My birthday is tens of september, 23. Where were you born . Where was i born . I was born in virginia. Well you will you tell me brief information about your family . Where did your family come from . Well, they are primarily from the english continent. My mother is welsh. But my wife primarily didnt analysis of where we are we have a book of to a certain point. We cant go much much further. Were about to about 1760. I can show it to you before you leave. Sure. I was born on the farm my dad raised tobacco corn and cows. I was born there 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 i. They are now all deceased now. Okay. And you are part of the chosen few association. Which means you are at the chosen reservoir in the korean war is that right . Thats correct. Were you part of the marine corps . Yes i was. That means you enlisted yourself. You are not drafted. That is correct. Then line where when did you and last . I enlisted in a reserve program i was in college. I enlisted december the 12th 1942. When did you arrive in korea . And where did you arrive to . I arrived in korea at the peninsula. Prior to that, i was i went to an art artillery school. I started what i was doing in in korea was serving, sound raging. We had instruments that could see flashes of guns and mortars. And we had microphones that we put in the ground, and we could hear the sound and analyze, and triangulated where they were coming from. If we have a gun, we would call that an a reading. If we saw the smoke of a gun without a flash, we call that to be reading. And if we saw the guy on the horizon, that was a c reading. I did that most of the time i was in korea on the second tour, i was there twice. On the second tour was the second battalion and i was a veteran commander. Your second tour your with the second battalion . Okay. And when you first got to korea, which unit where you with and what was your rank . Lieutenant. I was with headquarters the 11th marine regiment. I landed in the eighth wave, in a. That has a propeller on the back to go in the ocean and also could go on land. I landed on the island of with 45 men. Can you tell me about that story of you in that boat coming into korea, what were you feeling and what did you see, what did you hear . What was it like . Well you can see the property infantry was landing. We could see from my letters as they climbed up the. And then when we got closer to the island we couldnt see that. But we could hear the firefights of the infantry of the island. Then after you arrived, where was it that you are stationed . You mean in korea . Yeah. We really want stationed we dont have a station. We moved all the time. Just a brief analysis of what we did, we landed and we set up opioids there. Four oh piece. We could observe what was happening and beyond. We reported what we saw. We did not see any artillery or mortars but we did see trucks and troops. We did report it and they were taken under fire by a different artillery regiment. And what was the Living Conditions like . You said you kept moving around but wherever you stopped at to stay, im assuming a few days or so, then you moved around . We would stay a couple of days, maybe a week, but you had a tent, you had a sleeping bag. Later on we got a rubber mattress but we did not have that early on. You slept in a tent or you slip outside and you were on duty 24 hours a day and you had to learn to sleep and then to work and then to work and then sleep. Wow. Which battles were you involved in . During your time in korea. I have five stars on my ribbons. Im not sure i can name every one. Seoul, wonson, the chosen few, central korea and the area around the reservoir. Im sure you have so many stories from all those battles. Can you tell me a few of them that maybe are more profound to you or that you remember most . Yes i will be happy to try and remember them. Sometimes you forget. One of the first things we noticed was the families and the children. They were nice people. They were friendly to us. And as i was looking to find another operation post, i went through this small village near the airport. I went through the small village and i noticed the villagers were friendly and started to point. I was wondering what they were pointing at and finally i stopped and then they pulled out a guy and it was a north korean. They wanted me to take him, which i did, because they wanted to get rid of him. That was the first prisoner that i captured. Wow. Brought him back to the regiment and he was sent through the prison chain of command. I did not know what happened to him after that. While. Was it kind of an intense moment or was it easy to handle . Its not easy to handle but it was intense not knowing whether he was the only one because i only had a jeep and for people. And i did not really know much about how the Korean People felt about us coming there. But they were friendly and they were helpful. It helped the whole engagement along. I finally got an interpreter and he traveled with us the whole time that we were in korea so that we would be able to know what is going on. Right. So when you did not have the interpreter yet, you must have had to use body language. You did