Forward

Korea was divided in half at the 38th parallel as a compromise settlement at the end of World War II (1945). During World War II, military personnel were selected by the Draft, The Draft was still in effect when the North Koreans decided to unify their country under communism. They crossed the 38th parallel on June 25th, 1950 and pushed the South Koreans almost into the sea. Under treaty to defend South Korea, the US and UN entered the war. Harry Truman was our President.

On June 25th, 1950, the North Koreans pushed the ROK's (South Koreans) and US soldiers back to the Pusan perimeter. The US Marines, landing at Inchon on September 15th, 1950, changed the tide of the war. The North Koreans were pushed back to the Yalu River. The Chinese entered the war on November Ist, 1950 and pushed the UN forces back to Seoul. Truce talks began in June, 1951 with both sides back to the 38th parallel.

The Peace talks go on for two more years. During this time, bitter fighting continues along the 38th parallel, even though both sides know they aren't going to invade in either direction. The land fights are mostly for outposts. Patrols are sent out day and night in an effort to keep the pot boiling at theTruce talks in Panmunjom.

A cease fire was reached on July 25th, 1953. Forty years later, about 40,000 US forces are still occupying South Korea.

This war was hardly noticed by the American people. In fact, it was not called a war, but rather a "conflict". Americans were still basking in the glory of the victory in World War II. They could not bear to see our soldiers being pushed back or losing. Prisoners' minds were manipulated and some were shown on TV blaming the US for the war. Hence, those who fought in the war were ignored and not held in high esteem.

My Recollection

I was drafted into the Army in January, 1951. My four months Basic Training was at Fort Dix, New Jersey, 200 miles away. I came home many weekends to see my sweetheart Monnie. After Basic, I went to Leadership School. I volunteered to go to OCS (Officers Candidate School). In September, 1951, I arrived at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma for six months of training as an artillery officer. I failed the first of twelve courses ( motors ) and was asked to resign. I told the Captain that he would have to fire me. Through some miracle, I managed not to fail any more courses. I graduated near the bottom of a class of 96. We started with 150 candidates.

I was assigned to Camp Rucker, Alabama in March of 1952. The North Dakota National Guard was there to be split up and be reassigned to other units. Much of this had been accomplished. All units had been depleted in strength. However, there was an abundance of new 2nd Lt.’s, mostly ROTC college graduates.

What was left of the Division at Rucker, was organized to travel 1,000 miles across the south to central Texas (Lampassos area). A maneuver was held there called "Operation Long Horn". It was a disorganized chaos.

In June, 1952, I was ordered to Korea as an Artillery Observer. Monnie and I got married July 4, 1952. We had a month off for a honeymoon.

Early in August, I flew to Camp Stoneman, Ca. - from there to Japan via Hawaii, Wake Island and Yokohama, Japan. A troop ship took me to Inchon, Korea. A truck took me to the 7th Division, 47th Field Artillery, Battery A. The 7th was on line at the 38th Parallel, facing the Chinese Army.

I hung around the Battery a few days waiting to replace an FO (Forward Observer) attached to an Infantry Company. One day the Battery Captain said that one of our 2 1\2 ton trucks was stuck off the road. The Sergeant of the motor pool, who had been in Korea 11 months and was due to rotate home, was going out with a big wrecker to retrieve the truck. I was to go along with him. As we neared the stranded vehicle, I noticed a small red triangular sign hanging on a wire fence. I vaguely recalled that this was a symbol for a mine field that was laid by American Army Engineers. The vehicle was on a depression off the road about 100 feet. Don't ask me how it got there. There was no fence line here. The Sergeant had the Driver of the wrecker backup without getting off the road. The Sergeant pulled the cable from the winch and attached it under the front bumper of the disabled vehicle. He then proceeded to get in the truck and proclaimed that he was going to steer it out. I told him that it foolish to do that as this might be a continuation of the mine field that we just passed. He ignored the warning and ordered the wrecker Driver to activate the winch. The rear wheels ran over the anti-tank mine sending the rear end high into the air, with the front end a few feet off the ground. The tow cable broke and the tailgate flew over my head. The truck came down nose first. The Sergeant fell out of the seat ( it was an open cab ) and hit the ground just as the hood of the truck covered him completely except for his head. I picked up the winch cable and tied it to the drive shaft. I knelt by the Sergeant and asked the Driver to activate the winch. As God would have it, the vehicle came up and settled on its side. No mines went off. The Sergeant was taken away alive. I do not know if he survived. When I arrived back in the Battery, there was great concern about this accident. The two highest ranking Sergeants blamed me for letting the Motor Sergeant get into the vehicle. The Captain did not.

