Page 64 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine

Joe Webb Jack-of-All-Trades
oe Webb has taken a few
trips around the sun – 89,
Jto be exact – and during
that time, he has done a little
bit of everything. He was born
in 1931, in Wolfe City, Texas to
“Bud” and Elsie Webb. His dad
was kind of a jack-of-all-trades,
and Joe saw the practicality
of changing jobs, if necessary.
Bud was initially a farmer, then
moved the family to Pampa
where he worked at the Post
Exchange (PX) at the Army
Airfield and later for the City of
Pampa.
Young Joe didn’t care for school
much. “I started working at a
bowling alley in Pampa as a pin
setter. I dropped out of high
school in the 10th grade and
worked at the bowling alley
64 Lubbock Senior Link
Goes to Korea
by Larry Williams
doing a little bit “There were only four of us in
of everything. I our crew. We had a half-track
also worked at with quad .50 caliber guns. We
the Huber Carbon would lay down fire on the
Black plant. That’s North Korean troops across the
where I got to 38th Parallel, then go back to our
shake hands with home base, which was basically
LBJ.” a big foxhole with a tent over it
and try to stay warm. We had
On May 16, 1951, a former North Korean as a
Joe received his houseboy. He would do chores
“greetings” from for the four of us.
the government.
He was drafted “We ate c-rations most of the
into the Army time, but we did have a Yukon
and sent to Ft. stove that helped keep the
Hood and Ft. Bliss dugout warm. We received
for training, His ‘Mickey Mouse’ boots which
unit eventually were supposed to keep our feet
received orders to warm and dry.” The boots were
ship out to Korea. made of layers of leather, rubber,
“We took a troop and felt. They did not, however,
train to Seattle keep many of the troops from
in May 1951 and boarded a getting frostbite in the extreme
troopship. We were on the water cold. “The North Koreans liked
for 16 days.” to infiltrate our camps during
the night, but our crew never
Assigned to Battery “C” Field saw them. In the spring of 1953,
Artillery, 2nd Infantry Division we pulled all the tarps off and
(Indianhead), Webb and his found rats as big as a cat. Our
unit were sent to the frontlines sharpshooter from Pennsylvania
near the 38th Parallel. “I saw was good at shooting them.”
what was left of the 7th Infantry
returning from battle. They had Joe stayed on the 38th Parallel
been slaughtered up north.” The for seven months and 11 days.
7th Infantry spent 850 days of “In April, I took a troopship
combat, suffered 3,905 killed in from Japan to Seattle and a train
action (including the author’s back to Ft. Sam Houston in San
uncle) and 10,858 wounded. Antonio. I had saved up about
“One of my crewmen, a guy from $4000 playing poker in Korea,
Pennsylvania, was wounded by so I paid a taxicab driver $75
shrapnel right away. He was for the three-day trip home. I
a sharpshooter. He could hit a was mustered out of the Army
pheasant in the head (with his on May 7, 1953, and took a bus
rifle) every time.” home to Pampa.” After Corporal