OCR Text |
Show Thursday. May 26, 2005 Weapons """TN lain was born and raised and M J lived his live on Rail Road Street mJ in lehi. Most who knew him would never imagine that this J J short, quiet man had been in the mumS thick of the greatest battles of World War II. From the little town of Lehi to the great battles of Europe, the D-Day invasion on Utah Beach, Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium, battle after battle, village after village and into the German Ger-man heartland, Blain with his machine gun squad faced certain danger, injury and for many of his friends -death. Prior to his death, Blain's grandson, Brock Michael Jones, interviewed him and recorded his memories. These are some of those experiences, expe-riences, as related in his words. Shortly after the initial invasion Blain and his company faced constant danger by the Germans use of the hedgerows. "Yea. they was still, just barely off the beach. They (Germans) had their positions set up in them hedgerows," he told the story. "They had every inch of it covered I mean if you tried to advance or move somewhere, they had their artillery that was zeroed in, calibrated on paper right where they had to twist the know on that gun and they could hit any part of that hedgerow they wanted. And, they splattered (us) with machine gun fire and mortar fire and artillery fire. "I remember that one time that I shouidVe been killed," he recalled. "We was right in this pass, this road, we had our machine gun set right in that pass and, all of a sudden them shells started coming in and they was big. They told us afterwards they was gig, some big guns. They was railroad guns mounted on railroad car, back in the pass, and they had 'em zeroed in; right on target. They can just pop it right on that doggone spot first shell, no up forwards, backwards and none of that. Just right on 'em. ""When we first started out we had them machine guns with tfte tripod and . . . when you get where you was gonna use i, why you'd just slap 'er down and all you had to do is ... snap that machine gun back on that tripod deal, and it was ready to go that quick, as fast as you could drop 'em . . . and run that ammor Fire fights were so intense that the barrel on Blain's machine gun could have melted. "Next to your barrel on that machine gun, fl t was 1949. School had just let out in Springville, and I had no prospects for a job. There was no apparent ap-parent threat of war, and it seemed like it might be fun to join the Marine Corps. The recruiting sergeant convinced con-vinced me that it would be an enjoyable experience. One year later, on June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. The United States was immediately involved and sent troops to South Korea. By early November, my unit, the 1st Marine Division was approaching the Chosin Reservoir Res-ervoir power complex. This complex supplied electricity to North Korea and parts of Manchuria. There was a rumor ru-mor circulating that we would reach the Manchurian Border by Thanksgiving, and be home for Christmas. It didn't happen. China had threatened to enter the war if U.N. forces went into North Korea. The threat was ignored and China entered the war. The Chosin Reservoir was about 78 miles along a steep, twisting narrow dirt road from the seaport of Hungnam. When we reached Chosin we encountered sub-zero weather and Manchurian winds that were almost unbearable. The daytime temperature was below freezing and at night it reached 2040 below zero. With a chill factor of up to 70 degrees below zero, blowing drifting snow, no water, and little edible food it was difficult diffi-cult just to survive. The 5th and 7th Regiments of the 1st Marine Division were spread out around Udam-ni near the south and west shores of the reservoir. The 1st Regiment had its base of operations at Koto-ri, Koto-ri, about ten miles South of of War Blain Jones, Brock Jones WORLD WAR II. THE IRAQ CONFLICT -""vr - , - - Blain Jones and get into heavy stuff, we'd just let 'er run till she couldn't run no more. Wouldn't take just, I think three or four minutes to change a barrel. "I had shells hi next to me and knock me for ten feet. And lay there for a few minutes, get up and shake your head and go and take right off again. Now during that period of time, there's a time there involved that you, you're not sure what the, just what wen' on .. ." In a little town near Paris, Blain and his troop were involved in another confront at ion "There was a bunker, a dome shaped bunker bun-ker where the Germans had their big guns. They fire them from them bunkers, cement bunkers. And they claimed if you could shoot Charles Anderson KOREAN WAR Hagaru-ri and 25 miles south of Yudam-ni along the main supply route. A 3,200 man army unit known as "Task Force Faith" was moving north on the easterly side of the reservoir. This group suffered suf-fered almost 90 percent casualties ca-sualties during the next few days. Less than 400 soldiers of the 3,200 made it out of the reservoir area. During the night of Nov. 27, more than 100,000 Chinese attacked at-tacked the Marine and Army units in the vicinity of the reservoir. res-ervoir. By Dec. 1, my 240 man company was reduced to 50, and was no longer a fighting force. Many of the 50 had been wounded but could still carry a rifle. We were combined com-bined with the remnants of three other companies, making mak-ing up a force of near 500. We were told to rescue a company several miles away, who had been surrounded by the Chinese Chi-nese for five days. We started our attack after dark. After fighting throughout the night and into the next day, we contacted the trapped company. The snow field