The next day the Captain asked me to go back out there again. He said the engineers would be there and would be removing the truck. When I arrived, I saw a gray haired Ist LT. getting ready to winch the truck out. I asked if he had used mine detectors to see where the mines were. He said no and didn't think it was necessary. I couldn't believe it ---- Engineers are the

ones who place anti-tank mines in a set pattern in the ground. After pleading with him at some length, he finally agreed to sweep the area for mines. There were three mines removed from directly under the vehicle.

A day or two later, I went on line to be an FO for an Infantry Company. I probably was there for a week or two. Mostly, I remember how difficult it was to stay awake on watch and how difficult it was to sleep with all the rats. One morning, I was awakened by Infantrymen shooting at rats around my bunker. I told them that I would rather be shot by the enemy.

I was called back to the Battery to replace a Lt. Kovach on an outpost. It wasn't far in front of the main line. I went up just before dark. The next morning, I was setting up my BC scope in this bunker. A soldier was firing a .50 caliber machine gun converted to a rifle. It was on a bi-pod. A mortar round landed on the slope in front of the hill. Then another landed in back. The next one hit the corner of the small opening of my bunker which sent me sprawling. The blast bloodied my face. A fragment went through my upper lip and locked out a tooth (which stopped the fragment). A fragment punctured by dog tag, but missed my chest. The Chinese mortars then opened up and blasted the hell out of this outpost for a few minutes. The medics offered to carry me off me hill (I looked much worse than I was) , but I walked. I was taken to a M.A.S.H. unit where the rest of my tooth was extracted. A train took me to a hospital in Taegu. A week later I was back in the Battery.

Lt. Kovach replaced me on the Outpost. That night the Chinese overran the Outpost and took Kovach prisoner. Prisoners were exchanged August 5th, 1953. I wrote to Kovach a year later. He lived near Chicago. He never answered, probably because I made out so well and he suffered so much. I always regretted that letter -- the way that I wrote it.

Back at the Battery I was waiting to go back up on line and relieve an FO. My unfriendly sergeants laughed at me one day for having a loaded

carbine. That night, things got tense when we were told that the Chinese had infiltrated the lines and could be in our area. I could hear the sergeants shouting for Infantry protection. I was almost hoping that the Chinese would come into our area just to see how those sergeants would handle it. They didn't come.

Our position on the 38th Parallel was on the eastern edge of a large valley, the Chorwan Valley. A ROK division joined us on our left flank - the Chorwan Valley. A mile and one half north of their main line, the ROK's occupied a hill with a company. Perhaps two miles north of this outpost, the Chinese occupied a vast dark mountain, we called Papasan. They could look down our throats no matter where we were in that valley.

It was determined that one could look from a certain position on this outpost and see beyond the main line of the Chinese which was due east and maybe one half mile away. Brigadier General Andrew P. O'Meara (APO), Commanding General of the 7th Division Artillery, ordered that an FO be selected to go to that Outpost to observe the enemy on the back side of his hill position so as to call in artillery fire on them. I was selected.

It was a bright, sunny day on October 3, 1952. At about 11:00 a.m., the Captain notified me that I was to prepare immediately to go to the ROK Outpost on our left flank. I could take two Koreans in our Battery with me. They spoke English and could translate for me. An American private from another Battery was promised a promotion if he would volunteer to be the radio man on this mission. He did volunteer. Obviously, not too bright.

The Captain asked me to sit with him and have lunch. He said that he tried to get me out of this mission, since I had only been back from the hospital only a few days. I did not eat lunch. My mouth was dry. Although it wasn't said, no one there expected to see me again. The good-bye was a handshake. No more words.

My party of four arrived at the ROK sector, maybe mid afternoon. The

Valley was supposedly a mine field. There was a path to the Outpost, but we should have a guide. I bribed a ROK soldier to lead us to the Outpost. It cost a carton of cigarettes.

I was told that I would have a telephone line run on the ground to the Outpost, as the Chinese listen to all radio messages. As we started out around a small hill, the wire crew of three GI's were coming back from the Valley. They said that there was no way to lay phone wire since you were being shelled at all the time. Now I knew why FO's were field officers -- they couldn't say no.

We proceeded around the hill into the valley. We immediately started being shelled. I believed it was coming from Papasan, some 3-4 miles away. It was probably a 90mm recoilless rifle, The guide carried nothing and ran like a deer. I don't recall seeing much of him. The two ROK's carried the heavy radio pack and probably something else. We all had carbines. I had a .45 automatic pistol. I carried a week's rations probably equal to 24 cans of beer.).

