Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [203]
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Arriving in Yokohama, Japan, we proceeded to the processing center at Camp Drake. We were to join the 187th Airborne RCT BN at Bibai, Japan. Four of us had children and we were told this was too high a risk unit, so we were removed from the group. However, one week later, the four of us were on our way to the front lines.
It was on the ship over to Korea that I learned a valuable lesson in life, from a priest aboard ship. He told us there was a time to pray, and a time to fight—together they don’t mix. He went on to say, “Get yourself prepared for God now, and keep a clear head during battle to survive.” During my time in Korea, I lived by those words. I never worried about being killed, or wounded, until the ending of the fighting; my main concern was not to be taken prisoner.
After landing in Inchon, Korea, we spent the next two days making our way to the front. On the last evening of our journey we had to climb a mountain to get to our new company. It was around midnight when we arrived at Company C, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
After we reported in, I was picked to stand guard over the company CP bunker for the next three hours. It was a cool, windy night with a full moon. As the clouds drifted by, they created shadows that kept my tired mind on edge; everything seemed to be moving towards me. This was my first experience of front line duty, and definitely the longest three hours of my life. Luckily no one passed by me, because I’m sure I would have shot them—no matter which side they were on.
It was around 4:00 AM when I made it back to the CP to bunk down. However, I wasn’t able to sleep from thinking what the next day was going to bring. Around 6:00 AM the sergeant called us outside to what was a rude awakening. The surrounding mountains were barren from bombings, then as far as one could see—a maze of trenches. Then there were the firing bunkers, and barbed wire strung everywhere. As I looked across the valley, the enemy side looked the same. It reminded me of movies I had seen about the trench warfare of the First World War.
I was assigned to the fourth platoon, or weapons platoon, as a squad leader of a 60mm mortar squad; I held this job until I rotated home.
Korea was a country that had four seasons; hot, rainy, cold and colder. During the rainy season, we were on the front line having replaced a ROK division. We lived in bunkers they had built, which began to cave in from all the heavy rains. Unfortunately, several men were killed during these cave-ins, so we were ordered to live in the trenches until the bunkers could be rebuilt. So, for close to a week, we lived in mud up to our ankles; I’ve seen hogs living in better conditions.
We never had on a dry stitch of clothing during the rainy season, which caused our skin to wrinkle from being constantly wet. Then came the winter; the temperatures in the mountains was so cold, your skin would crack open. We lost a lot of men with frostbit feet. They wore their thermal boots instead of their regular boots when walking, causing their feet to become warm, and wet, and then they would freeze when they stopped walking. This was extremely painful, but it was a fast ticket home.
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If you have been in combat, one thing you can never forget is the smell of death; it surrounds you and lives with you forever. I can still remember waking up one morning to that awful smell; there were several body bags outside my bunker waiting for Quartermasters men to pick them up and take them to be processed for their journey home. That was one job I would never want to have.
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For some reason, our company was assigned to outpost positions more times than being on the MLR. An outpost was on point in front of the front line, and was always the first to get hit in an attack. This let the troops on the MLR know that the enemy was on their way. One night we were at an outpost when we received word