k-18 6151st abs

Comments: Arrived at Pohang Dong in April of 51. Soon after, we moved up the coast by LST with all our equipment but the ship captain made a small mistake and landed at Yang Yang, above the 38th paralell. A piper cub had to drop a message to staighten things out. Tents had already been set up by some Air National Guardsmen who had be activated in 50. They left in the middle of the summer. We not only serviced the Mosquito units (T6's and Pipers) but were there as a backup for the navy planes whose carrier was in the sea of Japan. On one occasion a pilot with a hung daisy cutter bomb (unknown to the pilot)landed and blew up, destroying the plane and killing the pilot, Soon after another corsair was to land with a landing cable from the carrier wrapped around its tail. The Colonel didnt want another fatality and told thepilot to bail out over the sea where some of our guys were waiting in a lifeboat. I remember Timmy jumped out of the boat to help him in. At the end of the summer we turned our base over to the 1st Marine Air Wing and everybody got split up. Luckily Flattop and I both were assigned to 5th Air Force HQs in Seoul until we both ratated home. We still stay in touch.

Keywords: Everybody knew me as Sonny. If you saw Ed (Flattop) Itter I was usually with him. The Mosquito T6 & Pipers flew out of K-18. We were a support unit. I was a radio operator.

Assigned to 6151st at K-18

Comments: I was transferred from the 452nd Bomb Wg (Comm Sq.)in Japan, to the 6151st AB Squadron at K-18 Kangnung, Korea, about March or April of 1951. Was communications supervisor in the message center until Sept of 1951 when rotated back to the States. Would sure like to hear from anyone else who was there at the same time so we can swap stories.

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