Transcripts For CSPAN2 Oral 20240704

Yes. Ten september 23. Okay. And where were you born . Where was. Uh huh, born in virginia. Okay. Will you tell me brief infamy about your family . Where did your family come from . Well, the primarily from the english continent. My mother felt its from the welsh. Hmm. But my wife primarily did that analysis of where we are. And we have a book up to a certain point, but we cant go back much further. If were back to about seventies 60. Wow. And we have all that in a genealogy book. And i can show that to you before you leave your mind. Sure. And but i was born on the farm of my my dad raised tobacco and corn and horses and cows. And i was born there were seven children. Three girls that were older than i. Two boys that were older than i. And one daughter that was younger than on me. And they all have deceased now. Okay. And so youre part of the chosen few association, which means you were at the chosen reservoir during the korean war. Is that right . That is correct. Okay. Then were you a part of the marine corps . Yes, i was. Okay. That means your you enlisted yourself. You werent drafted. That is correct. Right. Then when were you enlisted . When did you enlist . Enlisted in a reserve program. I was in college and william and mary and i enlisted december the 12th, 1942. When did you arrive in korea and where where did you to . I arrived in korea at the incheon peninsula. Okay. I love incheon. Prior to that, i was in champaign and i went to an Artillery School at fort sill, oklahoma, and i studied what i would be doing in korea which was a survey and flesh and sound regime, which meant that we had instruments that could see flashes of guns and mortars, and we had micro phones that we put in the ground and we could hear the sound and we could analyze and triangulate as to where they were coming from. And if we saw a flash of a gun, we call that a nay reading. And if we saw the smoke of a gun without the flash, we call that a b rating. And if we saw the glow on the horizon, that was a c rating. And i did that most of the time. I was in korea on the second tour. I was there twice on the second tour. I was with the second battalion, 11th marines, and i was a battery commander of d battery. Okay. So your second tour, you were with the second battalion. Okay. Then when you first got to korea, which unit were you with and what was your rank . My rank was a lieutenant and i was with headquarters battery, the limited marine regiment. I landed on inchon in the eighth wave in a duck boat, a dock as a boat that has a propeller on the back that can go in the ocean. And also, can you go all out . I see. I landed on the island alameda with 45 men. Yeah. Can you tell me about that story of you in that boat coming into korea . What. What what were you feeling and what did you see . What did you hear . What was it like . Well, we could see the inchon proper, where the infantry was landing at bay, the eighth wave, when we got to a position we could see, we could see them on their ladders as they climbed up the wall. And then when we got closer to the island, we couldnt see that. But we could hear the firefights of the infantry on their own. Mm hmm. And and then after you arrived, where was it that you were stationed . You mean in korea . Yeah. Well, we. Were. You really werent stationed . We didnt have a station. We moved all the time. Okay. And. Just a brief. Analysis of what we did. We landed on wool meadow, and i set up a piece there for opies, and we could observe what was happening in inchon and be on and we reported what we saw. We did not see any artillery or mortars, but we did see trucks and troops and people. You having mortars and so forth. We did see that and we did report it and they were taken on the fire by our different, different artillery regiment. Mm hmm. Got it. And what was the Living Condition like . You said, you you kept moving around. But wherever you stopped out to, you know, stay for. Im im assuming just like a few days or so. And then you moved around . Yeah. You would probably stay for a couple of days, maybe a week. Hmm. But you had a tent and you had a sleeping bag, and later on, we got a rubber batteries. What . Early on, we didnt have that. And you slept in the tent or you slept outside and you were on duty 24 hours a day. And you had just learned to sleep and then work and then to work and then sleep. Oh, which battles were you involved in during your time in korea . I have five stars on my ribbons. Im not sure i can name. They were one inchon. Seoul once. The shows and few central korea but the on a reservoir in that area. Hmm. I mean, im sure you have so many stories from all those battles. Would you can you tell me a few of them that maybe are more profound to you or that you remember most . Yes, i can. Id be happy to try to remember them. So sometimes you forget. And the inchon area, one of the first things we noticed, of course, they were their families and the children they were. There were nice people, they were friendly to us. And as i was reconsidering to find another old p observation hrou this