Posted on 05/30/2022 10:01:33 AM PDT 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 14 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 Browning Automatic Rifle and a 1911 He volunteered to be a combat medic about ½ way through deployment. He was 16 when he enlisted & lied about his age. Although he was a small statured man, he was larger than life to me.
I think he opened up to me in his last 2 years because I'm a veteran
When he started talking to me about the War during his last two years, he opened up a bit to me that he l told me he killed so many people in combat, and saw so many die & get horribly wounded that he couldn't even remember how many. I think he opened up a bit because I'm a veteran. He never said much more. He was never wounded, but he had severe frostbite & suffered from the 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 had told me before that he used safety pins to close gaping or ripped wounds as well as he could until the wounded could reach better Medical care.
He served 27 years in the Army and retired as a Sergeant Major
Here's what he wrote to his daughters. It was all he would tell them.
"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
It wasn’t just the WW2 vets who suffered. Korean War vets weren’t treated much better than Vietnam Era Vets when they came home.
Thank you for posting this
My dad took shrapnel in the back on Guadalcanal. He was sent back to twent nine palms for rehab
He never would speak of his war time years
Beautiful tribute - although today is the day we remember those soldiers who gave their life in defense of our country. My uncle was one of them.
My dad commanded an LCT on Utah Beach. He NEVER talked about it. Lost him in ‘86.
My Dad was a Combat Engineer with the Third Infantry Division during the Korean War.
He would wake up at night reaching for his carbine.
And to those who didn’t die, I like to say: Glad you came back, and thanks.
Very true - but let those who died, like my 20 year-old uncle did on March 11, 1945 - have their special day of remembrance.
Sometimes, fatal wounds are not immediately so...more like terminal.
I don’t think very many people take Memorial Day very serious. It’s not Veterans Day, it’s not the opposite of Labor Day, it’s the day we are to honor those who gave EVERYTHING they “had” so we can have anything at all.
Very few people today understand the horrors of Communism and the great privilege it is to live in a Representative Republic that was built upon individual Liberty and Freedom.
Sorry to say this country needs some serious suffering to create a new hunger and thirst for Liberty. Rough times ahead.
God bless him. As if combat wasn't enough, that's volunteering to see human suffering as close as it gets.
This is my father’s casualty report from Korea:
He was crouched down behind a bush when he heard a light thump. Turned to see a grenade lying next to him. Got up to run but it was too late. He got blown over the bush. You could feel the shrapnel in his arm for years after. He did not know if it was an enemy grenade or one of his own guys who heard my father and panicked. The patrol pulled back and they blew the hell out of the area with artillery. He went on to serve two tours in Vietnam. He retired when he found out he was going back to Vietnam for a third tour. He had had enough.
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