKinley was in Sasabo, and the supply officer said, We have weevils in the flour, Ill have to survey it. Tons of flour were involved. The executive officer said it had to be destroyed. I told the supply officer Id like to get it to the Rues orphanage.
I found out that a squadron of LSTs was detailed to go up to Inchon. I contacted the Commodore, told him about the orphanage and the flour with weevils and that the supply officer said it should be destroyed. The LST officer said to just stack it up on the pier and the LST crew would get it and deliver it to the Orphanage. Later I got a letter from Grace Rue telling how the commodore himself had delivered the flour to the orphanage and how welcomed it was. They could always use it as barter for other supplies. The many orphanages had an exchange program between them. If the Rues got a ham they could exchange it for powdered milk.
Later I told the Executive Officer what had been done with the flour. But he got mad and said, I ordered that flour destroyed! I just turned my heels on him and left. But later I heard that the Executive Officer really came down hard on the Supply Officer for not having destroyed the flour as ordered.
Years later I was in the San Diego Naval Hospital and met the Supply Officer in civilian clothes. He told me that the Executive Officer was very vindictive, gave him a bad fitness report, so he had gotten out of the Navy over that incident.
One time, when I was on leave back in the United States, I learned that there was a program run by the Surplus Commodity Corporation which let people purchase surplus food from the government for charities. Dr. Glenn McCaffrey was a Loma Linda surgeon in Vista and my neighbor. He and I teamed up to buy a cargo container of assorted supplies and ship it to the Rues Orphanage through civilian shipping. We got a letter from the Rues telling us that they received the supplies and how much they appreciated it.
The Channel at the Inchon Harbor
MacArthur also fought his way across Korea from Inchon Harbor and cut Korea in two. The Mount McKinley left Pusan Harbor and went to Inchon Harbor.
The channel at Inchon was very dangerous. Landing craft going back and forth from ship to shore would get lost, wash downstream and out to sea, or they would wash up on an island. Several of the landing craft from the Mount McKinley were lost this way.
On the front lines in North Korea
As the chief Naval Medical Officer at Inchon I set up the arrangement for the medical care of the seriously wounded troops who were flown out to ships for specialized care. I set up six LSTs for specialized care in one or another medical specialty for orthopedic injuries, abdominal injuries, infections, pneumonia, psychiatric, etc. Later, we got hospital ships. After they took over, the LSTs were released.
Then I was sent to the front lines to observe the American medical care of our troops at the battle front. I was taken in by helicopter from the Mount McKinley.
The U.S. Army was well inside the North Korean territory. I was at a platoon or company headquarters at the front line when it was about 60 miles north of Seoul. Korean forces were on either side of us and moved in and out. I shared tents with two other Loma Linda doctors. I was to observe the care the troops were getting.
I could see the front lines a few hundred yards away. The troops were dug in, but the Koreans would occasionally attack. Raids were usually conducted at night. I watched the wounded soldiers brought in and be treated, then taken by ambulance or later air-evac planes to the hospital ships. I spent about a week there. I saw several hundred wounded soldiers treated. Occasionally, I helped treat a few patients.
By the time I was to return to the Mount McKinley, the weather had turned bad, so I had to go back by jeep at night. Two jeeps started out, but I never saw the other jeep again and I dont know if it ever made it back or not.
This was the closest I ever got to actual ground fighting, and I was really glad to get back to my warm stateroom on the Mount McKinley.
Ground Zero at the A-Bomb Test Site
General Douglas MacArthur was considering dropping an atomic bomb on the Chinese invaders in Korea. So the Admiral in Korea gave me orders to go Mercury, Nevada to learn about Atomic Bombs at the test site. When I checked in I was told that I wasnt cleared for atomic information. I told them, Then Ill leave and go right back to Korea. They said, Wait a minute. and immediately cleared me.
I made a tour of the test site before the blast, including ground zero and various stations set up at 500 yard intervals. Animals had been tied to stakes at each station, including goats and other farm animals. Cottages had been built and furnished at other specified intervals.
Marines were going to be stationed in a trench at a pretty close range, and I had volunteered to be there with them. Then I found out that when the countdown began, the marines would lie flat on the ground in a six foot deep trench until after the blast had passed. They would then be airlifted out and checked to see what amount of radiation they had absorbed. It was believed that the ground would protect them from the radiation. After learning this, I declined to stay with the marines, and went instead to watch the bomb explosion from the chairs on top of a hill, seven miles away from ground zero.
After the blast we were sent in with geiger counters to take radiation measurements starting at the seven mile area and then going into the closer locations in a straight line to ground zero. We stopped at each station and cottage to take radiation measurements and record our observations in a log.
We could see devastation all around. The animals were dead. The vegetation was seared and burned. We saw the damaged houses. The damage got worse as we progressed in, and the closest house was totally demolished.
I recorded how the geiger counter readings slowly increased as we got closer to ground zero. We continued in. Suddenly, I noticed the geiger counter shoot way up. I saw that the sand around us was glazed and porceillinized (black). I saw a crumpled heap and realized that we were at the collapsed bomb tower at ground zero. I told the driver to turn around and get out of there as fast as he could.
We had been exposed to a hefty dose of radiation, so we had to get decontaminated. We went to bathhouses back up on the hill and went into the scrub rooms and started scrubbing. We had readings taken of us periodically. I noticed that the high readings were mainly around my ears, armpits, groin and fingernails. We went in and out of the shower and scrubbed repeatedly for the rest of the afternoon until the geiger counters said I was safely decontaminated. My driver did the same thing, along with others that were coming in from different sectors.
I turned in my report and drove home to Riverside. Then I went back to Korea.
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