Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [190]
Here, Colonel Akers ordered us to go up on Harry and clear it of the Chinese. As we prepared to go, I knew we would be seeing many dead and wounded soldiers from both sides. To myself, I started repeating Psalms 23, and the nerves of my assistant gunner failed him. He froze up and was sitting in a crouched position with his head between his knees—crying. I took all his ammo and started moving up the hill; that was the last time I saw him.
While advancing through the trenches, over dead and wounded GI’s and Chinese, the Chinese came around a corner on the west side of Harry. With my BAR, in the ready position, I told them to halt! The two in front leaned forward, and the one the back threw a grenade at me. At the same time, I mowed all three down. Luckily for me, the grenade didn’t go off. Continuing to see if there were any more live Chinese, we received word to move off the hill and to bring a wounded GI with us. After taking the wounded soldier to the aid station, I was told to go to a lookout station along a ridge on the southeast side of Harry. I was told to watch for any Chinese movement.
About an hour after arriving, a Chinese artillery shell exploded about twenty yards from my position, but I paid no attention to it. Later on, Rudolph came to where I was and we started talking about what had just happened on Harry. As we talked, he noticed blood coming from my left boot. I looked down and saw the boot was full of blood, and that there was a hole that went all the way through my left leg. I began to feel weak, and thirsty. I asked Rudolph for some water, which he gave me. He then picked me up, placed my arm around his neck, and carried me to the aid station. Due to the amount of blood that I had lost, I was slipping in and out of consciousness.
After the medics stopped the bleeding, they placed me in the front passenger seat of a medic’s jeep. As the jeep faced downhill, they loaded the wounded in the rear. Suddenly, the jeep started rolling down the hill towards a branch, and because of a wound to my leg I was unable to stop it. Rudolph started running along side of the jeep, grabbing the steering wheel and turning it into a dirt bank. He told me to take care of myself and that my wound would send me stateside, and that he would see back in the States. This was the last I saw, or heard from my buddy.
I was taken to a hospital in southern Japan for six months and when I was well enough, I wrote to Rudolph. About a week later, my letter came back.
During my stay here, early one morning the head nurse escorted an Airman to my bedside; it was my brother Willie (W.C.). I thought I was dreaming, or my pain medication was playing tricks with my mind. However, it was really W.C... The Air Force and American Red Cross had rushed him from Korea to Japan after they received word of me being wounded in action. He was able to stay for over a week, and then he had to return to Korea. Shortly after he left, I had a major setback.
It was an August morning; still in the hospital and unable to walk. After the doctors had made their rounds the hospital chaplain came to my bed with a curious look on his face, pushing a wheelchair. After asking me my name, which I told him, he asked if I had a good nights rest. He then informed me that he had come to take me for a ride in the wheelchair. Helping me out of bed and into the wheelchair, out of the hospital we went. As he pushed me down a ramp, he told me that he needed to talk with me. So, he took me to the hospital chapel.
After entering the chapel, he wheeled me along side the front row of seats and began to talk to me about my family. Then he asked some questions about my mother. I asked him, “Is my mother alright?”
He replied, “Yes, she is alright—she is now in Heaven.”
On June 23, 1953, twelve days after I was wounded, my mother passed away.
He told me the reason I had not been informed of my mother’s death, was due to my medical condition. Regardless, I would not have been able to have gone home—I started crying.
I was reassigned to Kokura Army Depot, in Japan,