Voices from the Korean War - Douglas Rice [81]
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I saw and did things that I will never forget, and things I don’t like to remember. During my time in Korea I kept a daily log. If my day was bad, I wouldn’t talk or write about it. My entry would be how the weather was—good, bad, or very bad. According to my log, I had twenty-eight months of bad weather.
During these twenty-eight months, I threw up many times.
~~Twenty-Three~~
Robert Grass
11th Marine Regiment
1st Marine Division
U.S. Marine Corps
I was born in Troy, Indiana, on September 26, 1924. The day the United States declared war on Japan—December 8, 1941—at the age of seventeen, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps. That Monday morning, along with three buddies, I arrived at the post office in Evansville, Indiana—before it opened—to enlist. After we were sworn in, they told us we would be leaving the following morning for Parris Island, South Carolina. Shortly afterwards they informed us the camp was overflowing with new recruits, and that we wouldn’t be leaving until the 29th of December.
Finally, we arrived at Parris Island for our three months of basic training. It is located on the Atlantic coast and at night it got pretty cold with the winds blowing off the ocean. However, after only being there a month, they boarded us on ships and sent us to Guantanamo Bay. During the early part of the Second World War, German U-boats patrolled the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and there was a concern they may attempt to take over Guantanamo. So, we went through the rest of our basic training here. After we finished, we again boarded a ship, but not to return to Parris Island; we sailed through the Panama Canal headed for New Zealand.
The 1st Marine Division was scattered throughout the States and other parts of the world. The entire division would meet in New Zealand, where we all went through more training. We didn’t have a clue where we were headed, but with the training we knew it was going to be an island. And we were right; on August 7, 1942 we landed at Guadalcanal.
During my time in the south Pacific, I was in eight amphibious landings; the last being Guam. I returned home and on December 8, 1945, I was discharged from the Corps.
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On January 31, 1948, Vernia June Polk and I were married in Evansville, Indiana. I got a job working for ADT, and wanting to make a little more money I enlisted in the Marine Reserve in 1949. There were about one-hundred twenty-five men in the rifle company I joined, and about 95 percent of the guys had no combat experience. The only experience they had was the one or two weeks of training at various camps, which I didn’t have to do.
On the 25th of June, 1950, war broke out in Korea and they activated our company. I went and talked to the captain telling him that Vernie and I had two children, and I wanted to know if I would have to go. He told me that he didn’t believe I would be able to get out of it—he was right. Since my income was all the money we had coming in, Vernie and the children went to live with my parents.
When my brother Ralph, heard I was going over, he joined the Marines so he could be with me. The only time we were together was during the two days I was at Camp Pendleton before I shipped out.
The Army and ROK units had been pushed all the way back to Pusan, and there was concern they may be pushed all the way into the sea. So, the Navy had ships ready to evacuate them if necessary. However, they would not be needed as they began to break out of Pusan and started driving the NKPA back north.
When we arrived in Japan, we where informed of MacArthur’s plan to land at Inchon. We were to cut across to Seoul and cut off the retreating NKPA. Our company would not be making the landing at Inchon; however, we would be flying into Kimpo Airfield, which was about ten-to-twelve miles outside Inchon. After the 5th Marines had landed and secured Inchon, they were to secure the airfield so we could land. At 3:30 AM on the the 19th of September we landed.