it with your hands. They would shake their heads like that. But another thing that happened before we got to seoul, we reached the han river and i still had the duck. The observation was best across the han and part of it on the west side of the han river. So i found some observation posts on the other side of the river which i occupied and i had some on this side and we were able to see sole. The outskirts of seoul, not downtown, but the outskirts of it. While we were doing that, a message came over the radio with a set of coordinates and said, dont fire on these coordinates. It is a brewery and there is beer there. I said gee whiz that is interesting. After a day, i saw a people coming back going and coming back with cans of beer. My man said, we need to have some their lieutenant, so i had five five gallon water tabs. One for each observation post and one for the center ahead. I sent five five gallon water tanks down to the bravery and brought back beer. After two days i got a call from one of the outpost leaders and he Said Lieutenant, i washington beer, i shaved in beer and im tired of beer. Could you please get some water . laughs so i got some water. They all had water than. But those were two wonderful observation posts because we could see what was coming out of seoul. Before our troops crossed the hunt river and after, we had good pace physician to see. While there we saw a number of targets which we reported and finally, we observed six tanks coming out of korea right towards our infantry. So i reported that. They spotted them and artillery howitzers fired on the six tanks and knocked them all out before they could get down to the infantry. From the same observation post, we saw some blows to the south of seoul and it was a pretty good distance. Weve done some coordinates on it, we did not have any weapons to hit that but i said wait just a minute we think we can get some ammunition to you. So a bit later they said we have contacted the battleship missouri and they can hit it. They fired three sell those. I dont know whether they hit it or not because it was a c reading. We did not see any flashes but we saw the glow. They stop firing because they were firing into our troops. So we felt good about that. Going back, what was the reason you were given this specialty . Did you have background . No, i did not have background. I had college training. What did you study at william mary . No, i had enough math that i could do that. And the captain of the artillery and pendleton did not have anyone on the schedule who knew anything about this so i had another job at the time. My job was treasure at the Commission Officers mess. He used to come and 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 . I said what are you talking about and he told me. I said sure i would love to go to school. So we went to this school. We had to survey our operation posts and we had not managed to do that. But we had an instrument we could survey with. We were supposed to serve a every microphone we put into the ground to make sure that when we gave them an answer on a set of coordinates, they were correct coordinates. But i was there when the war started. I was just about finished, i had about a week left, i missed the first deployment with the First Battalion that went down to busan. I missed that about ten days and came back to pendleton and was organized to go out with the division. Pendleton was quite a place them because we had to bring in all of the reserves. The organized reserves and individual reserves that had specialties. They came from all over the country. They got into the battalions and supplies and artillery and tanks and all. We boarded a ship and went to japan. In japan, we got off of our ships and went to some barracks. The weather was that and some of the ships broke loose and we thought we were going to be delayed for the landing. But we werent. They got the ships back in and we went back aboard for the landing. We got aboard a landing ship dock and it was operated by the japanese. They fed us food, which was good food, and most of the japanese in small and pbs boats were manned by a japanese crew. They did a wonderful job in taking us there and putting us in the right place. Thats good. How about the reservoir you were telling me about . I heard from a few veterans that it was so cold. This sleeping bags would freeze up and all those stories. What was your experience like . Well, we went up from the east coast around seoul. We got on to a ship and went over to wonson on the other side of the peninsula and then we went north hard. From there, we were ordered to go start to the reservoir which we did. I went ahead just my driver and i and a Radio Operator operator art. We went up there and began to pick up tense late in the afternoon. We had some native people helping us and some of the young people arent could speak and said chinese in my village say they are coming tonight. So we knew they were coming. We reported that to division and they knew they were coming and we had a perimeter setup inside of a perimeter with our artillery. Hard they did hit us that night, first night we were up there, and they broke through the lines