Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [186]
After the 245th, I moved to the division’s HQ where I became Division Prosthodonist. This meant I made bridges and dentures for the division. I would have each unit send a needy GI to my clinic. The soldier would be assigned TDY (temporary duty) to the hospital, and in two-and-a-half days he would have the appliance made. After which time, he was sent back to his unit.
The wounded were taken to aid stations where they were either treated and sent back to their units, or evacuated to a M.A.S.H. unit or a field hospital. I helped with suturing gunshot wounds in an aid station. Near one of the aid stations, an ammunition truck blew up and my assistant and I helped in treating some of the burn victims; this was a nightmarish experience.
Hearing that a dentist was needed with the 279th Regiment to go to an island south of Korea, called Koje-do to guard a prisoner of war camp, I volunteered to go with them. While here I only treated U.S. troops—no prisoners.
After spending thirteen months is Korea, I would spend the rest of my two-year tour of active duty at Governors Island in New York Harbor.
~~Seventy-One~~
Chuck Gibbs
Signal Corps
40th Infantry Division
U.S. Army
I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on December 4, 1929. The Great Depression bankrupted my family—like many others—and left them with nothing except the clothes on their backs. We moved to San Antonio, Texas, where my uncle took us in until my parents were able to get back on their feet. My father became a diary farmer.
During 1946, I met Fran Kilpatrick—the love of my life—and on July 5, 1949 we were married. However, in 1948 I enlisted in the 95th Medical Group, Texas National Guard in San Antonio. I was a low ranking enlisted man and wasn’t making enough money for a family to live on, so I applied for Officer Candidate School so I could make enough to support my family. In 1951 I was accepted into the Signal Corps OCS and after long and hard, training, I was sent to Korea to join the infantry on the front lines.
I can’t recall the name of the ship I sailed to Korea on, but I do remember being a compartment commander for four-hundred troops. It was one of the worst winters ever and the ship bounced around terribly. I believe all four-hundred men vomited constantly. We arrived in Korea during December of 1952.
Being a Signal Corps Outside Plant Officer with the 40th Infantry Division, I was responsible for keeping the communication cables and telephone lines up, and working at all times. This was not an easy task as the North Koreans kept firing artillery in our area, constantly knocking out our communication lines. To make matters worse, the South Korean civilians would cut out the brass cable connectors from the communication cable, in order to make souvenirs to sell to our guys.
Each time a cable or telephone line went out, which usually occurred during the night, my outside plant teams had to locate the breaks and fix them ASAP. Sometimes as many as ten spans of cable and/or wire had to be dropped, repaired, and replaced. The telephone poles in Korea were only about 5” in diameter, so a large American soldier couldn’t climb them because they would break. Thankfully, over half of my teams were KATUSA’s, who were very small and light weight Korean soldiers. Needless to say, they had the job of climbing the poles and doing all the required work. Now imagine this; there are ten of them on the top of ten poles, when suddenly they hear an incoming artillery round. Immediately—at lightning speed—they slid down the poles. I told them dozens of time that when they heard an incoming round there was no need to come down, because it had already gone over their head. However, they came down anyway. It was fun to watch them, because it looked like a synchronized dance.
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