We ran and dropped to the ground every few yards. You could hear the rounds coming in. Just before you thought they were going to hit, you hit the ground. It seemed like forever before we reached the Outpost. Maybe it was an hour. My ROK gestured with his hands one time to me, and said the round landed a yard from me.

Just before reaching the Outpost, I dropped the rations, as I was too exhausted to carry them. My ROK came along and scooped them up like nothing.

We were given a small bunker. A round fell on or near us every 30 seconds until dark. One time I decided that I would have to run to a spot that I could see the Chinese on line. When I got there, I could hear the round coming in. I waited in the open for it to explode. It seemed like it was right next to me. I looked through my binoculars and saw some activity. I ran back to my bunker as the second round exploded. I radioed that I didn't know how I was going to observe if they kept up this fire. No solution.

Late in the afternoon my contact advised me on the radio that the Chinese were massing at the bottom of the Outpost. I asked them to fire on them. He said that the 7th Div. Artillery couldn't fire into another sector. I asked him to find a way. He didn't.

At first darkness, the Chinese began a heavy bombardment of the Outpost. Flares lit up the hill. While the shelling was still going on, the Chinese walked through it to the top of the hill. They surely suffered casualties from their own artillery. I stood outside my bunker and fired my .45 at a squad of Chinese moving rapidly about 20-30 yards perpendicular to me. I never hit a one. There was so much noise, they didn't even notice. All of a sudden, the shelling stopped. It was almost completely silent and completely dark.

I radioed that the hill was taken. There didn't seem to be any fighting. It appeared that the ROK's had fled.

ROK soldiers crawled into our bunker. They were on top of each one another. I was sitting up with my feet out the opening.

I don't recall the timing of the following events:

In the darkness, a ROK edged his way inside of the opening and hugged the inside of the wall. My ROK told me that he was the company commander and I believe that he wanted us to leave. Somehow I didn't grasp the fact that his troops had left, so I expected him to fight. Some time later a rifle barrel appeared in the opening from my right side and fired across my legs. The Commander was hit in the leg. He made no sound. The rifleman continued on. Shortly, the Commander hobbled out and left.

Sometime later, I tried the radio which was outside because there was no room for it inside. I informed my contact that the only troops that were moving about were Chinese (When we heard voices I had to ask my ROK's if they were Chinese or Korean). I asked them to shell our position, knowing that it was almost never done. I asked that VT (Veritable Time) fuses be used. They sense the ground and explode 20 yards above the ground. This way, people in bunkers would be less vulnerable.

Some time passed and my artillery started shelling the hill. Movement slowed right down. After a while, the shelling became infrequent.

About this time, a Chinese patrol of four men came to the bunker. One of them squatted down and tried to look in. I was staring him right in the face and he still couldn't see me. I raised my carbine an his face and pulled the trigger. It didn't go off (probably no round in it). The four scrambled to the top of the bunker, talking excitedly. They dropped a grenade at my feet. It went off and I wasn't hit. A second, and I think a third, were dropped at my feet and still I wasn't hit. I guess I knew that the next one would land in my lap, so I threw the only grenade I had about ten feet from me. The blast hit my left eye and shrapnel hit my left hand (knuckles). I could hear groaning on top of the bunker. A few moments later, a VT round came in directly over the bunker. No more groans. Silence.

Some time later, I got on the radio and couldn't raise any response. I spoke into the mike and repeated several times "Give me more fire". Thinking that no one heard me and that the radio was run down, the situation looked bad. The message was to start an action that would save our lives.

I don't know what I was thinking, Probably not thinking much at all. I must have been shell shocked to say the least. From the time I started out across the valley, the 90mm recoilless rifle aimed directly at me which must have fired about 2,000 shells during the Chinese attack, the bombardment must have included between 500 - 1,000 shells; the 7th Div. Artillery fired 8,000 shells during the night .....and you wonder why I'm crazy.

Apparently, I never thought about leaving or about giving up and surrendering. I don't know why. Some of my reasoning or no reasoning was undoubtedly due to shell shock. At one point, I thought that I might get captured and so I removed my Lt.’s bar. I felt that if they knew I was an officer, that I'd be more valuable to them (have more information). This was a problem later as the GI's who came to get me were looking for the gold bars. I still had the cannons on the other collar.

