Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [177]
Those who had captured the General soon charged him with abuse of prisoners, and placed him on trial; they found him guilty. After getting as many concessions as they thought they could get, they released Dodd—unharmed.
Shortly after our arrival, Brigadier General Haydon Boatner was appointed the new commander of Koje-do. A few days after the release of General Dodd, things changed. Boatner ordered two tanks, along with the 38th Infantry Regiment, to smash through the barbed wire fences and gates of all the compounds. They leveled all the poles, so there went all their communist flags. The infantrymen used flamethrowers to burn all their signs. He told the prisoners they could make all the noise they wanted to between the hours of 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM, then there would be complete silence. He wanted to be able to hear a pin drop. I thought he was going to have a hard time pulling this one off, but to my amazement he did.
He wore two pearl handled pistols, and when he spoke—you listened.
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There were a lot of civilians living on the island when I first arrived, and they were always keeping the prisoners (both Chinese and North Koreans) stirred up. You never knew if someone milling around the hillside was a local or an escaped prisoner. However, after Boatner was able to get things under control, a lot of the civilians were evacuated from the island.
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The M.P.’s pulled six hour shifts at the guardhouses located at each of the compounds gates. However, the infantrymen pulled two on and four off as they guarded the perimeters of the compounds. Most of the infantrymen had spent time on the front lines, and those who weren’t able to rotate home, ended up back on the front lines. We also watched or guarded the prisoners on work details.
During my time on Koje-do, I would carry a carbine, a .45 automatic pistol, and an M-1 with a bayonet.
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The communist would kill the ones that turned against them (anti-communist) and bury them in their compounds. There was one anti-communist prisoner in one of the compounds, and I knew they were going to kill him if they caught him. So, I had him come out of the compound and kneel on the ground with his hands behind his head. I then called for the sergeant to tell him what was happening. He took the prisoner, and after that I didn’t know what happened to him.
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I was discharged from the Army on January 24, 1953, at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky.
BOOK III
July 1952 thru July 1953
~~Sixty-Five~~
John Delaney
USS Missouri – BB-63
U.S. Navy
In 1952 the Korean War was still going hot and heavy, so during my junior year at Watervliet High School—in Watervliet, New York—I decided to quit school and join the Navy. In April at the age of seventeen, weighing one-hundred fourteen pounds and standing five feet tall, I enlisted.
I was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, just outside of Chicago, for my basic training. Having been raised at an orphanage, being away from home wasn’t a problem; you can’t get homesick if you don’t have a home. However, some of the other guys really became homesick.
After graduating from our eight weeks of basic, we received our orders for the different ships and commands we would be assigned to for the next several years. I was excited when I received my orders—the USS Missouri BB-63.
It was during the middle of June when I reported to the Missouri. I was assigned to the Engineering Department and R-Division, which was responsible for the watertight integrity of the ship. Along with firefighting, we were in charge of the carpenter shop, and the machine shops, which included plumbing, and all the damage control facilities. My duties would include standing watches in Damage Control Central, sounding of the bilges (checking for water), air testing of compartments, and being the hot suit (asbestos suit) for air operations of the helicopters.
When I boarded the ship she was in her home port at the Naval Base