small village near the airport. It was the kimball airport, and i went through that small village and i noticed that the villagers were friendly and started to point. And i wonder what they were pointing out. And finally i stopped and then they pulled out a guy and it was a north korean and they wanted me to take him, which i did, because they wanted to get. And that was the first prisoner that i captured. Wow. And brought him back to the regiment. And he was sent through the prison chain of command here. Where that goes. I didnt know what happened to him after that. Wow. Was it kind of an intense moment or was it kind of easy to handle . I was trying to use it to handle, but it was intense not knowing whether he was the only one because i was only had a jeep and four people and i didnt really know much about how the Korean People felt about us coming that way, but they were friendly and they were helpful and so it helped us. It helped to hold an engagement or i finally got an interpreter and he traveled with us the whole time that we were in korea, so that wed be able to know whats going on right. With so without when you didnt have the interpreter yet, you must have had to. You know, use body language and had you did it with your hands and they could shake their heads and like and but another thing that happened before we got to seoul, we reached the han river. And i had i still had the dark and there and the observation was best on part of across the han river and part of it on this on the boat. What would that be . The east the west side of on river. So i reconnoiter and found some observation posts on the other side of the han river, which i occupied, and i had some on this side and we were able to see seoul, the outskirts, which of course not downtown, but the outskirts of it, particularly on the the side there and while we were doing that, a message came over the radio with a set of coordinates and said, dont fire on these cordons. As the brewery. And theres beer there. So i said, well, gee, who is thats interesting. And after our day, i saw people going and coming back with jugs, with cans of beer, and my man said, we got to have some beer, kind of. So i had five, five gallon water cans, one for each observation post and one for the center. That i had. I said five, five gallon water channels down to the brewery and brought back beer. And each piece had five, ten full of beer and that one there after two days. I got a call from one of the lp leaders. They said, lieutenant, you said you know, so ive washed in better shape than beer and im tired of beer. Could you please give some water . Wow so. So i got some water. We all had water, but those were too wonderful observation posts because we could see what was coming out of out of seoul before our troops across the horn river and after their cross that we had good position to see. And while there we saw a number of targets which we reported. And finally we observed six times coming out of korea. Right toward our infantry. Wow. So i reported that and the the day that we had an observer or so we sent their observer up there and they spotted them. And then the artillery, one, five, five guns, 155. Howard says, im sorry, 155 howitzers fired on those six types and knocked all of them out before they could get down to the infantry. Oh, yeah. So that was a major piece of information that i felt good about that we were able to stop them. There. Also, with the same observation post, we saw some blows to the south of seoul seoul and it was a pretty good distance from the south of seoul, and we got some portraits on it and sent it back to our headquarters and they said, thats we dont have any weapons that we can hit, but would you wait just a minute . I think we can get some ammunition to you from that. So a little bit later said weve contacted the missouri, the battleship, and they can hit it. So we gave them the coordinates and they fired and adjusted and they fired again. They fired three salvos. I dont know whether hit it or not because. It was a c reading. We didnt see any. We saw the glow. But they stop firing because they were firing into our troops there. They stopped. Fired . Oh, so we felt good about that. Yeah. Then going back d what was the reason that you were given this specialty . The surveys that flash unsound . Did you have background . Mm hmm. No, i was i would. I didnt. I did not have background. I had college training. What did you study . William mary . No, but i had enough math that i could do that. And the colonel of the artillery regiment at pendleton did not have anybody scheduled that knew anything about this. So i had another job at the time. My job was treasurer at the commission. Officers of match and he used to come up to have lunch and so forth he said, i need a lieutenant to go to school. He said, what are you doing and would you like to go to school . And i said, well, what are you talking about . And he told me . I said, sure, id love to go to school. So we went to fort sill to this school, flash and sound ranging, the name of the school, but and included. We had to survey all