I don't recall much talk during the night. The American GI with me cried some. I prayed the Hail Mary. It was easy to say. I couldn't think about anything in depth. My life did not pass in front of me. Although I do not say the Rosary today, I am close to Mary, the Mother of God -- my prayer partner.

Daylight came. There was some talking around us. One of the Koreans said "LT. we must go.” That seemed to wake me into reality. A Chinese soldier appeared directly in front of me, say 30-40 feet away. I raised my carbine from my lap and pulled the trigger. He grabbed his stomach, fell backwards and screamed the alert. I said for everyone to kneel, fire, and run down the hill. I was first. I knelt, fired, and said..."Here I come Jesus". I wasn't more than a few feet when the soldier behind me fell on my legs and I tumbled a ways. I landed on my back, my helmet partially covering my face, my rifle (with bayonet) across my chest. There were many bodies around me. The one I was touching seemed warm. I decided to play dead unless the soldier next to me got up, then I would get up with him and take him on. But he didn't.

I found out later that my GI and two ROKs got back safely. I also heard that the ROKs on line fired at the Outpost ROKs who left the hill.

It wasn't long before the Chinese seemed to be excited about something else. They had discovered a Company of GI's coming across the valley to attack the Outpost. They forgot about us.

Some time passed as I lay there. From the firing, I could guess that the ROK's were trying to get the Outpost back. A shell landed near me. It was White Phosphorous Willie Peter). I knew that WP would burn you badly, but I wasn't hit. A cloud of white smoke surrounded me. Time to get up. I ran to a nearby bunker. I was amazed to see a soldier sitting upright behind a mounted machine gun. I didn't know if he was Chinese or Korean. He didn't move. I pushed him with my bayonet (on the rifle) and he toppled over. I wondered afterwards if it was a dummy. But Why?

I could hear Americans in a trench line a few yards above me. The distance between us was being peppered with a lot of rifle or machine gun fire. I decided to run through it and try to reach them. I couldn't believe that I wasn't hit. I saw several US Infantrymen level rifles at me. Someone hollered not to shoot me. They grabbed me. Someone shouted (the LT.) ..."it's him!. It's the FO. Let's get the hell out of here." Someone was assigned to lead me back. I don't believe that I ever felt so good in my life. On the way back to the line, a few people looked at me with horror in their eyes. The white of my left eye was red from the grenade blast and my face was blackened from the burning bunker. I looked bad.

Back at the line, I was sitting in an area waiting for an ambulance. A corpsman had covered my eyes with a bandage. An Officer was interrogating some of the troops, suggesting that they didn't perform as well as they should have. I spoke up and said that they performed very well. However, I only saw the front platoon. He probably watched the rest of them all the way to the hill.

I do not know how many GI's were killed or wounded in that attack. I asked, but no answer. Certainly there were some who were. The next thing I remember is waking up on a collapsible hospital stretcher in a big room. My two Koreans were next to me on beds. They asked me to do something as they were told that they would be reassigned to regular ROK Division. I suggested that they wouldn't do that. I felt powerless to help and fell back into a deep sleep. As it turned out, the Battery Commander traced them down and brought them back to our Battery.

I remember riding in an ambulance to the airport in Seoul. It sure was bouncy and hard on the guys with fractures. While waiting to be lifted into to plane for Japan, two USO men squatted in the ambulance and told us we did a good job and berated the enemy. One guy was Mickey Rooney, the other was Don "Reo" Barry, a cowboy star at the time.

I arrived at an Army hospital about 40 miles outside of Tokyo. My treatment was to let my eye heal and to squeeze a nurses hand each day to strengthen the tendons. I was not bedridden. The LT. in the next bed was Joe Conley. He suffered a finger wound on "Triangle Hill". Fighting was going on there at the time. Joe said he was going to Hollywood to become a Donald O'Conner-type actor. He didn't make it that good, but he did become "Ike Godsey" (the country store owner) on the " Waltons"

A month went by and I was flown back to Korea. The 7th Division was now in reserve.

Wayne C. Smith, the 7th Division Commanding General, was looking for an Artillery Aide. One of my higher level Officers must have recommended me. I went to Headquarters to be interviewed. Three or four LT.’s were also there for an interview. All were West Pointers, as was the General. When we talked, and they found out that I was the FO that the General sent a Company up to rescue, they all knew that I would be selected. I was.

It was a great life being Aide-de-Camp. General Smith liked to point me out as an example of what he would do to save one soldier.

There are many good stories and memories for the rest of my time in Korea, but I was not directly involved in any more combat.

July 27th, 1953 - Korean War ends. I was already on a troop ship home. Thank God.