was a needed change for me. Whenever I look back I always think of RJ who was a Marine and was awarded Purple Hearts for his part earlier in the Korean War. We shared a common Era but that's all.
I had it easy but he didn't..
Here is a summation of my hohum story in the US Army, circa 1952 . I went where they wanted me to go and I did what they wanted me to do.
My Life in the Army,
I was drafted into the Army in January of 1952. I was twenty four years old. I was the oldest in my basic training group. I was promptly named the old man.
I went through basic infantry and medical training at Camp Pickett, Va. I had no idea why I was chosen for the medical corps as I wasn’t a conscientious objector and I didn’t have any medical experience. I did have lots of experience in mechanical things but I guess that the Army needed medics at the time that I was drafted.
When we completed infantry basic we all thought that the worse was over.
The next day we started medical aidman basic training (today known as combat medic) The day started off easy (at least we were told that by the cadre) with relay teams competing in a one man fireman carry. Variety was added by means of dragging a litter through three foot culverts and two of us carrying the litter through ankle high barbed wire. We soon found out two things. One, it was a big advantage to carry the lightest man possible! Two, knees weren’t bone, they were rubber.
We also found out that the Army sometimes doesn’t make sense (what else is new!) . During infantry basic there was only one Garand for every three GI’s. Now starting medical basic training we were each issued brand new M1 Garands that were covered under a thick layer of cosmoline. Of course, this was on Friday so we were scheduled to have inspection of our weapons on Saturday. Most of us passed inspection, along with our M1’s, but inspection of the latrine failed because of cosmoline traces everywhere! The Army is devious as we soon found out.
Upon finishing infantry and medical basic,(16 weeks), I had a 30 day leave and then reported to Xray school at Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio Texas. To this day I do not understand why the Army in its infinite wisdom, decided to invest time and money in me, a supposedly ignorant and poorly trained draftee and a two year man at that!. I wasn’t complaining of course.
At Ft Sam, I had it made. A minimum of military discipline and San Antonio with lots to do on leave, made it an interesting four months. I graduated from Xray school, was granted a 30 day leave, and had to report to Camp Lawton in Seattle Washington on December 19th. I arrived there and found out it was bad. During WWII, the camp had been used for housing POW’s. The camp was in bad shape, filthy, stopped up latrines, and cold. There was no army discipline to keep the place in decent condition. Since the civilian personnel, who processed us, were on Christmas vacation, no processing was going on. We went into Seattle every night to escape the conditions at the camp. None of us could understand why we had to report to this place on December 19th when we could have been granted additional leave to spend Christmas at home. We certainly made good on the truth that GI’s like to gripe!
On January 5th we shipped out of Seattle aboard the General Ballou a Navy transport ship, and made our way to Yokohoma Japan, a trip that took us 21 days. The only comment that I’ll make is that the accommodations were VERY democratic, the GI’s occupied half the ship and the officers occupied the other half. There were 500 officers and 2000+ GI’s.
After a very short stay in Japan (36 hours at Camp Drake) we were loaded back aboard the same ship and steamed our way to Pusan Korea..
Arriving in Pusan, the Army didn’t waste any further time but crammed us on a train headed for Seoul. Two men to each car were assigned to guard duty and assigned M2 carbines. They were stationed at each end of the car to counter any North Korean activity.
A long ride on the train followed by what seemed to be an even longer ride in a deuce and a half, got about five of us to the 52nd Medical battalion just in time to be introduced to Japanese beer at the NCO club. I ordered a bottle of Nippon beer and was surprised to see a quart of it in front of me. I finished that and ordered one more. After someone picked me up the floor I was assigned to quarters for a rather inebriated uneasy sleep. I later found out that the alcohol content of Nippon beer was much higher than GI beer. The following day, I once again rode in the back of a deuce and 1/2 and was in for another dusty, cold ride to the 3rd platoon of the 618th Medical Clearing company which, at that time, was located near Yonchon somewhere north of the 38th parallel.. I knew about the 38th parallel. and was really bent out of shape when we passed the sign announcing the 38th.