and came in to the part clear to our perimeter and we saw part of them. I remember some of the other units did the same there. About 5 00 in the morning after the finding was still going on, the infantry counter attack had ran them out. And then the next day they prepared. One of the third marine battalions lieutenant was hurt or killed, i dont know which, they said we need an officer for this platoon. So i moved over to the third careens as a platoon commander. There was there as a platoon commander, for the rest of the time we were there. Even though we had major attacks there were sporadic attacks. Coming out of the reservoir, after we got the people back, we got them organized, and started out i was transferred over to the First Battalion seventh marines. And i was an assistant liaison, artillery liaison officer. We came out with the First Battalion. On the way out, it was as you probably know by now, it was one road, a real thin road. You couldnt pass most of the time. You just went down that road. That was the way out. You couldnt do that. We were ambushed several times. One was a major ambush. With my part of the convoy, they hit us we we didnt know they were there they werent firing. They hit 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 would stop the engine. It hit the gas tank and contra the rear tire. No one was hit. But we all jumped out gotten a little hill on the backside. We they started coming over the Railroad Tracks were on the other side. We had a pretty good firefight. I dont and one rifle. And about the second or third round it jammed with their i was in the middle of a firefight with a jammed rifle. I looked around, and there was a marine who had been hit. And he wasnt moving. I said something to him and he didnt say anything. He had a carbine. I picked it up, went to his pocket got so many mission, and continue to fight. And finally, two with 1500 men in this one section, our sergeant said im a sergeant whos in charge here. And i said well im a lieutenant, i dont know if theres anyone else hired me. He Said Lieutenant your in what we do . I said okay lets move on to the Railroad Tracks, were gonna lie down and use the railroad strikes. I got down and continue to fight. Thats what we did and they finally stopped. The jeep i was in the driver was pretty resourceful. He began to look for something he found a rope and a track in front of us in a tight rope to the bumper of the track of the g and we were pulled behind that track. So those pretty resourceful i thought. Thats so intense im picturing the scenes in my head. All of a sudden here given and asked what do we do, you just think of the solution quickly. What. With that section there was nobody in charge. It was just the end of a column and the beginning of another column. In just a short space like that. Somebody had to be in charge. Wow. I have some clothing if you want me to discuss . Close . Yeah lets show that to the camera than. So you have some jackets here. Next to you. So you have to just hold that up. And show the camera. Okay. First off is the field jacket. It has the hood on the back decades zip off or button off. Its realistic. And the other one is a godsend that we had it was an overcoat. It has an insert, which is fair and its a london fog. Everybody had one of these. And everybody wore them. You slept in them, you wore them in addition to that, we had a wool scarf. Which was wonderful. Because you could put it on your face in that wind which was really cold. You could put it under your helmet, and just have your eyes out. And now its wonderful. One place we where the wind was blowing like crazy. We were out near the bridge that was blown. We are communicating with headquarters. As i stayed there with the wind blowing, and i was at that time and it was 42 degrees below zero. The wind was blowing like crazy. If i faced the wind, i couldnt close my eyes. They were freezing. Art about it was there. Once we got there, we refurbished replenished the blizzard hit, the one im talking about. We waited to come on down. We kept waiting the blizzard was about two days. It was about one of the worst blizzards in history. They said. Worst blizzards in history. The colonel there was testy corral. He was there any kept wanting to know when we could leave. After about the third day, the wind began to dissipate and the clouds began to pair a little bit. At night he went out in his tenth he saw one star. He will go in the morning. That one star is what the chosen few, as chosen as their motto. I have a copy of it right there. Thats what it is. Thats a wonderful star. We really appreciate it. Not many people other than chosen few people could get this. Their wives got it. But it was a different color. Just one another, try not to create anything that would be more dangerous to someone else. You have so many of course, it was the war. So many hardships that you had to endure. Would you say you could pick the most difficult and most dangerous moment or incident that you went through . Out of all those . Oh boy. It would be very difficult. I would say coming out of the chosen, and before we started out, which was probably the most difficult moment. We didnt know