peers and we didnt have our survey estimate except they should be used to site. Well, had the circle and all of the things on it and we could survey with that district. So we were supposed to survey every o. P. And every microphone and we put it in the ground to make sure that when we gave them a, an answer on a set of quarters it was it was correct with accordance. But i was at fort sill when the war started. I was just about finished. I had about a week left. I miss the first deployment with. The first but ty, i went down to pusan. I missed that by about ten days and i came back and was at pendleton to organize us to go out where the division and pendleton was quite a place then because they were going to bring in all the reserve halves, the, the organized reserves and individual reserves had specialties and they came from all over the country and was organized into their battalions and supplies and artillery and tanks and all and we bought a ship and went to japan. Japan, we we got off our ships and went to some barracks and the. The weather was bad and some of those ships broke loose in the harbor. And we thought we were going to be delayed on the inchon. And thats what we were there for, but we werent. They got the ships back in and we went back aboard ships for the landing and we got aboard an lct, a landing ship dock, and it was. Operated by the japanese. All of the of the japanese and they fed us food which was good food and most of the japanese had small amphibious boats where manned by a japanese crew and they did a wonderful job and taken us there and put us into the right place. Its good. How how about about the chosen reservoir . Your time there. I heard of from a few veterans, you know, that also called their sleeping bags would freeze up and all those stories. What was your experience like . Well, we went up to. From the east coast and around seoul. We got aboard ship and went over to one side on the other side of the peninsula. And then we went north to the vicinity of ham home. And from there we were ordered to go up to to the chosen reservoir up to hikaru reed, which we did. And i went ahead and just my driver and i on a Radio Operator went with the other people that were in the regiment. There. We went up there and we got up there in the afternoon and began to pitch up tents and so forth, and we had some miles. Theyd have people help us and some of the young people could speak english. And i said, chinese, chinese in my village, chinese they say they come in tonight. So we knew they were coming. We reported that to division and they knew they were coming. And we had a perimeter set up inside of a perimeter with our artillery the infantry was after, but outside and we were inside where that was. Well, they did hit us that night, first night we were up there and they break through there, broke through the lines and came into the part of the hikaru ri and they came clear to our perimeter and we stopped part of them but our perimeter there and some of the other units did the same there and along about 5 00 in the morning, out of the fighting was still going on the infantry counterattack and random and then the next day they and. The lieutenant knew the hurt one of the third marine battalions was hurt or i dont know which and they said we need an officer for this platoon. So i moved over to the Third Marines as a potential and was there a battalion commander, the rest of the time . We were at hiroo rey and even though there were no major attacks and our section, there were spread separate ack attacks and sniper fire and so forth, so and coming out of the reservoir after we got the people back from you, dabney, and got them organized and, started out, i was transferred over to this first battalion, seventh marines, and i was a assistant liaise on the artillery liaison. And we, we came out with the first battalion, somewhat full range. And on the way out, it was, as you know by now, it was just one road, a real thin road you couldnt pass. Most of the time. And you just went down that road. That was a way out. You couldnt do that. Where we were ambushed, several times one was a major ambush with my part of the convoy and they hit us. We didnt know. They were there. They werent firing. They us all at once. And the jeep i was in, i was in the backseat at the time. The jeep was hit in the engine, which stopped the engine. And it the gas tank and there was the desert light and punctured the rear tire i was in the backseat and nobody into jeep was hit. But we all out and got in a little devil hill on the back side and they, they started over the Railroad Tracks was on the other side. And we had we had a pretty good firefight. I had an m1 rifle, and about this sucker, the third round, it jammed. And there was in the middle of a firefight with a jam rifle. Yeah. And i around and there was moran who had been hit and he wasnt moving and i said something to him, he didnt say anything. He had a car band. I up his they went his pocket and got some ammunition and he continued to fight with the three and finally with. 5000 men all together in this one section, our