Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [41]
Camp Pendleton, California
August 16, 1950,
Damn! Another day and we’re still here...
Camp Pendleton, California
August 28, 1950,
Just finished washing clothes, not my own but someone else’s for a dollar. Good business... We’re expecting to leave any time, any day now. Just waiting for the word.
Camp Pendleton, California
August 29, 1950,
It’s 2:30 PM and I’m writing you now as I don’t think I’ll have time tonight. We were issued our 782 gear today, rifles, packs, rolls, etc....
Camp Pendleton, California
August 31, 1950,
We’re leaving tomorrow so am very busy packing all my gear. Tomorrow morning I will call you before I leave and tell you so long (not good-bye).
USS Bayfield
September 3, 1950,
Here I am, three days out and just getting time to write. It seems I just can’t get away from that darn mess duty. I seem to get elected every time...We’re on the USS Bayfield, heading toward the Far East, I guess. It’s suppose to take us fourteen days and sixteen nights, figure it out...I really heard some sad news the first day out. I was informed that my name wasn’t on the roster and I wasn’t supposed to be on the ship. It seems they gave me the wrong word and I was supposed to be transferred to an outfit in main camp but here I am, too late to turn back now. What a revolting development this turned out to be!
September 18, 1950,
It’s getting closer to K day all the time, about 48 hours from now. Everyone tries to put on that it’s nothing at all but they’re all scared. Including me.
Inchon, Korea
September 25, 1950,
I’m in motor transportation driving a jeep and am very busy. We are only about half a mile from the front lines and have to watch our for sniper fire. Life is really rugged over here. All there are is over sized cow trails and the dust is two feet deep on all of them. It’s awfully hot during the day (106 degrees) and gets down to about 34 degrees at night...We can’t sleep because of the enemy infiltrating so I’m very tired. So is everyone else. A few of the guys have been killed or injured all ready while out on patrols...
September 28, 1950,
I’ve been on the go for about 72 hours with only about four hours of sleep so am sort of tired. We’re only two miles from Seoul and the snipers are pretty thick here. Last night I was driving a jeep down to Inchon on the beach and the snipers pinned me, and my shotgun rider down for half an hour till a truck full of Marines came and helped us out. They put two bullet holes through my windshield and that was too close for comfort...
October 8, 1950,
Yesterday we arrived in Inchon, again, to get ready to board ships...I had a gook wash my clothes for me yesterday in exchange for chop chop (food)...
USS Pickaway
October 12, 1950,
We finally got aboard ship today. We are on the USS Pickaway, the same kind as the Bayfield...I had a hot shower and a cold one, shaved, and combed my hair and brushed my teeth, then I put on some clean clothes. So did everyone else and when we got through doing all these things, we hardly knew each other, as we looked so different...
October 13, 1950,
We’re still sitting out in the harbor, if you want to call it that.
At Sea
USS Pickaway
October 17, 1950,
Today we finally left Inchon. We left at 6 this morning and soon after found out our destination. It is Wonson, on the east coast of North Korea...We aren’t alone, as we are in the middle of close to a twenty ship convoy...the North Koreans send over a plane, or so, every once in awhile just to antagonize the Navy...
October 25, 1950,
We finally arrived at Wonson today but we arrived too late to start getting the troops off so I guess we’ll spend another night aboard...Is it ever cold over here. The sun was out all day but there’s a thirty mile an hour wind blowing and colder than h---, so I practically froze...The “Mighty Mo” is sitting right beside us—what a battleship! It makes this ship look