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Korean War Memories
By Mary Bruno, July-August 2003
Web exclusive...
To understand the "forgotten war," to create true and lasting impressions of the brutal Korean conflict, we contacted veterans who served there. These are some of their stories
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Wars create impressions. Like fingerprints, they are unique and lasting. The muddy trenches of World War II; the steaming rice paddies of Vietnam; the parched sandscape and oil-blackened skies of Desert Storm. But what of the Korean War, a conflict that lasted three years and killed 36,940 U.S. soldiers, wounded 92,100 others, and left more than 8,000 missing in action? Ah, it was cold? Our strongest impression of the Korean War may be The Manchurian Candidate, director John Frankenheimer's chilling masterpiece about the fatal manipulation of a Korean War hero. The 1962 film introduced us to the concept of brainwashing long before we heard about "psy-ops." But it didn't capture the bloody horrors of the war or the frustration of the truce—not the victory—that ended it. July 27, 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of this truce.
Never retreat—just backspace
One of the most memorable times of my life was my tour of duty in Korea. However, I was a desk jockey—a clerk, a graduate of the Air Force clerk typist school. Morning reports, sick call, scheduling R&R, and all that jazz. I was assigned to the 5th Motor Transport Squadron (Avn), nicknamed the 5th Mule Train, from September 28, 1952 until July 28, 1953. The trucks had recognizable white bumpers with an emblem of a kicking mule in a white circle painted on the cab. While most of the members of the Mule Train drove the trucks supplying Air Force combat units all over Korea with ordnance and other vital war supplies, I was driving a Remington. ("We never retreat, we just backspace.")
Bob "Andy" Andrews, Staff Sergeant, United States Air Force (Retired)
Surprise attack
I was at the Chosin Reservoir in 1950 when the Chinese entered the war at that part of North Korea. Chosin Reservoir was located in the east side of North Korea about 38 miles south from the Manchurian border. The ground around the reservoir was hard and covered with snow. We couldn't dig foxholes. We had just relieved a Marine Regiment so they could go to the west side of the reservoir to help 8th Army troops who were being battered by the Chinese. At that time we had not seen any Chinese troops. We were told there were no enemy between us and the Yalu River, so we built fires and started to sleep above ground. About 10:30 p.m. the first night, we pulled in at the reservoir, and the whole Chinese army came down on us in a surprise attack, killing 50 percent of our officers and men. They came in force, blowing whistles and shooting flares into the air. They had no radio equipment, so used whistles and bugles and flares for their communications. They had on sneakers. Some had quilted uniforms and boots. They were fierce fighters, and we had some hand-to-hand bayonet encounters because there were so many that they overran us. I killed my first man with bullets and my first man with a bayonet that night. I was 18 years old. I lost my best friend that was with me since kindergarten. Five days after the battle started, we got the order to withdraw. We had 360 able-bodied men and 600 wounded left, out of the 3,550 men we had going in. We had killed thousands of Chinese.
Don Mayville, First Sergeant, U.S. Army (Retired)
Coming home to silence
Korea was the asshole of the world, literally. You could get killed in a myriad of ways by nightly infiltrators. The enemy fought mostly at night for dread of napalm strikes from U.S. air superiority. We never had an eight-hour sleep in that war. The North Korean was a resolute opponent. He basically died fighting. The Chinese were victorious by sheer numbers. They died by the thousands. Dear old Harry Truman was powerless to stop the war that happened on his watch. Or, he just didn't care once he scapegoated MacArthur. A munificent number of Allied young men would not have been sacrificed by Truman's immoral folly of truce talks by day and murder-mayhem-brutality every night. We fought for our lives while the big shots pandered to their egos and jealousies. But who in the USA today gives a good damn about our forgotten victory in Korea 50 years ago? The USMC gave me the greatest adventure of my young life. I fought to stop the spread of Communism. I wanted my war, and I got it. No regrets. But it was rough to come home to silence in 1952: "Where you been, Chris? "In Korea." "Oh, oh, that place. . .better go get a job." Semper Fidelis.
Chris Sarno, Staff Sergeant, USMC FMF
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