sergeant said, im a sergeant who was in charge here and. I said, well, im a lieutenant. I dont know what was in about a senior to me or not. He says, lieutenant, youre it. What do we do . And i said, okay, lets move over to the Railroad Tracks and everybodyll dive down and use the Railroad Tracks of the parapet and got down and and continued to fight and thats what we did. And we finally they finally stopped the jeep. I was in. The driver was pretty resourceful and he began to look for something and he found a rope and a truck in front us and he tied a to the bumper of the truck and to the jeep and we were pulled and dakota re behind that truck, the so that was pretty resourceful that was so intense. Im like picturing the scenes in my head, you know, you well, you had a, you know, all of a sudden youre put, youre given youre asked what would we do you have to just think of the solution quickly. What would that protect the section . There was nobody really in charge. It was just the end of a column individual in one another column. And that just they just like that and somebody had to be in charge, right now i have some of clothing that is, if you want me to discuss clothes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Lets show that to the camera then. Okay. So you have some jackets here next to you and so, yeah, if you just hold it up, then we can share the camera. Okay. First off, is the fetal. Yeah. And it has the hood on the back that can zip off or button off and its real thick. Right. And the other one is the is is a really a godsend that we had had a son overcome with. It has an insert, which is for and is london fog and everybody had one of these and everybody wore them. You slept on them. Youre warm and you were lucky to have them right . Right. In addition to that, we had a wool scarf, which was wonderful because you can put it around your face. And that wind, which was really cold, you could put that under your helmet and just have your eyes out. And that was wonderful. And one place we were, the wind was blowing like crazy. This was down to a quarter. Reed and we were out near the bridge that was blowing and we were communicating with our headquarters. And as i stood there with the wind blowing and it was at that time it was 42 degrees below zero. Wow. And the wind was blowing like crazy. And if i faced the wind in a length of i couldnt close my eyes, they were freezing. Oh, my. So you turn your head around. Turn my head around like that. And trying to blink him and finally at him. So that can be the mike and that hurt was there but a coterie one once we got to call it a real refurbished and rebuilt punished and the blizzard hit the real blizzard that im talking about and then to come on down with one major obstacle we had to get the bridge in and had to take care of the mountains overlooking the branch, had to occupy those mountains. And we kept waiting. And their blizzard was about two days. And it was one of the worst blizzards in history. What they said really worst place in history and the colonel there was a Chesty Puller who was well known and he was there and it kept wanting to know when we could leave and after about the third day, they when began to dissipate and the clouds began to pare a little bit and tired, he went out of his tent and looked and saw it was clearing and he saw one star and says, we go in the morning that one star is what the chosen few as has chosen as their motto and have a copy it right. They are praying. That thats a wonderful star that we were theyre pretty sure that theres not many people other than chosen few people can get their wives. Got it. Or could get it. Yeah, but it was a different color. So whatever, so im proud of that. Ill have every marine lives up there and we just do help one another. And you know, you try not to credit anything that would be more dangerous of someone else. And you tried to help them all the way through. You have so many. I mean, of course, it was the war so so many hardships that you had to endure which would you say you can pick like the most difficult, most dangerous moment or incident that you went through out of all those. 0b0, boy. That one. That would be very difficult because yeah, there were, i would say the coming out of the chosen and before we started out was probably the most difficult moment because we didnt know most of the marines didnt know. And even though were the officers, we wouldnt tell you this. They didnt know either. Our division commander, general smith, what a wonderful man he was macarthurs former chief staff was in charge of the. 10th. 10th brigade and. He came up and the division. General Smith Division was under the 10th brigade. And he came up there and. We were didnt know whether were going to make it or not. And he said, what i want you to do, tell him. General smith says, i want you to abandon all of your equipment, destroy it and walk out the best way you can. And general smith looked at him and said, general, he said, were coming as marines. He says, we bring in our wounded were bringing our dead. Were bringing their equipment and