most of the marines didnt know, what people in the office wont tell you this, they dont know either. Division commander general smith what a wonderful man he was. Mcarthurs former chief of staff was in charge of the tenth. He came out that the general Smith Division was under the tent brigade. He came up there, and he didnt know whether they were to make it or not. What i want you to do, general smith says we want to do, abandon all of your equipment. Destroy it, and walk away the best way you can. General smith looked at him and said, general were coming out as marines. He says we are bringing in our wounded, were bringing our that, we are bringing our equipment, and were coming out. And thats what he did. He was a religious man in some ways. He was well respected by his staff. He and made sound decisions, and tried to take care of everyone. They had trouble not having an airfield. It wasnt really a place for a strip. But he talked to the engineers, and said you know theres a flat area right here. And theres a mountain. They say the mountain is not too big. Why cant we have a flattery right here, take the roadway of the mountain . He would stop the planes, so you would have to go so far. Thats a lot of the aircraft came in and picked up the wounded abroad and supplies and so forth. But general smith was a wonderful man, he got us out of their. Jonathan from the south, they came up and took them out. They came from, they got down to an area search ships. The was crowded, i mean really crowded. Sometimes ten to one. For example, i went and got a small craft, lets pc boat. Just a little smaller than a destroyer. And the mess all served 24 hours a day beans and mean for what the meat was. It was navy meet. And everybody was there. Nobody was assigned a bug but people took a buck. Finally was agreed between the people that were there, it reached the point before we got down there, that it was for the one. Four people slept in one bunk. And the the South Koreans want out of their. They left their homes they brought their children, they brought the whole familys. They want to get a convoy, and they started letting them get into a convoy. Finally the chinese were infiltrating the civilians getting into a convoy. And then firing on us. So he kept them out of the convoy thats what they did. They got there, there was 99,000 200,000 people. That wanted to get aboard. They had trouble finding ships that would carry them. And finally a chaplain was instrumental in talking to some of the commanders at the ships the command of an lst. Which something could run aboard on the sand and getting their. He agreed to take them. Thats what they did. There was two ships to civilians out. They got them aboard. It was ten to one anyway. That took them down to an island, of south korea. They were ensure that the ship would hold up. The one that there was nine babies born. Oh my gosh. That was really something. Those people wanted out of their. 99,000 of them, that is what they estimate, came out. There was a recent movie that was made that captured that reenacted that scene and it was so many people running for their lives to get into the ship. Some people even falling off the ship unfortunately even after getting on because it was so crowded on the deck. They did what . They fell off the ship as well. Oh yes. Because a ship has a low wire or chain around it. If people are not used to it and the ship is swaying, they can fall off. Particularly young people. Even older people sometimes in fall off. So it was a really intense moment. I was in the midst of it. The skipper said we need to do something, i said i will take them. And that was it. Yes. And the captain said if youre taking them i will take some to. So we got all of them that were there. How about with korean soldiers. Did you often Work Together with korean soldiers and Korean Marines . Yes. Korean marines primarily. Some korean soldiers. Korean marines were tough. The discipline was ten times tougher than ours. It just did not put up with anyone who did not cooperate or did not try. They just did not put up with it. They had wonderful advances when they were asked to advance. They advanced. When they were asked to defend they, defended. What they are wonderful, they are absolutely great. The marines im talking about. I dont know much about the soldiers. But im sure the same thing. Where they kind of smaller in statute compared to u. S. Marines . Yes. They were smaller. And probably a lot of them did not speak english well but there were translators to help right . Thats right. There was always an interpreter somewhere and the interpreter i had was so good. He got so he could speak, not initially, but he could speak pretty well. After we came down from busan, we were there replenishing and getting supplies and training. He said i have a friend here, theyd like to have you for dinner. I said that sounds nice what are we going to have . He said we are going to have octopus. I said octopus . so i said okay i will be there. I went over and it was good. It was really good. A nice couple. Well. Thats a delicacy as well. Yeah. Did you ever get a chance to just kind of tour the country and countryside and just do