Posted on 11/11/2022 12:50:42 PM PST by Sasparilla
Some years ago my wife bought her Dad, George, a book called "A Father's Legacy" which has blank pages for Fathers to write thoughts on memories of various activities that affected their own lives. One page asked the question, "If you were in the Armed Forces, how did your service affect your life?"
Although he survived the front lines of Korea for 18 months, he suffered from the physical & mental effects of combat until 5 years before his death when he finally put down the bottle & found peace.
He entered the Korean war as an infantryman and carried a BAR. However, he volunteered to be a combat medic about ½ way through deployment. He was 16 when he enlisted & lied about his age.
He was never wounded, but he had severe frostbite & suffered from it's effects all his life...
When he passed we found his Medic bag where we found a number of Morphine syrettes and about 30 safety pins attached to one of the closed safety pin sides.
He served 27 years in the Army and retired as a Sergeant Major
Here's what he wrote:
"I enlisted in the Army in August 1950 at Whitehall Street NYC. I was sworn in at 16 years old. I was sent to Ft. Dix New Jersey for basic training. Then to Ft. Meade Maryland for advance training. Then on to Virginia.
I flew to California and on to a troop transport ship for 17 days to Japan. 2 days after getting there we were on another ship headed to Korea. South Korea, where war had broken out. That was January 1951.
It was "Cold as Hell." Then 14 months of nonstop combat.
Then back to Japan. Tokyo Japan and back on a ship again 16 days to California and on to Edwards Massachusetts. Then I was sent to West Point to train Cadets.
I was married to Mom so I put in for a transfer to Ft. Jay Governor's Island New York Hospital. Then I transferred to Ft. Wadsworth Staten Island. I worked in the dispensary there. It was about 5 miles from our house in Staten Island.
Then I got out of active duty and went into the Reserve in 1954.
The War affected all of our lives because everyone I knew drank very heavily when we came back. I did too. It was the biggest mistake I ever made. Drinking was trouble."
Love Dad
Title should have read Korea 1951-1952
Touching post. Thanks for sharing it. I’ve been stationed in Korea twice, not long ago. Thanks for your family’s great support. God bless you all.
A dear friend of mine served in Vietnam. He fell from shrapnel to the head.
He survived only to commit suiucide later in his life. He was hunted by the memory of 3 Medics that were killed trying to save him . He said he was lying there and could not move but had to watch the horror of it.
Rest in peace soldier.
Great story.
Alot of families bore those scars. I’m very familiar with them. Freedom is not free.
“Not all of us were killed. We died in different ways.”
My Dad used to wake up in the middle of the night looking for his carbine because the Chinese were in the trenches.
I was born in 1950. My dad, a Navy doc was just recalled just before my birth and after WW2 now sent to Korea. Chosin was one of his first field hospitals. All he’d say about time there - “It was cold”
Recently it dawned on me that most the dads and uncles i knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.
And its now I appreciate that most, if not all, were likely carrying serious baggage from those days. But somehow carried on. Things buried.
Dad made it to 89. Dementia set in at the end. He started to speak of Korea and how he kept his hands warm in surgery. It was cold.
Don’t just thank a vet only today of all days. Give them a God damn big hug. “Thank you for your service” does not even start to thank them for what veterans have done for us.
My Dad was a Master Sergeant in the Battle of the Bulge / Colmar Pocket area although he was the senior JAG NCO and not in front line combat. It was only when I was middle aged that he described to me his first big shock of how close and real that combat was as he was standing in the chow line in the rain and he and his buddy pulled up a canvas back flap on a deuce-n-half to see if they could use it to be out of the rain for a few minutes. He said that the back of that parked truck was full of the bodies of GIs “stacked up like cord wood.” They quickly re-secured the canvas.
I still remember the shocked awe in his voice in those four words.
Rule Number Two - You can’t change Rule Number One
Your Dad most assuredly qualifies as “The Greatest Generation”. But then,I’ll bet you already knew that!
You are correct, Sir.
He was awarded the Bronze Star but since it was not awarded for acts in actual combat he never discussed it. — he would say, I must have thrown a typewriter at someone.
If someone in that theater was to be brought up on charges he was the man that determined with what and how they would be charged. He would fight with the prosecuting officers as to the level of charges, all acting under the commander of that JAG group.
RIP, George. Thank you for your service.
:: “Thank you for your service” does not even start to thank them for what veterans have done for us.::
~~~~~~~~~~~
You are so right.
“Not all of us were killed. We died in different ways.”
—
Amen.
Sergeant Majors run the show , during my active duty in the U.S. Army I also was a combat medic. My contract ran from 1985-1993 , I chose not to do 20 plus years to garner a retirement as I saw what they were doing to guys getting near retirement and penalizing them lowering $ for whatever reason they could. My logic was if they are doing this to persons that had seen many live fire event’s ...well I did not want to hang with clowns that are bean counter’s and would defecate on those that endured the nasty work of war. Not a big fan of the officer class. From my experience with the guys before me they didn’t talk much about what they saw.
“Recently it dawned on me that most the Dads & uncles I knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.”
Yes,recently it dawned on me too. Thinking back, almost everyone’s Dad & even some mothers were veterans.
It turns out that my high school Civics teacher, who at that time was a Reserve Major, was a 2nd Lt. in the first wave at Normandy. Few knew that. He never said anything about. Nobody even talked about that kind of thing. I only found out
when I read his newspaper obituary.
Some kids might have mentioned their
Dad was Marine somewhere in the South Pacific, or at the Bulge, or countless other strange sounding places. But we didn’t think too much about the significance of those places because everybody’s dad had been overseas somewhere at the time. No big deal then. A big deal to me now.
We owe so much to that generation in the way they raised us, the examples they set & how they did their best to raise us as good citizens.
“Recently it dawned on me that most the Dads & uncles I knew growing up were vets of WW2 or Korea. They were shop keepers, carpenters, loggers, doctors, dads.”
Yes,recently it dawned on me too. Thinking back, almost everyone’s Dad & even some mothers were veterans.
It turns out that my high school Civics teacher, who at that time was a Reserve Major, was a 2nd Lt. in the first wave at Normandy. Few knew that. He never said anything about. Nobody even talked about that kind of thing. I only found out
when I read his newspaper obituary.
Some kids might have mentioned their
Dad was Marine somewhere in the South Pacific, or at the Bulge, or countless other strange sounding places. But we didn’t think too much about the significance of those places because everybody’s dad had been overseas somewhere at the time. No big deal then. A big deal to me now.
We owe so much to that generation in the way they raised us, the examples they set & how they did their best to raise us as good citizens.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.