were coming out out. And thats what you did. He was a religious man. I think in some ways. But was wellrespected by his staff. He was made sound decisions and he tried to take care of everybody and. For example, he they had trouble. They wanted to have an airfield up at high drury and there wasnt really a place for strip but he talked to the engineers and said, you know, theres a flat area right here and then theres a mound. They said the the mountain is not too big why cant we have a flat area here and take the roadway the roadway up the mountain . And it would stop the planes so you wouldnt have to go so far and thats what they did. And thats how a lot of the craft aircraft came in, picked up the wounded, brought in supplies and so forth. So but general smith was a was a wonderful man. And he got us out of there when we continued on down, quote, a real result, the bridge settled and we got the mountain title and a battalion from the south. Hikaru re not having real read about ham hog came up and took that took the mountain so came from that well we got down to how our the navy was there with everything they had the boat floated that and we started to board the ships and it was i mean i really crowded theres sometimes to one for example i were about a small craft piece boat i think was or just just a little smaller than a destroyer you and the mess hall served 24 hours a day beans and the head the meat. Ive forgotten what the meat was, but was navy meat. And there and everybody was there. And nobody was assigned a boat. But people about and finally it was agreed between the people that were there the they went in and said, well, sleep this long and then ill sleep. It reached the point before we got down to a person that it was 4 to 1. You had four people slept in one block at that and they so visions visions they wanted out of their they did not like the chinese and they did not want to be there. They left their homes there, brought their children there, brought their whole family and tried to get in a convoy. And we started letting them get in our convoy. And finally the chinese were infiltrated the civilians had come into our convoy and firing on us oh my. So we kept them out of the convoy and said the other end of the convoy. And thats what they did. And we got down to hug them. That was 99000 to 100000 people that wanted get aboard and they had trouble finding ships that would carry them and finally, a chaplain was, i think, instrumental and talking to some of the commanders of the ships. And finally, he got a command of a lst, which is one that can run aboard the the on the sand and get in there. And he agreed to take them. And thats what they did. And and what those ship did the same thing. There were two ships that took the civilians and they they got them aboard and it was 10 to 1 anyway. What they should be, they took them down to an island off of south korea or not all the way to pusan, but just put them on the island because they werent sure the ship was going to hold up there. And the one that the the chaplain got to go down, there were nine babies born that while. Oh, oh, my gosh. So that that was really something those people wanted out of there and. Then the 39 nine thousands of them, thats what they estimate came out right . There was a recent movie that was made that captured that reenacted that scene and it was so i mean, so people just, you know, running for their lives to get into the ship and some people even falling off the ship. Unfortunate lee even after having gone on because it was so crowded on the deck, they did what they fell off ship, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because a ship just has a long wire or chain around it and people, if they arent used to it and the ship is rolling like this, they can fall aboard, could fall on. Particularly young people, even older people sometimes in the fall. Yeah. So yeah, it was a really intense moment. But you are someone that you know was right there in the of it and a chaplain and i wasnt there when you talked to the skipper but i was right close and the skipper said, weve got to do something. He said, ill take them. And that was it. Yeah. And then the other captain said, well, if you take a moment and take some too. So they just they got all of them that were there. So yeah. How about with korean soldiers . Did you often Work Together . Korean soldiers. Korean marines . Yes. Korean marriage. Some korean soldiers. Korean marines were over tough. Their discipline was ten times tougher than ours. They just didnt put with anybody that didnt cooperate and anybody that didnt try, they just didnt put up with it. And they had they had wonderful. Advances. When they were asked to advance their advance and when they were asked to defend, they defended their wonderful out. So all the great the marines im talking i dont know much about the the soldiers, but im sure that the same thing is there where they kind like smaller in stature compared to u. S. Marines. Yes. Yes, they were smaller, you know and they they didnt they probably a lot of them didnt speak english well, but