some sightseeing during your time there . There was no when there was no fighting there were some villages and things. We saw the people and talked the people and saw the little children. Thats true wherever you go. That they were nice and i was impressed with their culture while we were on our second tour there, the people we got to know a little better next to us and observe several burials. That was interesting. In how they did that. Not too much difference but the emphasis maybe on certain parts of it more than we did. Interesting. They helped us out while we were there on the 38th parallel. They had a socalled cease fire and i was battery commander then on the second tour. We still had to fire, particularly when they would send patrols out trying to find out where we were and what we were doing and maybe get into a firefight. We had to be prepared and we did that the whole time. I came out with a division when it left korea. I still have my battery on there. Were you wounded in korea at all . No i was not wounded but i had a chronic sickness. On my second tour, no it was on my first tour not my second. I was up in central korea near the reservoir and had breakfast one morning. I had cereal and used the canned milk and i had more pain in my stomach that i could barely stand. There was a doctor in the battalion next door to us and some of my people went over and got the doctor. He came over and examined me and said we need to get him out of here right away and they called a helicopter. They took me down to an army aide center which they had their. They diagnosed me as having pep to ulcers. They said your best bet, we do not like to do those here, we can but we dont like doing it, the hospital ship is in busan and you need to go there. So they put me on a ground train and the train is smaller than the trains here. The train took me down two busan and went aboard the hospital ship. They got me to the operating room and said we will take one more picture and then operate. There were about six doctors there. They took the picture and they came back and got together and said you know what . We dont see any peptic ulcer. We are not going to operate. We are going to send you to japan and you are going to the Army Hospital there. So i went to the Army Hospital, i went by plane, and they began to examine me and test me and said we need to operate. You have stones in your bladder, your gallbladder, and also you have your stomach juices are not what they should be. They are different than they should be and we are going to operate on that to. So i was operated on there and they cut some of the nerves the controlled some of the stomach solutions. I was there a couple of months and then came home and i was here at home for a little while and then went back on the second tour. But i still have what they operated on. They cut the valve in my stomach so it releases more than it normally does and they cut some other things out of their. So i take medicine for that and it seems to work fine. During your second tour you had no issues or injuries . No. And when did you leave korea, what month was it . Im sorry . When did you leave korea . When did. About what month or year . You remember . I think in the spring, not sure the year. Maybe i can figure it out. War ended in 53 right . Not ended but ceasefire in 1953. I came back and 53 or 54. At the end of that and not long into that. You mentioned a few friends or colleagues you are with that you remembered. Any other friends or colleagues that you would like us to know about during the war . Not really. Most of them have passed on. I thank god every day that i am able to do this. I really do. And so does my wife. She is 93. But we work at it. We walk every day, every other day, we try to walk two miles up and down the road. We pick up trash as we go down. We even pick up cigarette butts as we are going down the road there. So we try to clean up the road and make it more beautiful for everybody else. That is how you stay so healthy . You look very healthy. I do that and i try to eat right. We both do. My wife is a home economist and she is famous for her entertainment while i was in the core. Throughout the marine corps, she was really famous for that. I make a salad every night. Theres ten vegetables in the salad. I try to rotate them and i try to have as many colorful vegetables. Red and yellow and green and purple, any of those. We do that. I got started on that in 2008. My wife was in the hospital. She had colon cancer and i was at the hospital reading some of the books and it said you need to re eat at least five vegetables a day to be healthy. I said gee whiz i dont think we are. So i came back and started eating five vegetables and said well what is wrong with ten . So i began to take ten vegetables a day. That is what we have been doing now for a long time. I see. We try to walk and keep our exercise and body in the right shape. Just like marines you have to be ready. laughs we have to be ready for what we are going through. laughs im not doing it now, but i have done a lot of work for the church. Yeah. When you returned from korea where did you go in the u. S. . When i returned from korea, my wife