I reported to the company headquarters and was assigned to the motor pool. So started my tour in Korea.
The 618th was a medical holding company located next to a railhead. We had doctors and nurses and of course medical personnel (me, and others). The duty was to hold the wounded overnight, load them on a hospital train the next day , to be sent to the 121st Evacuation hospital in Seoul, from there they would be flown to Japan.
I don’t know if it was the policy just at our company or throughout the Medical corps but we were NOT allowed to have personal weapons of any kind. In a company size platoon of 75 men, we were allowed only seven M2 carbines which were issued only for guard duty.
It seemed that we were abiding by the Geneva Conventions but that we might’ve been the only ones that were. In fact it was a joke that if we held up our Geneva Conventions id card with the Red Cross on it, we would be treated with respect and not have our butts get shot off. Actually the Chinese and North Koreans wanted to shoot medics. Shooting a medic was a good idea to them.
I soon made friends with Sarge, the motor pool sergeant, Winston (our opera singer), Jonesy, Murph, and other drivers whose names escapes me in my ripe old age. Together, the twelve of us bunked in an eight man squad tent called the “Grease Pit”. Each tent or series of tents had a name. The four section of tents which housed the most of the men was called the “Snake Pit”, the tent that housed the corpsmen with, presumably higher intellect was called “Snob Hill”:. Then there were the officers BOQ tent, but we had another name for it..
At me tender age in 1953 I considered that I had the best duty in Korea that I could ask for. Every day I drove my deuce and a half to Seoul and back to our headquarters platoon. This was 50 dusty, bouncing miles one way and it took about three hours as I stopped at the APO to deliver and pick up mail and make other various stops sometimes at I Corp headquarters.
Occasionally I drove on the ration run. It was my unofficial duty to requisition cheese, tomato juice, and any thing I could lay my hands on for the our small group in the motor pool. We had a trap door in the tent where we stored our GI beer and ‘requisitioned’ cheese. We bought our beer for 10 cents a can and sold it back to ourselves for 15 cents a can. Needless to say, we had a large supply of beer. However, on one surprise inspection by the Battalion’s full bird, he ordered me to open the trap door. When I did, he looked down and only made one comment. “You all drink one h---ova lot of GD beer.!” He ignored the two 8 pound cans of ill gotten cheese!
We drew rations based on the expected number of wounded each day. On days when the casualties were down, we ate high off the hog but on the days where the casualties were high, we depended on our ‘requisitioned ‘ supplies to get us through. The patients came first and always would.
In the last days of the war, the truce talks stalled over the size of the conference chamber and how to release the POWs the former of no importance and the latter of great importance.,
During this time the North Koreans tried to gain as much ground to the south as they could. The ROK Army was between us and the North Koreans. The ROK army held the line but at great cost. We were unloading then from deuce and a halfs, three quarter ton trucks, ambulances, jeeps, and helicopters. Our patient tents were filled and spilling over. We were swamped.
On 27 July, 1953 it ended, a truce was signed. We all woke up at shortly after 2200,hours (10pm) and for a minute, all of us couldn’t figure it out. Then it hit us. The sound of the artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire was gone. The truce was in effect. It was a relief to see our casualty rate drop to almost zero.
We still received some casualties from accidents and land mines but in a short time the 3rd platoon, 618th Medical Clearing Company became a sick call center for 40 some outfits in our area. About this time I was asked if I wanted to be a chancre mechanic, (medical lab technician) I said no. Later I was asked if I wanted to use my secondary MOS as an xray tech at a MASH hospital but I tuned that down due to the absence of radiation protection, and ended up as a jeep driver for the officers in our company, doctors, dentists, etc. I finished out my duty in Korea and returned home in February 1954 and found employment as an xray technician at a Veterans Administration hospital in Ft. Wayne Indiana.
Here I am at the 38th Parallel. Note no weapon, just a dumbarse smile.