they were translators. Right. To help. Thats right. Thats the third. That was all way an interpreter somewhere that i gathered the interpreter had was so good. He got he got he could speak not initially. He got so he could speak pretty well. So i see when we were down in pusan, after we came down from home and we had a tent camp and we were there to replenish she and the other supplies and training he said, i have a friend here. Id like to take you over dinner. Theyd like to have you for dinner. And i said, well, it sounds nice. I said, what are going to have said, were going to have a octopus . No, no. I said, octopus it looks so i said, okay, ill be there. And i went over and that was good. It was really good. Most helpful. Wow, we had some delicacy to. Yeah. Did you ever get a chance to just kind of tore the country and the countryside and just do some sightseeing during your time . There . Oh, i never did that. But we normally would have no fighting. We did tours the villages and things that we we talked to the people and saw the people and saw the little children. And most of them wanted hand him more. And thats true wherever you go. I mean, and britain or in place tells the children want on candy bar but they were nice and i was impressed with their culture culture while we were almost second tours there that were the. The people i really got to know a little better next to us and i observed several burials which was interesting i mean how they did that and. Not too much and how it was but emphasis maybe on certain parts of it more than we do. Wow. But they did interesting. Yeah. So because they helped us out while, we were there on the of the 38th parallel they had the socalled cease fire and i was better commander than on the second tour. And we still had to fight and do interdiction fire, particularly when. They would send their patrols out across, dmz, and trying to find out where we were and what we were doing and maybe get in a firefight we had to be prepared and we did. We did that the whole time. And then i came out with the division when when it left korea and we came to Camp Pendleton and i still had my battery on a battery there. And were you wounded in korea at all . No, i was wounded, but i had i had a chronic. Theres not a disease, but i had a chronic sickness on my second tour. No, i was on my first tour, not second tour of my first tour. I was up central korea around the one on tour of the war. And i had breakfast one morning and i had cereal and i used that canned milk and all it was i had more pain in my stomach and here than i i could barely understand it. And what was a surgeon . Not a surgeon, but doctor in the battalion next door tours and some of my people went over and got a doctor and he came over and. Salmon man, they said, weve got to get him out of here right away. And they called a helicopter and took me down an army aid center, which they had there. And i was in the army aid center and they diagnosed as having peptic ulcers. And they said. Your best bet with we dont like to do those here. We can but we dont like to do it the best spared the hospital ship is in pusan and you need to go to person for the hospital. Sure. So they put me on a korean train and the train is smaller than the train. And here i dont know how wide the rails are, but smaller and the train took me down to pusan. And then i went aboard the hospital ship and they got me to the operating room and said, well, you got to take one more picture and then were going to operate. And about six, six doctors there. So they took the picture and they came back and they they got together and they said, you know what, we dont see any peptic ulcer said we are going to operate. Were going to send you to japan and you go to the Army Hospital there at kwi. So i went to the Army Hospital in kuwait. I went by plane and then to the hospital and they began to examine me and test me. And they said, well, i need to operate one. You have stones in your bladder, your gallbladder, and also you have your stomach juices arent what they should be. They are different than. They should be. And were going to operate on that too. So i was operated on there and they cut some of the. Optic nerves, the controls, some of the stomach, soul and they operated on my stomach and. I was there for a couple of months and then i came. And was here at home for a little while. And then i went back on the on the second tour. I said, but i still have that. What they operate on, they changed the valve and my stomach, they cut it so it releases more than it normally does. And they cut some of the bile things up through that. There. So i take medicine for that and it seems to work fine. And so during your second tour, you didnt have no had no trouble, no problems, no no injuries. You seen very lucky. Yeah. Oh, wow hmm. And so when did you then leave korea . Now. What month was it . And im sorry, when did you leave korea . When did you. About what month and year . Do you remember. It was then, i think the spring of the year. I forgot because was actually. Okay, wait a minute. Maybe i can figure it out. The war ended in 1953, right . 