leading lead-ing to their position, was covered cov-ered with hundreds of dead Chinese soldiers. The snow was covered with blood and close by were piles of bodies frozen together and resembling resem-bling small hay stacks covered with snow. It was said that we could walk for 100 yards in any direction on the bodies bod-ies of dead Chinese. I was only 18 years old but many of the enemy soldiers appeared to be younger. Many of my comrades were emotionally drained and bowed their heads in prayer. Tears and nausea overcame many of us after witnessing this horrendous scene. The enemy continued the NORTH COUNTY The Ml Garand rifle is known for its role as the United States Armed Forces' main battle rifle during World War II and the Korean War. It also saw service in Vietnam. It is shown here together with a full eight-round clip of .30-0&caliber cartridges, and a short bayonet designed to attach to the barrel d Blain's grandson, Brock Jones - battle. It was hard to understand under-stand how they would continue con-tinue attacking after suffering such a terrible loss of young men. Fighting was so bloody, so fast, so furious, so violent and so confined, that we were never sure who was winning. There was no front line, we were surrounded and had to defend our position in all directions. di-rections. In this epic battle, our 15,000 troops suffered 12,000 casualties casual-ties including more than 3,000 killed in action, 6,000 wounded, wound-ed, plus thousands of severe frostbite cases. The enemy sustained more than 45,000 casualties. The battle continued for about two weeks. I was hit by enemy fire six times in four days, but only wounded twice. I was evacuated after 10 days of battle and flown to a hospital hospi-tal in Japan. Later I was transferred to a hospital in Hawaii because of the frostbite. I was discharged from the Marines on April 6, 1952. One redeeming feature of the 78 mile breakout fight to the sea was that the troops were followed by almost 100,000 North Korean refugees. refu-gees. They all suffered the effects of extreme cold and hunger. Many died and babies were born in the frozen mud along the road. All who reached the Port of Hungnam, were rescued by ships of the U.S. Navy and transported to safety in South Korea I am convinced that nothing is resolved by war. More than 1.3 million U.S. citizens have died in the 1 1 wars in our history histo-ry and should be remembered this Memorial Day. Those who start the wars are historically the big losers, but in the end everyone loses. NEWSPAPERS them slits, where the Germans fired from, if the shell got in there it would ricochet around so many times in that bunker that it would eventually wound them all or would a percent of them "We got up in there pretty close on them and they was firin' and we had to take cover for a while. And they finally eased up and we opened up. I got a M-l for accuracy and I just kept firin' in there and the one guy come staggering out and he threw his hat away, and threw his gun away and walkin' out wounded holdin' one hand up in the air and the other one he couldn't hold up so I just let him go but I know he was wounded pretty bad. "Oh man, that's a terrible smelL Took even for years to forget that smefl. You had that with you, you just ... sickening smefl. Not only the dead, but the artillery rounds and the gunfire, all the different gunfire and artillery shells had an odor to it that would make you sick to your stomach and you had to, hold to breath it." Today, Blain is gone, but the memories live. His wife Donna has a shadow box of his medals med-als from the war, including a Purple Heart. Today his grandson Brock is serving in Iraq. The legacy lives on. t all started in September 1942, when at the age of 22 I enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. They trained me as a photographer and photo lab technician, and then in 1943 sent me and thousands thou-sands of others in troopships in huge convoys across the Atlantic At-lantic to England where I was assigned to the 8th Air Force in the above capacity. In the Spring of 1944 the Soviet So-viet Union under Joseph Stalin agreed to permit the U.S. Air Force to established a shuttle bombing base at Poltava in the Ukraine. About nine men from the 8th and 9th Air Forces in England including me, who were fluent in Russian were selected to go to Eastern Command USSTAF, at Poltava to serve as interpreters in our military units. Many hundreds of Russian "Red Army" soldiers were assigned to help us in the performance of our duties at the air base, because only a limited number of Americans Ameri-cans were permitted to enter Russia I was assigned as photographer photog-rapher and Russian interpreter to a Photo Reconnaissance Unit. The very first bombing mission mis-sion flew from Italy on June 2, 1944. Later missions flew from England On June 21, 1944 the German Air Force retaliated by a devastating attack on the Poltava air base, in which fifty Air Force B-17s were destroyed and 29 required re-quired extensive repair. The Russians fired thousands of rounds at the German aircraft, but they didn't shoot down a single one Reasons were the high altitude of the bombers, poor Russian radar, and only one bomber was picked up by Russian searchlights, and the German Stuka dive bombers wiped out many Russian anti-aircraft guns and troops. Although it was at night, the airfield was ilhirninated as bright as day by very slowly descending magnesium magne-sium flares, suspended from tiny j n minium iiimmiiiiiwiiii .0Ifc,',wev" . ' Robert Poast VIETNAM WAR On Feb. 15, 19.98, Robert L. Poast was interviewed by Professor Don Norton and BYU student Kristian Watford. Wat-ford. began