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Show with this great guy, I wasn’t so pissed off. Later he would go to Korea. My special orders told me to report to Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California not later than 2400 hours on May 22 for a May shipment to FECOM-—the Far East Command. The Army gave me 10 days of leave. Fully uniformed, my duffel in tow, I trotted out onto the highway and thumbed my way home and beat the scheduled bus by a wide margin on arrival home, I went to see Carleen and discovered that she had become engaged to another man, a pharmaceutical salesman. He was there when I dropped in, and we three played table tennis, made small talk, spoke of the outdoors for a while and then I left. On returning to Camp Stoneman, our troopship departed on June 7 from San Francisco bay. It was destined for Yokohama. This was my first ocean voyage, and I was terribly seasick for the first few days. Before long, it pleasured me to watch the ever-beautiful ocean sunsets. Arriving at Yokahama,I awaited my next assignment. Would it be Japan or Korea? The orders came through in two days. Korea it was. By ship, we headed to Inchon and arrived there on June 26 after encountering huge storms most of the way. I wondered why South Korea was called "The Land of the Morning Calm." Assigned to the 48" Field Artillery of the 7" Infantry Division; I journeyed by truck to Chunchon which lay a few miles behind the front line It was a small, ravaged, dirty city that had been the site of a last-chance stand during the earlier North Korean invasion of 1950. My. job demanded that I prepare and maintain personnel records and to prepare a - variety of administrative reports, rosters, and correspondence for the battalion. Later, my jobs would include classification and assignment duties involving front line personnel. Occasionally, I would be assigned duty at the front where I carted ammunition. Our original objective in Korea, so it was said, was to help the Koreans build up their own army, and to train their officers and soldiers. But by July, more than 110,000 American soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured. There were bitter fights for several small hills: the Jane Russell, White Horse, and Pikes Peak, which cost the U.N. forces another 9,000 casualties. — i Meanwhile, the United States successfully tested a hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok, many times more powerful than the bombs Truman ordered dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . It is said that the United States had an arsenal of some 1600 fission bombs, many of them located at oversees bases ready to use if necessary. That’s just what we needed in Korea, right? Wrong! : ; ; In November, we received word that Dwight Eisenhower had been elected as the new president and Richard Nixon as vice-president. Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress. My vote seemingly counted. President Eisenhower promised to work fora lasting peace, and he pledged publicly in a television speech: "I shall go to Korea." He = E & NORMA ltor!” ZI OZ OF S Rea TURE Igo Moab's remier "THE ADV EN t is a Qweethear America’s TV NORMA NUNN (w) 435.259.5021 (h) 435.259.7275 At REDROCK REAL ESTATE 505 N. Main St. Moab, UT 84532 Each office is independently owned and operated Our original objective in Korea, so it was said, was to help the Koreans build up their own army, and to train their officers and soldiers. But by July, more tyhan 110,000 Americans had been killed, wounded or captured. came to Korea in early December as promised. mounted. On December 5, in a press conference enlarge the war, or to engage Communist China hills would not end this war,” he said. The winter turned cold and frigid. Our tents POSTSCRIPT; Ken spends the rest of the 50s in a place called Glen Canyon. For his recollections of those golden days, watch for the April/May issue “of the Zephyr, due out in early April. Ken can be reached at: ksleight@lasal.net Rumors filled our unit and our hopes in Seoul, he indicated it was a risk to in a larger war. "Small attacks on small seemed woefully insecure. The showing of the movie, High Noon, created high entertainment for us, with Gary Cooper facing a bunch of bad guys alone after cowardly townspeople refused to help him. I heard that back in the states, Charlie Steen had discovered uraninite ore near Moab. The uranium rush and the penny stock market raced into high gear. Finally, on July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed providing for a cease-fire between North and South Korea. And we all celebrated and wanted to go home. Then Paul Douglas and beautiful Jan Sterling came to Chunchon to entertain us. I shook Ms. Sterling’s hand and then for a brief moment grasped her elbow in trying to protect her from the throng of boisterous and drooling Gls. She had a leading role in Pony Express that was filmed that same year, which also starred Charlton Heston and Rhonda Fleming. One day, my buddy Bennie Fowler and I went down to the nearby river. We swam the river and hiked along its banks the full afternoon. We concocted a small raft of drift material and jumped aboard. Boating a river was once again so great and uplifting, and this was the most fun I had in all of my military experience. It took my thoughts back to home; the rivers in Utah awaited me. After a short distance, we alighted from the river. Making our way back up the bank, it took longer than we had thought. And then anxiously trotting back to ‘our compound, we found ourselves very late, coming in after dark, Placed on report, absent without leave, we awaited the worst. We weren’t court marshaled, but we were confined to the compound for a time and ordered to give-an official explanation. The lieutenant asked me, "Did you not know you were walking through mine fields?" Startled,I pled ignorance, but it would have been futile to try to tell him why we did what we did. He wouldn’t understand the excitement and love I have for rivers. Word came that Colonel Kimmett had frozen my scheduled promotion to sergeant. Then I agitated to leave Korea, as the army didn’t need me any more. Homesickness sank in and I had to get the hell out of there. Even an R&R to Japan didn’t help much, but it enabled me to stay the course. My day to leave Korea soon arrived, and I hurried to complete the tasks of my job. Before I left, our officers called our group together, and ina spirit of hilarity, they awarded me my Sergeant stripes as a farewell gift. With great ceremony, ! happily pinned them on. Our ship pulled into the harbor at Seattle, the first troopship that alighted there since the end of the war. The citizenry made a big fuss: flags were waving; and little ladies, quite exposed, waved their delicacies. It was good to be back in America. On returning home, I bought my first car. I set my course, and for a year | traveled continuously the paved and dirt roads of Utah, and I boated the rivers and hiked the many canyons and never became satiated with it at all. ; "Southern Utah's Finest Se 100 S. MAIN STREET 259.8118 |