1953. I mean, not ended. Cease fire in 1953. Well, i came back in 53 or 54. Okay. At the end of that and not not long into that that. Okay. Any other you mentioned a few friends, a few colleagues that you were with that you remember, and you talked about any other friends or colleagues that you would like for us to also know about during the war . No, not really. Most of going on, most of them had passed on us or gone or they passed on and. I thank god every day that im able to do this. Yeah, i really do. And so does my wife. There. Shes shes 93 and but we work at it. We, we walk every day, every other day we try to walk two miles. Wow. Up and down the road we pick up trash as we go down we even pick cigaret as were going down the road there. Yeah. So we try to clean up the road and have it all beautiful for everybody else. Yeah. And thats. You stay so healthy, you very healthy. Well, do that. And i try to eat right. We do. My wifes at home and shes famous. Her entertainment while i was in the corps, i mean, throughout the marine corps really is famous for that. And. I make her silent every night. I have ten vegetables in the salad and i try to rotate on that. I try to have as many colorful and bread and yellow and green and purple yellows. And we that and that i started on that in 2008 because my wife was in the hospital and she had colon cancer and i was at the hospital reading some of their books and it said, you need to eat at least five vegetables a day to be healthy. And i said, gee, i dont think we are. So i came by and started eating five vegetables and i said, whats wrong with ten . So i began to take ten vegetables. And i just what weve been doing now for a long time, i say so which way we try to stay healthy and we try to walk and keep our exercise, keep our in the right shape. Well, thanks for the tip. Just like youve got to be ready. I write. Weve got to be ready for what were going to write. I do what i have done. I not doing it, but i have done a lot of work for the church and the and yeah, but with the church and with helping her, im not doing much in the church anymore. Okay. Yeah. When, when you returned from korea, are you. Where did you come to in the us. Where. When i to korea. My wife and and children went. To her family in ohio. And its a small town, bellville, ohio. And Everybody Knows the family. Everybody knew her. And when i got there at the chosen reservoir, all of the publicity, everybody knew i was up there. But nobody up there could mail anything. There wasnt an email. I mean, it had ammunition, but no mail. So didnt write anything or couldnt write. And until until i got aboard ship and i finally got a postcard from one of the sailors and i my wife then and she it on christmas eve. And now she got it. They postmaster knew all about this and the postmaster brought it to her at 8 00 a day and gave it to her. So she knew i was aboard ship youre going to have the person on wow. So thats their wives and family suffered i think as much as the marriage did particularly the children because, they didnt know what had happened and once they found out, a lot them was real glad and some of them were real sorry because they didnt make it right. From then. When you once you returned did you think of korea often, think about korea often and think back to your time there. Oh, yes, i thought about it often. I still do. I see. I really thought about it often. And later on when i went to school at quantico, i got on a traveling team. There were five of us and we we talked about amphibious and would often if if asked questions, i would never bring it up on the lessons plan that i have. But if somebody in the audience brought it up and asked about it, id tell them about whatever they ask. But i dont consider myself a hero when i know what everybody did up there and how they suffered. And i think about the the men that had frozen feet of sea. I have one support holders right now and my feet are cold all. The time when i came my feet were black and i hope that you will just be aggressive in the rest of your life and through what youre doing. Im just so you came over and so happy youre doing this. Yeah, well, thank you. I really you for your time and telling me all these stories. So now i know more about the history and also even things that you talked about like, you know, situation right now. Its good for me. Hear all those things. So this really good for me. You, you know. Thank you so much. Well, thank you for coming. Yeah, thank you. And i hope you can get a dvd or tape or. Yeah, i really should. I know that my grandchildren, private, dont think much about it. One of them does. I have two great grandchildren. Oh, wow. Once 14 and ones of. 12. The 12 three year old is more into doing this than the other one. Okay sure, sure. But theyre both into it. And i know kurt graham. Im the director of the truman library. Welcome to the truman library. Always a great pleasure to welcome and an eager audience. And we feel like just kind of in some ways getting back into swing of things here and having some great opportunities in the