my military service in Ohio by joining the National Na-tional Guard. The National Guard was an alternative to going over to Vietnam. I did this in the early '60s. Shortly after, my brother, myself, my-self, and a friend named Barney Bar-ney all moved out to California. ... We found employment with Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach. ... I worked next to a guy named Charlie Snyder. We had a lot of soul searching conversations about politics and religion. He was LDS. He wanted me to go up to the BYU. He kept telling me about Utah, about the campus and the girls that it was just a great place to be. So, one day he came by the apartment and said he was on his way back up to school and that I ought to come with him. He finally drug me out to the car and away I went. My military experience ex-perience was on hold. I ended up marrying an LDS girl. About a month after we were married, I received a letter that said I was going to be drafted So, I tried hard to get into a local reserve. Even though I found openings, the local lo-cal reserve units were reluctant to bring me in because I had already been drafted. Since I wasn't going to be able to resolve re-solve this, the next day I went up to school and withdrew from all of my classes. Then, two days after I was baptized I went off to Fort Ord. I was at Fort Ord just long enough to process in and pick up a few clothes, shots, and paper work and things. Then, I was shipped out to Alabama Then, I went back Paul Yashko WORLD WAR II parachutes. About 35 Russian troops were killed most while trying to protect their aircraft, others while firing anti-aircraft guns at the Germans; as by initial agreement of the USA with the Soviet Union, the Russians were responsible for base defense. Only a few Americans were wounded because most, including includ-ing myself, were in slit trenches during the raid. The airfield and surrounding area was a scene of ruin and devastation, as could be clearly seen at dawa It was littered with many antipersonnel butterfly bombs, dropped by the German aircraft. All that remained of the Russian anti-aircraft artillery emplacements, all of which, together to-gether with their crews, had been blasted by 500 pound bombs and vanished into eternity. ... Just prior to the German air raid the night of June 21, our entire photo section was working work-ing late developing and printing bomb strike photos from aerial camera film brought in to us by an American shuttle bombing mission which had arrived that day at Poltava We worked in tents located on the airfield about 30 feet from the nearest B-17. B-17. Shortly before midnight the armed Russian guard who was on duty protecting our section warned me that German bomb ftp WMM ifcre Jrifc- 1911 Colt .45-caliber .45-caliber pistol. Designed by John Moses Browning, a Mormon from Ogden and picked up my wife and brought her out to live with me in Alabama. I was assigned to the aviation ground support. Everyone there was just kind of waiting to get shipped out to Vietnam. ... I remember sometimes sitting out at night and feeling really depressed I didn't Ixilieve in the war. I really struggled about whether or not to go to Canada. I didn't see it as being moral. I had some strong feelings feel-ings against it. I'm not against fighting. But the polities and the management of the war was a real problem for me. I lowever, as I started to study alxut the church and realized that the church leaders were supportive of the government, I found myself in a real dilemma. I ended up going and everything turned out OK. But, I can relate re-late to the people who went to Canada I've never had bad feelings toward those people. ... I did a lot of soul searching when I was out on the flight line at night waiting for the planes to come in. I decided to apply for pilot training. ... By and by, I got my orders to go to Vietnam. I got pretty discouraged. Then four or five days later, the lady calls to inform me that I've selected to go to flight school. She said the selection to go to flight school will super cede the previous orders. I was elated. I rememlxT, about 30 months later, and I'm landing in a field, and there's a guy out there with flashlights directing me where to land. Just like I did for someone else. That was an interesting time ....There was a lot of talk alxxit dieing in Vietnam. I remember re-member when I was about to go over, the life exxt1ancy for the average pilot was alxxit 2 12 weeks. ers were approaching Rjhava. A sergeant in our photo group got an Air Forte camera which was the type used by newspaper photographers. pho-tographers. He and I were alone standing before a wall. Russian antiaircraft gunners and machine gunners were firing as fast as they could into the night sky. Many multiple tracer trails shew the course of the bullets in flight. The sergeant with the camera snapped a picture of the scene showing the multiple tracer trails crisscrossing the night sky. It was the only plxXo made of the air raid by an American. The drone of the bomber's engines en-gines sounded overhead and the first salvo of bombs noisily fell downward, the ground trembled from the impact. The sergeant and 1 fell to the ground to reduce re-duce risk of being hit by flying shrapnel from the hxmh bursts. We started to run toward a slit trench which was about 200 feet away, but on the way had to flop to the ground repeatedly as each bomb salvo expkxled on impact with the ground We finally made it to a slit trench and crouched down for about an hour or more until tlx; raid ended Sgt. Paul Yashko U S Army, left Poltava in June 1 9-1 5 for the USA and was discharged November No-vember 1945 :opy |